Scottish Literature and History MA (Hons)

Studying Scottish Literature and History helps us understand the world in which we live now, as well as shedding light on the past, and prepares you to contribute to a society in which an understanding of texts of all kinds is crucially important. This programme aims to develop your critical, analytic, linguistic and creative skills by engaging with a broad range of texts and a variety of approaches to reading. Studying the human past, you will interact with evidence in primary form, and through sceptical reading of a wide body of historical writing. The Edinburgh experience is distinctive for the range of historical themes, chronological periods and geographical areas which you can study using a variety of different intellectual approaches to the past. Likewise, in Scottish Literature, you will explore the cultural contexts of writing in English from all over the world, including Scotland, and from the late Middle Ages to the present. In your honours years (Years 3 and 4), you will study research-led courses selected on the basis of your own interests in both Scottish Literature and History, developing a detailed knowledge of a topic or set of texts within each period. We are the oldest department of English Literature in the UK, one of the longest established in the world. Edinburgh is the first UNESCO World City of Literature, a fantastic historic and literary city which many greats of Scottish literature have called home.