Western Literature

Overview

As one of the world's oldest universities, located in a multilingual society and at the heart of Europe, KU Leuven is a unique location for a programme that focuses on the dynamic interactions between various literatures, languages, and cultures, as well as on the intercultural and international contexts in which literature travels.

Neither the notion of ‘The West’ nor that of ‘literature’ is self-evident. This Master in Western Literature at KU Leuven interrogates the histories and affordances of these terms to investigates the multiple ways in which these phenomena interact with key challenges in our globalized world. We explore the relations between literature, nation, language and territory and how this relationship has changed in contexts of decolonization, globalization, and shifting relations between East and West.

Career

As a graduate of the Master of Western Literature programme, you will have acquired a wide range of skills that you will be able to apply in a large number of professional contexts. Your greatest asset will be your ability to reflect on complex cultural phenomena and your insight into and facility with plurilingual and intercultural contexts, and your ability to communicate these insights in an effective, elegant, and sophisticated way. The combination of analytical skills, a capacity for abstract thought, and an appreciation of the complexity of cultural phenomena is much sought after in a range of professions.