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The University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NZ, T +44 (0)1227 764000
Comparative Literature
National ratings
Research Assessment Exercise 2008: French, German, and Hispanic Studies ranked in the top 30 nationally.
Taught programmes
Taught Pre-Master's programmes
Research programmes
Comparative Literature at Kent offers an excellent environment for the postgraduate study of literature beyond national and linguistic borders.
The research interests of our staff are specifically comparativist in nature, and include the European avant-garde, modernism and postmodernism, postcolonial literature, literary theory, and the relationship between literature and the visual arts. In addition to the research expertise of our staff, all postgraduates in Comparative Literature benefit from the activities organised by the Centre for Modern European Literature. These include lectures by prestigious guest speakers, research seminars, conferences and a reading group.
Comparative Literature is part of the School of European Culture and Languages (SECL), which embraces eight other disciplines: Classical & Archaeological Studies, English Language and Linguistics, French, German, Hispanic Studies, Italian, Philosophy and Religious Studies. This means that students enrolled on a postgraduate programme in Comparative Literature can draw on the excellent resources of a diverse team of teachers with expertise in many key areas of European culture.
Training
All postgraduate students in SECL have the opportunity to undertake both subject-specific training and an extensive postgraduate skills training programme provided by the Graduate School. The School provides training workshops for postgraduate students with teaching responsibilities, bringing together students from all its subject areas. Research students gain further academic experience by giving research talks in the Centre for Modern European Literature seminar series, and attending national and international conferences.
Language speaking
Every year, a considerable number of native speakers of foreign languages follow our courses, and several European exchange students stay on to do graduate work. There are also foreign-language lectors who are either combining teaching with a Kent higher degree or completing a dissertation for their home universities. We can assist with language-training needs for overseas postgraduates, particularly where English is concerned, and are also involved in the Erasmus and Tempus networks.
Strong publishing culture
Recent books published by our staff include: Borges and Joyce: An Infinite Conversation (Patricia Novillo-Corvalán); Anglophone Jewish Literature (ed Axel Stähler); Sprachzerlegung in historischer Avantgardelyrik und konkreter Poesie (Anna Katharina Schaffner); Beckett, Literature, and the Ethics of Alterity (Shane Weller); Literature, Philosophy, Nihilism: The Uncanniest of Guests (Shane Weller) and Modernism and Nihilism (Shane Weller).
Recent books in other subjects by staff who teach in Comparative Literature include: The Picture as Spectre in Diderot, Proust, and Deleuze (Thomas Baldwin, French); The Libertine's Nemesis: The Figure of the ‘Prude' in Crébillon ‘fils', Richardson, Laclos and Sade (James Fowler, French); New Essays on Diderot (ed James Fowler, French); Subjectivity and Otherness: A Philosophical Reading of Lacan (Lorenzo Chiesa, French); Rilke's Poetics of Becoming (Ben Hutchinson, German); W G Sebald. Die dialektische Imagination (Ben Hutchinson, German); Spanish Popular Cinema (co-ed Antonio Lázaro-Reboll, Hispanic Studies); German Novelists of the Weimar Republic: Intersections of Literature and Politics (ed Karl Leydecker, German); After Intimacy: The Culture of Divorce in the West since 1789 (co-ed Karl Leydecker, German); A Female Scene: Three Plays by Catalan Women (ed Montserrat Roser I Puig, Hispanic Studies); Les Dessins de Guillaume Apollinaire (Peter Read, French, and Claude Debon); and Picasso and Apollinaire: The Persistence of Memory
Graduate Diploma
Kent's series of Graduate Diplomas provides a Pre-Master's route for international students – our Graduate Diplomas focus on developing your academic subject knowledge for postgraduate study, while improving your academic skills and English Language proficiency. On successful completion of the Diploma and through meeting the University's rules of progression, you are guaranteed entry onto a number of programmes within Comparative Literature. please email us: premasters@kent.ac.uk
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