This Master’s programme brings together specialists in the field of literary and cultural theory as well as specialists in a wide range of Western European languages (Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese). The programme offers a broad education in the methods of literary study and in the issues that are currently driving research, while also allowing students to develop their own specialist profile in the field of literary theory or in one or more of the languages covered. In contrast to other programmes focused on a single language, the Utrecht University programme in Literary Studies aims to enable students specialising in one particular language to situate their work in the international field of literary research. Students are required to write a significant number of papers in English. The hallmark of the programme is the emphasis it places on the integration of theoretical and historical issues: students are expected to engage with current issues in cultural and literary theory, but also to place these issues in a diachronic perspective. The key focus of the programme is the role of literature in European languages as a cultural medium in the modern world. Literary phenomena are studied in relation to intellectual, social, political and technological change with an emphasis on the period from the Renaissance onwards. Attention is also paid to the literatures of North and South America and to colonial and post-colonial literatures written in European languages.

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