BA Comparative Literature and Culture
Royal Holloway, University of London
About this course
BA in Comparative Literature and Culture, a humanities degree examining literary texts, films and visual culture across different languages, nations and historical periods from a global perspective. Core topics include Research Methods, Critical & Analytical Thinking. Students can choose to undertake an optional placement year or a year abroad. The first year introduces foundational theories through compulsory study in Reading Texts: Criticism for Comparative Literature, alongside a broad selection of optional modules covering European and international film, German studies and French society. The second year advances core knowledge with compulsory modules such as Histories of Representation and Critical Worlds: Theory for Comparative Literature and Culture, while optional choices span Latin American cinema, Renaissance Florence, and Spanish Golden Age literature. The final year offers advanced study in topics ranging from exophonic literature to the Third Reich in German film, with optional routes including a comparative literature dissertation.
Written by AI from the university's course page and module list. It can get details wrong, so check the official course page before you rely on it.
Entry requirements
A level: ABB-BBB (Required subjects: An essay based subject at A Level We require English Language and Mathematics GCSE at grade 4 (C)) IB: 6,5,5 at Higher level or 32 points overall
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What students say
Based on about 12 final-year students who answered, across similar courses at this university (a small group: a rough guide only)
- Teaching on my course: 97%
- Learning opportunities: 90%
- Assessment and feedback: 91%
- Academic support: 93%
- Organisation and management: 79%
- Learning resources: 79%
- Student voice: 74%
Do students stay on the course?
Based on about 15 students who started, across similar courses at this university (a small group: a rough guide only)
- Continued on course: 95%
- Left higher education: 5%
What graduates do next
Based on about 7 graduates who answered, across similar courses at this university (a small group: a rough guide only)
- Working: 75%
Most common jobs
- Elementary occupations: 25%
- Teaching Professionals: 20%
- Business, Research and Administrative Professionals: 10%
- Sales occupations: 10%
- Managers, directors and senior officials: 10%
- Find their work meaningful: 80%
- Feel on track for their future plans: 60%
- Use what they learnt on the course: 40%
Where graduates work (5 years on)
Based on about 100 graduates, across similar courses at this university
- North East: 1%
- North West: 2%
- Yorkshire and the Humber: 1%
- East Midlands: 2%
- West Midlands: 1%
- East of England: 9%
- London: 43%
- South East: 31%
- South West: 8%
Who gets in
Based on about 15 students who started, across similar courses at this university (a small group: a rough guide only)
- A levels: 95%
- Baccalaureate: 5%
Accreditation & quality ratings
TEF 2023 (whole university): Silver overall, Silver for student experience, Silver for student outcomes.
Modules
- Reading Texts: Criticism for Comparative Literature
- Key French Texts: The Individual and Society
- The Visual Image in French Culture and Society
- Introduction to German Studies
- International Film 1: Contexts and Practices
- Tales of the City: Introduction to Thematic Analysis
- The Birth of Film
- Strange Encounters: Texts and Contexts in Modern German Culture
- Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio and their Heritage
- Discovery, Subversion and Destruction in the Hispanic Worlds Visual Arts 1: Artists and their Materials
- Journeys of Identity
- Histories of Representation
- Critical Worlds: Theory for Comparative Literature and Culture
- International Film 2: Readings and Representations
- Visual Arts II: Genre and Movements
- Writing Romance and Desire
- Cinema in France
- Death, Desire, Decline: Thomas Mann and Franz Kafka
- Postwar Italian Cinema: the Auteur Tradition
- Art and Literature in Renaissance Florence
- Belonging and the Self in Contemporary German Fiction and Film
- Fake News, Gossip, and the Pursuit of Truth: From Renaissance Newsletters to Online Journalism
- Deceit, Desire and the Self: Literature of the Spanish Golden Age
- Seducing the Nation: Spanish Film 1940s to 1980s
- Conflict in Latin American Literature
- 21st-century World Food Fictions: Feeding Interdisciplinary Understandings of Identity Constructs
- World Literatures: Texts and Identities in Motion
- Tongues of Exile: Exophonic and Translingual Literature
- From Aestheticism to the Avant-Garde
- Transnationalism, Diaspora and Globalisation in Contemporary Film: Dissertation
- Comparative Literature and Culture: Comparative Dissertation
- Text and Image in France: from Cubism to the Present
- Blindness and Vision in French Culture
- Villains and Villainy in Early Modern French Theatre
- Redefining the Erotic in Contemporary French Literature and Film
- Narrative and Identity: The German Novel from the 18th to the 21st Century
- National Socialism and the Third Reich in German Film and Visual Culture from 1933 to the Present
Questions about this course
How much do graduates of BA Comparative Literature and Culture at Royal Holloway, University of London earn?
The median salary is £28,500 after 15 months, £25,500 after 3 years, £31,000 after 5 years. After five years the middle half of graduates earn between £24,500 and £38,500. The £31,000 median after five years is £2,000 less than the UK median for Language and area studies (other).
What do graduates of BA Comparative Literature and Culture at Royal Holloway, University of London do next?
80% were in work or further study 15 months after finishing (Graduate Outcomes 2023-24).
Are students happy with the teaching on BA Comparative Literature and Culture at Royal Holloway, University of London?
97% of final-year students were positive about the teaching in the National Student Survey 2025-26.
What grades do I need for BA Comparative Literature and Culture at Royal Holloway, University of London?
The typical offer is ABB at A level, or 32 points in the IB. The average entrant had 123 UCAS points.
Does BA Comparative Literature and Culture at Royal Holloway, University of London include a placement year or year abroad?
The course has an optional placement year and an optional year abroad.
How many students continue on BA Comparative Literature and Culture at Royal Holloway, University of London?
95% of students continued into their second year, and 5% left higher education.