The Text and Context terms provide a comprehensive, interdisciplinary course that examines literature from Britain and Ireland in the context of the key societal and cultural developments during the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries. The dynamic and diverse characteristics of more than one hundred years of English, Irish, and Scottish texts are studied in conjunction with recent developments in literary theory.
Students attend a 1-hour daily lecture given by a guest speaker of established academic reputation, which provides a focused analysis of the critical, theoretical, and historical context of the literature. Following the lecture, students attend a 2-hour seminar and explore the literature through group discussion.
Course modules:
Modernism | 7th – 19th July 2025
The Modernism module examines work by, among others, T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf and Jean Rhys and is designed to address the needs of students of all levels who wish to focus on Modernist aesthetics and explore in more detail this historical and cultural period.
Lectures are complimented by visits to the Scottish Parliament, the National Gallery of Modern Art, and much much more!
Students are strongly advised to read as many of the texts as possible before arriving in Edinburgh, as time will be limited once the programme is underway. The lectures will be pitched high, and lecturers are advised that all students will be familiar with the texts at the time of lecture.
Core texts for the Summer School, on which the tuition will be based, are listed below.
Essential reading (in alphabetical order):
T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land
Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier
James Joyce, Dubliners
Mina Loy, selected poetry
Katherine Mansfield, Selected Stories
Una Marson, Pocomania
Jean Rhys, Good Morning, Midnight
Selection of imagist poetry*
Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway
Further primary reading/viewing:**
Hope Mirrlees, ‘Paris’ (available in Collected Poems)
Man of Aran, dir. Robert J. Flaherty
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
Jean Rhys, Complete Short Stories
Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse
Suggested secondary reading:
Alex Davis and Lee M. Jenkins (Eds., The Cambridge Companion to modernist poetry
Vassiliki Kolocotroni, Jane Goldman and Olga Taxidou (Eds.), Modernism: An Anthology of Sources and Documents
Vassiliki Kolocotroni and Olga Taxidou (Eds.), The Edinburgh Dictionary of Modernism
Michael Levenson (Ed.), Cambridge Companion to Modernism
Max Saunders, Ford Madox Ford (Critical Lives)
Morag Shiach (Ed.), The Cambridge companion to the modernist novel
Maren Tova Linett (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to modernist women writers
*NB: Students are not required to purchase specific volumes of poetry – selected poems for the lecture and seminar will be distributed to all students in advance.
**Students are not required to purchase or read texts listed in ‘further reading/viewing’. However, if you are interested in complementary material, these texts will expand your knowledge and discussion of the essential reading list. All of the further reading is available to loan from the University of Edinburgh library or the SUISS library.
For more information on the course, see our Sample Modernism Syllabus .
Contemporary Literature | 21st July – 2nd August 2025
The Contemporary Literature course covers British and Irish Literature since 1990. Texts include notable works by Bhanu Kapil, David Greig, and Ali Smith, among others, as well as a graphic novel.
Activities include a Ceilidh dance and readings by leading UK authors.
Students are strongly advised to read as many of the texts as possible before arriving in Edinburgh, as time will be limited once the programme is underway. The lectures will be pitched high, and lecturers are advised that all students will be familiar with the texts at the time of lecture.
Core texts for the Summer School, on which the tuition will be based, are listed below.
Essential reading (in alphabetical order):
Rachelle Atalla, Thirsty Animals
Anna Burns, Milkman
Harry Josephine Giles, Drone
David Greig, Europe
Bhanu Kapil, How to Wash a Heart
Martin McDonagh, The Cripple of Inishmaan
Alan Moore, V for Vendetta
Ali Smith: selection of short stories*
Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain
Further primary reading:**
Sara Baume, A Line Made By Walking
Maggie Gee, The Flood
Harry Josephine Giles, Deep Wheel Orcadia
Eimer McBride, A Girl is a Half-formed Thing Alan Moore, Fashion Beast Caryl Phillips, The Nature of Blood Stephen Sexton, If All The World and Love Were Young
Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body
Suggested secondary reading:
Roddy Lumsden (Ed.), Identity Parade: Contemporary British and Irish Poetry
Siobhan B. Somerville (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Queer Studies
Steven Connor (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Postmodernism
Neil Lazarus (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Postcolonial Literary Studies
Nancy A. Naples (Ed.), Companion to Women’s and Gender Studies
*NB: Students are not required to purchase specific volumes of poetry – selected poems for the lecture and seminar will be distributed to all students in advance.
** Students are not required to purchase or read texts listed in ‘further reading/viewing’. However, if you are interested in complementary material, these texts will expand your knowledge and discussion of the essential reading list. All of the further reading is available to loan from the University of Edinburgh library or the SUISS library.
For more information on the course, see our Sample Contemporary Literature Syllabus .
Scottish Literature | 4th – 16th August 2025
The Scottish Literature module spans the twentieth and early-twenty-first centuries, beginning with Scottish Modernism and moving through Post-Modern and Contemporary Scottish Literature. The reading list includes poetry by Hugh MacDiarmid, Jackie Kay and Edwin Morgan, plays by John McGrath and Gregory Burke, and fiction by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Muriel Spark and Alasdair Gray. Alan Riach’s publication What Is Scottish Literature offers a concise introduction to everyone curious about this field. Current developments in Scottish Studies can be followed via the University of Glasgow’s publication Bottle Imp.
This exciting course takes place during the Edinburgh festival season, and includes a performance at the Edinburgh International Festival among many other events.
Students are strongly advised to read as many of the texts as possible before arriving in Edinburgh, as time will be limited once the programme is underway. The lectures will be pitched high, and lecturers are advised that all students will be familiar with the texts at the time of lecture.
Core texts for the Summer School, on which the tuition will be based, are listed below.
Essential reading (in alphabetical order):
Leila Aboulela, Elsewhere Home
Gregory Burke, Black Watch
Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song and Hugh MacDiarmid a poetry selection of the Scottish Renaissance *
Alasdair Gray, Poor Things
David Greig, The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart
A.L. Kennedy and Janice Galloway, selected short stories*
John McGrath, The Cheviot, The Stag, and the Black, Black Oil
Edwin Morgan and Jackie Kay, poetry selection*
James Robertson, The Testament of Gideon Mack
Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Further primary reading/viewing:**
Iain Banks, The Wasp Factory
Alasdair Gray, Lanark
James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
James Kelman, How Late It Was, How Late
Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting
Secondary reading:
Ian Brown and Alan Riach, Edinburgh companion to twentieth-century Scottish literature
Gerard Carruthers and Liam McIlvanney (Eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Scottish Literature
Alan Riach, Scottish Literature: An Introduction
*NB: Students are not required to purchase volumes of poetry – specific reading selections for these lectures and seminars will be circulated to all students in advance. We will also circulate short stories, but if you would like to purchase a collection, we recommend A.L. Kennedy’s What Becomes and Janice Galloway’s Collected Stories.
**Students are not required to purchase or read texts listed in ‘further reading/viewing’. However, if you are interested in complementary material, these texts will expand your knowledge and discussion of the essential reading list. All of the further reading is available to loan from the University of Edinburgh library or the SUISS library.
For more information on the course, see our Sample Scottish Literature Syllabus .