King's College London - Faculty of Arts & Humanities
MA in Comparative LiteratureLondon, United Kingdom
DURATION
2 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time, Part time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
Request application deadline *
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2025
TUITION FEES
GBP 30,000 / per year **
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* first application deadline
** UK students: £13,500 per year | International students: £30,000 per year
Key Summary
Introduction
Study literature from five different continents covering over 2,500 years, and compare literature written in many different languages from across the world and from antiquity to the present day. We offer a unique range of options from the ancient world right up to twenty-first-century European, Asian, Middle Eastern, African, and American literature as well as the opportunity to develop your language skills.
Key benefits
- The unique combination of geographical range and historical depth
- Thematic approaches to facilitate cross-cultural readings on topical issues
- Study with academic staff who are leading experts in European and World Literature
- Opportunity to specialize with optional modules from across the Faculty of Arts & Humanities, including learning a language at the King's Language Centre
- Located in the heart of London, close to libraries and cultural institutions
- An internationally respected MA that offers a springboard to further study
Course essentials
The MA in Comparative Literature course is ideal for students who want to look beyond conventional literary canons and engage in a comparative study across a wide range of cultures.
Duration: One year full-time, two years part-time, September to September
Admissions
Curriculum
Structure
Required modules
You are required to take:
- Theorizing Literature across Cultures: Contemporary Debates (15 credits)
- Research Skills in Comparative Literature (year-long) (15 credits)
- Dissertation (60 credits)
Optional modules
In addition, you are required to take six modules totalling 90 credits from a range of options from within the Faculty of Arts & Humanities. At least 45 of these should be from the list of dedicated Comparative Literature modules which may typically include:
- The World Novel (15 credits)
- Melancholia & Hypochondria in 18th Century Europe (15 credits)
- Queer Connections: Male-Male Desire & the Classical Past (15 credits)
- Translation, Colonialism, Postcolonialism (15 credits)
- Myth after Slavery (15 credits)
- Global Modernity and the Horn of Africa (15 credits)
- Writing the Body in European Literature and Culture (15 credits)
- Renaissance Transgressions: Identity in European Perspective (15 credits)
- Rights before Human Rights: Eighteenth Century Theories & Representations (15 credits)
If you are a part-time student, you will take Theorizing Literature across Cultures: Contemporary Debates in your first year and Research Skills in Comparative Literature and your dissertation in your second.
If you are a part-time student, you will take 45 credits of optional modules in your first year, and a further 45 in your second.
King’s College London reviews the modules offered regularly to provide up-to-date, innovative and relevant programmes of study. Therefore, the modules offered may change. We suggest you keep an eye on the course finder on our website for updates.
Please note that modules with a practical component will be capped due to educational requirements, which may mean that we cannot guarantee a place for all students who elect to study this module.
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
For many of our graduates this course is a springboard to doctoral research. However, others transfer the skills and knowledge they develop with us to pursue careers in arts administration, teaching, journalism, tourism, international organisations, and the voluntary and financial sectors.