Study Content

The main subjects that make up the field of Romance philology (or Romance studies) include Romance languages (French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Galician, Romansch, Occitan, Rhaeto-Romanic, Sardinian, etc.) as well as Romance literature. While this course of study contributes to the acquisition of individual languages and their ancient forms, it also imparts knowledge about the respective country’s history, culture and institutions.

The main areas of study

• Linguistics: On the one hand, this branch of Romance studies looks at the emergence of the individual Romance languages, which are all direct descendants of Latin, and their development into present day. On the other hand, these courses deal with describing the contemporary Romance languages in a methodical manner.
• Literature:  Literary studies includes national literature from the Romance language community as well as emerging literature from Latin America and the French-speaking world. The task of literary studies is to analyze individual works, genres and time periods while including their conditions of origin, their social references and their public responses; a task that is accomplished through fundamental scientific methods and lines of reasoning.
• Romance languages: The courses that teach oral and written skills in the respective Romance language intend to help students develop strong and highly-adequate language competencies.
• Cultural studies: The courses pertaining to cultural studies connect regional knowledge about individual Romance countries to overarching theories and methods that are considered essential among scholars of cultural studies. Individual as well as general cultural phenomena related to the respective countries of study are also examined through global and European perspectives.