The MA Comparative Literarure (Asia/Africa) attracts students who seek an opportunity to move from the familiar Euro-American literary canons into the fresh but less well known worlds of African and Asian literature.

At SOAS, students benefit from the unique expertise in this vast field possessed by the school’s faculty. This expertise is available to students interested in studying these literatures through English - including both original English language literatures of Africa and Asia and literature written in African and Asian languages presented through English translations.

While exploring new horizons and breaking out of the Euro-centric space in which comparative literature has developed so far, the programme covers the major theoretical contributions made by Western scholars. In doing so, it constructs a unique multi-cultural domain for the study of literature and its location in culture and society.

A prior knowledge of an African or Asian language is not a requirement for admission to the MA Comparative Literature.

Graduates of the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics leave SOAS not only with linguistic and cultural expertise, but also with skills in written and oral communication, analysis and problem solving.

Recent School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics graduates have been hired by:

• Africa Matters
• Amnesty International
• Arab British Chamber of Commerce
• BBC World Service
• British High CommissionCouncil for British Research in the Levant
• Department for International Development
• Edelman
• Embassy of Jordan
• Ernst & Young
• Foreign & Commonwealth Office
• Google
• Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies
• Middle East Eye
• Saïd Foundation
• TalkAbout Speech Therapy
• The Black Curriculum
• The Telegraph
• United Nations Development Programme
• UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency
• Wall Street Journal