BA European Cultures and Histories

At Reading we offer an exceptional range of interdisciplinary degrees covering European history, politics, economy, literature and culture. If you are interested in discovering Europe's extraordinarily rich and diverse culture, its global impact, or its history, institutions, economy and contemporary challenges, then one of these programmes could be for you. You may also include a language and the chance to study or work in another European country in your programme or complement it with one of our specially designed modules in entrepreneurship.

This degree encourages you to make links across countries and disciplines between different works of literature and culture, and between different aspects of Europe's history and its cultural output. The keys to the programme are diversity and comparison. The programme is structured so that you can determine the degree of emphasis you place on either the cultural or the historical and political elements of the syllabus and to carry that weighting throughout the programme. You will supplement these core themes with options from within the major disciplines of English Literature, Film and Theatre, History of Art, Classics, History, Languages and Cultures and can take up a new foreign language from scratch.

What will you study?

Year 1

Compulsory modules

(at least three to be taken)

European modernist fiction

Core issues in the comparative study of European literature

Europe from 1789 to 1945

Europe since 1945

Plus options from one or two of the major disciplines (English Literature, Film and Theatre, History of Art, Classics, History, Languages and Cultures)

Year 2

Compulsory modules

(at least three to be taken)

Society, thought, and art in modern Europe

Unity, nationalism and regionalism in Europe

Modern drama

European romanticism

Plus options from one or two of the major disciplines (English literature, Film and Theatre, History of Art, Classics, History, Languages and Cultures)

Final year

Compulsory modules

(first two and at least one other to be taken)

Dissertation on a European cultural, historical, or political topic

European case studies

European realism

European cinema

The epic in medieval Europe

Plus options/specialisms from the major disciplines outlined in Year 1 and Year 2