Skip to main content

BA Comparative Literature and Culture (with Integrated Foundation Year)

Thank you for considering an application

Here's what you need in order to apply:

  1. Royal Holloway's institution code: R72
  2. Make a note of the UCAS code for the course you want to apply for:

    • BA Comparative Literature and Culture (with Integrated Foundation Year) - Q20F
    • Comparative Literature and Culture - Q200
  3. Click on the link below to apply via the UCAS website:
Apply via UCAS

BA Comparative Literature and Culture (with Integrated Foundation Year)

Course options

Key information

Duration: 4 years full time

UCAS code: Q20F

Institution code: R72

Campus: Egham

Key information

Duration: 3 years full time

UCAS code: Q200

Institution code: R72

Campus: Egham

View this course

The course

BA Comparative Literature and Culture (with Integrated Foundation Year)

This course is available to Home (UK) students and students from the EU who meet the English Language requirements.

Our Integrated Foundation Year for Arts and Humanities is a thorough, skills-building course that will give you everything you need to start your study of BA Comparative Literature and Culture with confidence. 

Arts and Humanities subjects, like Comparative Literature and Culture, provide key ways of understanding our complex world, its histories, and current debates facing contemporary society. Identity, political and social conflict, our interaction with new digital and genetic technologies, our stewardship of the environment are all issues where the voice of creative and critical thinking are key. Literary texts, films, plays and digital games offer important ways in which societies have debated - and continue to represent - their values and their futures. 

Our Foundation Year sets you up so you’re ready to explore those debates and issues, providing you with opportunities to gain knowledge and understanding of how to approach studying the humanities, including your chosen degree subject. Learning from friendly, expert tutors, you’ll explore modules designed to give you a solid start to your study of arts and humanities subjects, helping you to grow critical skills to explore a range of literary, visual, and cultural forms, including plays, films, and digital media.  

Once you have completed your Foundation year, you will normally progress onto the full degree course, BA Comparative Literature and Culture. There may also be flexibility to move onto a degree in another department (see end of section, below). 

Comparative Literature and Culture offers you the opportunity to study literature from across the world, as well as exploring film, philosophy and visual arts. This course combines a fascinating breadth of material with a focus on contexts – places, periods, and genres – to explore how key cultural shifts transform how we see, represent, and make sense of our changing world. Comparative Literature and Culture at Royal Holloway is a unique and intellectually stimulating course that will develop you as a culturally-aware, creative and adaptable thinker.

We’ve developed this course so that you can tailor it to suit your own evolving interests, enabling you to choose from our exceptionally wide range of fascinating options. These span continents and centuries, from antiquity to the present day, covering novels, poetry, philosophy, cinema and art. You will read, watch, and compare texts from Ancient Greece to contemporary New York, from Cuba to Korea, from epics to crime fiction, and from tragedy to the avant-garde. Comparative Literature and Culture also enables you to study a variety of foreign texts originally written in many languages, all translated into English.

You will be taught by world-class experts who genuinely want to get to know you. We create a supportive environment, often using group work so you can try out new ideas and participate in lively discussions. Throughout your studies, you will receive personal guidance to ensure your course is aligned with your strengths, interests and career plans. As part of our close-knit international community, you will be able to get involved with an array of cultural initiatives that take place on campus and make the most of being within easy reach of London and its many events and attractions.

Studying Comparative Literature and Culture will broaden your horizons, interests and passions, and give you a critical edge in a competitive global marketplace.

On successful completion of your Foundation Year, you may be able to choose an alternative pathway which could include a joint or minor degree within Comparative Literature and Culture, or degrees within the Humanities (Classics, Drama, History, English (except pathways with Creative Writing), Media Arts, Philosophy, Liberal Arts).  If you'd like to do this, you may take your Foundation Year Department Based Project in one of the other departments in Humanities.

From time to time, we make changes to our courses to improve the student and learning experience. If we make a significant change to your chosen course, we’ll let you know as soon as possible.

Study texts

from around the world translated into English

Source:

Develop

cross-cultural awareness and a valuable, critical edge

Source:

Explore Royal Holloway

Get help paying for your studies at Royal Holloway through a range of scholarships and bursaries.

There are lots of exciting ways to get involved at Royal Holloway. Discover new interests and enjoy existing ones.

Heading to university is exciting. Finding the right place to live will get you off to a good start.

Whether you need support with your health or practical advice on budgeting or finding part-time work, we can help.

Discover more about our academic departments and schools.

Find out why Royal Holloway is in the top 25% of UK universities for research rated ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’.

Royal Holloway is a research intensive university and our academics collaborate across disciplines to achieve excellence.

Discover world-class research at Royal Holloway.

Discover more about who we are today, and our vision for the future.

Royal Holloway began as two pioneering colleges for the education of women in the 19th century, and their spirit lives on today.

We’ve played a role in thousands of careers, some of them particularly remarkable.

Find about our decision-making processes and the people who lead and manage Royal Holloway today.