MA/MS in Literary Studies

Leiden's Literary Studies master's runs as a set of separate one-year tracks, each centred on a single national literature and culture: English, French, German, or Italian, alongside a Literature in Society track. Courses in the national-literature tracks are taught in the target language and span the discipline from medieval writing through to contemporary work, rather than focusing on a single historical period. Teaching draws on specialists working across different periods, including the middle ages, early modern, modern, postmodern, and postcolonial writing, as well as on approaches such as rhetoric, semiotics, intermediality, and intercultural history. Students build a personal programme from a wide range of options, which can include a linguistics course in the chosen language, a course from the national Master's programme, or study abroad in the country connected to the specialisation, whether through an internship or coursework at a university there.