Applicant Activity Hub

Language-Learning

• Whatever your level, Language-learning will be at the heart of your Modern Languages studies with us. For some of you this will be at advanced level, for others beginners'. Why learn languages? This British Academy report offers some ideas. What challenges do you anticipate? What opportunities? How can you start to prepare?
• The Guardian has a great collection of stories on the The Case for Language Learning, relating to the challenges, pleasures and practicalities of learning languages. Have a look at the stories to get some inspiration. Have you ever thought of using your other interests and passions - such as food or music - to help with your languages?

Nationhood and imagined borders

• Many of your courses will ask you reflect on complex questions of 'national' identities, historically and in the present day, and how they relate to personal, regional, political and other affiliations.
• Watch this TED talk by writer Taiye Selasi: ‘Don’t ask where I’m from, ask where I’m local’. Think about what a 'nation' means to you and how we navigate multiple national and local identities in contemporary society.
• Watch the TED talk by writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: ‘The danger of a single story’. How relevant are the issues raised by Adichie to the way we approach the study of cultures other than the ones we are more familiar with? Can you think of literary or other media representations that challenge the lens of the ‘Single Story’?

French

Develop your French listening and comprehension skills with these French-language podcasts:

• 'Poire et Cahuètes' from Slate.Fr. In this latest episode of the current affairs podcast, the focus is on 'white privilege' and racism in contemporary France. Check out the further reading/viewing recommendations on this vital topic.
• 'Les Pieds sur Terre' is a long running series of 30 min documentaries from France Culture. It usually has no comment and features a range of accents and sociolects - it is just people talking about some kind of experience. Listen carefully and you will learn a lot of vocabulary, idioms, and encounter a variety of pronunciations. It also teaches you about French society, the words people put on their experiences, and how they think about life in general. In this episode you will meet various people who visit tombs in the famous Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

German

• Film tip: Among the key themes you will encounter in your German Studies courses are history, memory and guilt. These have loomed large in German society and culture since the Second World War. An excellent, gripping German film that deals with them is Lore, directed by Cate Shortland (2012). The film tells the tale of a group of young siblings, led by the oldest sister Lore, who must fend for themselves in the ruins of Germany at the end of the Second World War. They undertake a perilous journey across the country and have to face up to their own family's and their personal guilt in the process. The film is available to rent from Amazon Prime or YouTube.
• Why not prepare by watching this short study guide to Lore made by our colleague from German Dr Jon Hughes

• Podcast tip: If you're interested in true crime, but want more than just sensationalism, then try the excellent Zeit Verbrechen podcast from Die Zeit newspaper. In this episode we learn about the concept of 'transgenerational trauma', and a young woman who has investigated a crime that has haunted her family for many decades.

Spanish

Italian

• Italian medieval literature still speaks to some of our most urgent questions - about love and loss, social justice and politics, storytelling and survival. Our approach invites you to explore works like Dante’s Divine Comedy, Boccaccio’s Decameron, and Petrarca’s Songbook not only through reading, but through digital platforms, visual tools, and pop culture. Resources like DivineComedy.digital, interactive maps, and digital archives offer new ways to engage with these texts. We also draw connections to contemporary films and series, like Pasolini’s Decameron, and games such as Assassin’s Creed II, and Dante’s Inferno to show how medieval ideas continue to shape the world we live in. Curious where you might belong in Dante’s universe? Start your journey with this fun quiz: Who Are You in Dante’s Divine Comedy? 

Why not prepare for your Italian studies by watching one of the most important Italian films of the 20th century: Ladri di biciclette / Bicycle Thieves, directed Vittorio de Sica (1948)? You will have the chance to study this film, and Italian Neo-Realism. To whet your appetite here's a video review by the popular film critic Mark Kermode:

Welcome to an exciting degree that enables you to expand your literary and cultural horizons, ranging across times, places, genres, and media, and to address some of the key critical questions facing the world today!

We’ve come up with some suggestions to get you thinking about how you can engage comparatively and critically whenever you read, whilst developing your global cultural awareness, and explore film and art too, if you choose. Dip into the suggestions for reading and viewing below and begin to think about some of the critical and cultural issues that will be central to your studies.

Get a taste of a world of literature

In your degree you will read comparatively across the world, from Ancient Greek epics to twenty-first-century fiction. Everything is available in English, so there’s a whole world of books in English and in translation to discover.

• Words Without Borders is an excellent starting point to explore literatures from across the world. It publishes a range of fiction and non-fictional works, including short stories, drama, poetry, and graphic novels. It also publishes monthly ‘to watch’ lists of works you really don’t want to miss!
• Ann Morgan has some brilliant tips for how to start the exciting journey of reading out of your comfort zone. We’ll be guiding you when you arrive at Royal Holloway of course, but it’s worth familiarising yourself with these ideas now.
• Explore must-read books by women in translation and European Women Writers in translation
  • As you read explore the books suggested here, consider whether the list is inclusive and diverse. Which authors/what texts would you add to it and why?
• Explore ‘Classics’ in translation
  • As you explore the books suggested here, consider why they are viewed as ‘classics’: what makes them ‘great’ literature? Is the list inclusive and diverse? Which authors/what texts would you add to it and why?
• Discover books by Black authors in English translation in this selection from award-winning translator (and Comparative Literary Studies PhD) Jenny Croft.

