MA Arabic and Italian
About this course
Arabic and Italian is a combination that spans two of the world's great civilisational traditions. Arabic, the dominant language of the Middle East and North Africa, carries a literary and scholarly heritage of extraordinary depth, from pre-Islamic poetry and Quranic Arabic through the medieval golden age of Islamic science and philosophy to a rich contemporary literature. Italian, the language of Dante and the Renaissance, of Leopardi and Calvino, is embedded in European cultural history and remains one of the most significant literary languages of the modern world. Studying both gives you access to two traditions that have long been in contact, through the medieval Mediterranean, the Islamic presence in Sicily and Spain, and the ongoing cultural connections between the Arab world and southern Europe. At St Andrews this four-year full-time programme includes a year abroad, giving you essential immersive experience in environments where one or both languages are spoken. As St Andrews notes, Arabic is particularly valuable in combination with other subjects because it opens opportunities for comparative analysis across languages, literatures, cultures, histories, politics, and economics. Alongside Italian, those comparisons are particularly rich: you will encounter two traditions with very different relationships to religion, philosophy, science, and literary form, developing the ability to read across boundaries and to think with unusual cultural breadth. You will develop practical proficiency in both languages alongside deep engagement with their literary and intellectual traditions. Graduates of Arabic and Italian programmes find careers in diplomacy, international cultural relations, translation and interpreting, publishing, journalism, area studies research, tourism and hospitality management, and international business with Italian and Arab-world connections. The linguistic range the degree provides is genuinely unusual in competitive fields. Many graduates also continue to postgraduate study in Italian studies, Arabic and Islamic studies, comparative literature, or related fields, or apply their combination of language skills and cultural knowledge in careers spanning the Mediterranean and beyond.
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