BA (Hons) History and Literature

History

You will study the following core module: 

• What is history? (S1) 

Plus, a choice of one of the following modules: 

• People, protest and power: themes in modern British history (S1) 

• A middle age? Europe c. 1100-1500 (S2) 

• Empire, environment, and identity: Scotland 1600-2000 (S2) 

Literature

You will also study the following two modules:

• Theories of literature: an introduction (S1)

• Travelers in the wilderness: literature and the theme of exile (S2)

You will study two further option modules from a range of history, literature, and other humanities subjects. 

History

You will study the following core module:

• Historians and history (S2)

Plus, a choice of one of the following three modules:

• A curious age: European society and culture, 1500-1750 (S1)

• Court, kirk, and burgh in Medieval and Early Modern Scotland 

• Themes in American history

Literature

You will also study two modules which may include:

• Gaelic poetry: an introduction (S1)

• Theatrical powerplay: classical and modern tragedy (S2)

• Heroic literature: epic from classical to contemporary (S2)

• Medieval literature: texts and contexts (S1)

You will study one of the two core project modules: 

• Public history (S2) OR 

• Literary borrowings: adaptation and appropriation (S1)

You will also study a further five option modules, ensuring a balance of three History modules and three Literature modules in total. 

History

Modules may include:

• Clash of civilizations: the Crusades, 1096-1198

• The Alps, hills, and plain? Central Europe to 1918

• Crime, custom and conflict, 1700-1850

• Crown-Magnate relations in later medieval Northern Scotland

• Queer Britannia: gender, sexuality and performative identities in Britain, 1800-1950

• Scots in North America

• The Jacobites: patriots, rebels, or opportunists?

• War and chivalry in medieval Britain and France

• Dynastic decline and religious violence: Valois France, 1550-1610

Students wishing to specialise in Scottish History at Level 10 are advised to take at least one Scottish History option and undertake a Scottish topic for your Public History project, or two Scottish History options if you are not taking Public History.

Literature

Modules may include:

• Imagining new worlds: renaissance literature and thought (S2)

• Romantic genius: Scottish and European literature, 1750-1830 (S1)

• Risk anything: modernist short story (S1)

• Nature writing and ecology (S2)

You will complete a dissertation in history or literature. This is a double-credit module that runs across both semesters.

You will also study one option module from your chosen dissertation subject plus three option modules from the other subject. Please see the notes below if you wish to specialize in Scottish History.

History

Modules may include:

• Death and destruction: the social impact of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648)  

• Fight the power: music and the politics of Black America

• The Scottish Highlands before Culloden (1603-1707)

• Chaos and conflict?: 'Civil Wars' in high medieval Scandinavia

• Reaching the estate of manhood in later medieval and early modern Europe 

• Noble, rebel, king: Robert Bruce and medieval Scotland 

• The empire strikes back: how the British Empire shaped Scotland 

• The Highland wars: origins, aftermath and interpretations 

• War cruel and sharp: a military history of the Hundred Years' War

If you wish to exit with a BA (Hons) Scottish History and Literature degree you must undertake a Scottish History dissertation plus one further Scottish history or history module, OR, if you are undertaking a Literature dissertation, two of the three History modules must be in Scottish History.

Literature

Subjects may include:

• Avant-garde literature (S1)

• Apocalyptic fiction (S1)

• Satire: the art of attack (S2)

• Metafiction: self-referential texts (S2)