Critical contexts

Over the summer, start thinking about the contexts that influence the ways people tell stories across the world; about how texts reflect similarities, differences and changes in passions, power structures, ideas and beliefs; and about how texts reflect and circulate ideas and perspectives that open our minds as we travel transnationally.

• What does literature ‘do’? Why does it matter?
• What are the benefits of reading comparatively?
• The Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED talk, ‘The Danger of a Single Story’ provides some great inspiration for thinking about why it is vital to read and think broadly and diversely.
  • As you listen to her think about how we use stories to construct narratives of identity (gender, sexual, racial, class, family). How relevant are the issues raised by Adichie to the way we approach the study of different cultures? Can you think of literary or other media representations that challenge the lens of the ‘Single Story’?
• Can you think of books (or films or artworks) that engage with pressing issues, e.g. the environment and climate change; civil rights, sex, gender, and race; artificial intelligence, politics, capitalism...? How did they do so? Are they successful?
• What book (or film or artwork) has influenced the way in which you see the world. How and why did it do so? 

Your chance to get thinking about visual arts

• Explore the role of socially-engaged art and photography by looking at the work of American photographers from the 1930s exhibited here.
  • How do these photographs tell stories about the United States at a critical moment in its history? What different techniques are employed by the photographers and how do they engage with the different subjects represented? Can you think of ways in which documentary photographs are still used today as potent catalysts for social change?
• Sculpture is a medium that can get you thinking about why artists use different materials. Look at the techniques examined and sculptures displayed here.
  • Does knowing about the creative process help our understanding of art works? Can you draw a clear line between art and craft? What is the relationship between art and space?
• If you want to start thinking comparatively and critically about film, try analyzing the audiovisual techniques employed in the introduction to the 1995 French film La Haine (Hate).
  • Why do you think the film starts so abruptly with documentary footage? Can you explain the extreme contrast with the highly stylised voice-over scene about a man falling to his death? Why use Bob Marley's 'Burnin' and Lootin' in a film set in the Paris region? Why choose to film in black and white? Can you think of another film that addresses these issues - does it do so in a similar or different way? 
• When you arrive on campus, visit our own Picture Gallery to explore the paintings in this fine Victorian collection. Think about how tastes, styles, subjects and artistic media change as the conditions in which art its produced and consumed change.
• One painting that takes us far from home is Edwin Long’s ‘The Babylonian Marriage Market’, which was acquired by our founder Thomas Holloway as a contribution to debates about women’s new roles in society.
  • Do we view the painting's exotic ‘orientalist’ setting differently now from our contemporary perspective? How does it make us feel about painters and viewers as consumers of women and of other cultures? What does this painting suggest about how the domination of colonised people and of women was normalised in Victorian Britain's empire? How do images – in galleries or in the media – position women and people from other cultures today in the global marketplace?

Welcome to a unique programme that gives you the skills to read, interpret and analyse images and artefacts across cultures, times, genres and media! 

We’ve come up with some the suggestions so you can start engaging critically and creatively with various aspects of visual culture and the history of art whilst developing your global cultural awareness. Dip into the suggestions below and begin to think about some of the critical and cultural issues you will explore in depth when you join us at Royal Holloway.

• In recent years, museums and galleries have increased their digital resources; a digital national collection connecting cultural objects across the UK has also been proposed. The Southbank Centre in London gathers literature, art, music, performance and political debates – perfect for a student of the History of Arts and Visual Culture. Listening to podcasts can be a good way not only to broaden your horizons but also to practise listening skills for lectures.
  • Pick a podcast to listen to and make a few notes. What are the key points? Can you summarise it in a paragraph? What would be your own critical review of it? 
• Royal Holloway has its own Picture Gallery – a fine collection of Victorian paintings that you can explore when you arrive on campus. In the meantime, you can explore online.
  • Which painting(s) are you drawn to and why? Think about how tastes, styles, subjects and artistic media change as the conditions in which art its produced and consumed change. Do we need extra information to read images? To what extent are they still relevant to today's students? How can they be made accessible? An audio described tour of our Picture Gallery is available.
• Check out The Sensational Museum, a project led by our own Professor Hannah Thompson which is working with partner museums to design and create sensory interventions that are accessible to all – using what we know about disability to change how museums work for everyone.
• The question of statues and monuments has been in the news recently. Royal Holloway has a statue of Queen Victoria.
  • What can we learn from it? Is it controversial in any way? How can we use History, Art History, Politics or Sociology to understand this sort of big issue?
• Explore the role of socially-engaged art and photography by looking at the work of American photographers from the 1930s exhibited here.
  • How do these photographs tell stories about the United States at a critical moment in its history? What different techniques are employed by the photographers and how do they engage with the different subjects represented? Can you think of ways in which documentary photographs are still used today as potent catalysts for social change?
• Sculpture is a medium that can get you thinking about why artists use different materials. Look at the techniques examined and sculptures displayed here.
  • Does knowing about the creative process help our understanding of art works? Can you draw a clear line between art and craft? What is the relationship between art and space?
• If you want to start thinking critically about film, try analysing the audiovisual techniques employed in the introduction to the 1995 French film La Haine (Hate).
  • Why do you think the film starts so abruptly with documentary footage? Can you explain the extreme contrast with the highly stylised voice-over scene about a man falling to his death? Why use Bob Marley's 'Burnin' and Lootin' in a film set in the Paris region? Why choose to film in black and white? Can you think of another film that addresses these issues - does it do so in a similar or different way?