MA Literature

University of Essex

Postgraduate

In Colchester

£ 6,125 + VAT

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Description

  • Type

    Postgraduate

  • Location

    Colchester

  • Duration

    1 Year

About the course
Our department offers a distinctively comparative approach to the study of literature; at Essex you don’t just study English literature, you study world literature in English

You explore literature across time, geography, and genre, combining scholarly research with innovative, practical ways of engaging with texts


You grapple with the challenges of conducting research into Shakespeare and other early modern literature, acquiring specialist skills in archival research, palaeography, and the study of rare and antiquated books

You study materials on 18th century drama and literature, visiting the UK’s only surviving Regency Theatre to investigate how architecture affected the content of drama, and how drama reflected Georgian society

You have the opportunity to explore the history of genres such as the novel and lyric poetry, and study a truly extensive range of work; your reading takes you from African American literature, through Caribbean literatures, to the literature and performance of New York, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Moscow and London


Our department is ranked Top 20 in the UK (Guardian University Guide 2015), and three-quarters of our research is rated ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’ (REF 2014)


This course is also available on a part-time basis


Our expert staff
At Essex, we have an impressive literary legacy

Our history comprises staff (and students) who have been Nobel Prize winners, Booker Prize winners, and Pulitzer Prize winners

Facilities

Location

Start date

Colchester (Essex)
See map
Wivenhoe Park, CO4 3SQ

Start date

On request

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Reviews

Subjects

  • Drama
  • Writing
  • English
  • Staff
  • Poetry
  • American Literature

Course programme

Example structure
Postgraduate study is the chance to take your education to the next level. The combination of compulsory and optional modules means our courses help you develop extensive knowledge in your chosen discipline, whilst providing plenty of freedom to pursue your own interests. Our research-led teaching is continually evolving to address the latest challenges and breakthroughs in the field, therefore to ensure your course is as relevant and up-to-date as possible your core module structure may be subject to change.
For many of our courses you’ll have a wide range of optional modules to choose from – those listed in this example structure are, in many instances, just a selection of those available. Our Programme Specification gives more detail about the structure available to our current postgraduate students, including details of all optional modules.
Year 1
Dissertation
Research Methods in Literary and Cultural Analysis
Georgian and Romantic Literature and Drama
Early Modern to Eighteenth Century Literature
The New Nature Writing (optional)
Writing the Novel (optional)
Memory Maps: Practices in Psychogeography (optional)
Dramatic Structure (optional)
Literature and Performance in the Modern City (optional)
Adaptation
Documentary and the Avant-garde: Film, Video, Digital
Film and Video Production Workshop
Advanced Film and Industry: Production and Industry
US Nationalism and Regionalism (optional)
African American Literature (optional)
Sea of Lentils: Modernity, Literature, and Film in the Caribbean (optional)
Writing Magic (optional)
"There is a Continent Outside My Window" : United States and Caribbean Literatures in Dialogue (optional)
Literature and the Environmental Imagination: 19th to 21st Century Poetry and Prose (optional)
Teaching
Five modules are followed over the autumn and spring terms, and generally consist of ten two-hour seminars
Innovative, practical ways of engaging with texts include visits to theatres and archival research
Seminars may include introductions by your tutor, presentations by you, and discussion based on a programme of reading
Visiting scholars are invited to speak about their research
Assessment
Four essays of 4,000-5,000 words
There is normally considerable freedom for you to choose the topics of your essays
A reflective piece on research methods
Dissertation
You produce a dissertation (of approximately 20,000 words) written between April and September
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Additional information

Our Department is a vibrant conservatoire of scholars and practitioners who are committed to unlocking creative personal responses to literature This distinctive environment is possible because we are a community of award-winning novelists, poets and playwrights, as well as leading literature specialists Our academic staff specialise in a range of areas including modernism, comparative and world literature, Shakespeare, the Renaissance, modernism, travel writing, nature writing, translated literature, cultural geography, Irish and Scottish writing, U S and Caribbean literatures, and the history of reading Specialist facilities Meet fellow readers at the student-run Literature Society or at our department’s Myth Reading Group Write for our student magazine Albert or host a Red Radio show View classic films at weekly film screenings in our dedicated 120-seat film theatre Learn from leading writers and literature specialists at weekly research seminars Our on-campus Lakeside Theatre has been established as a major venue for good drama, staging both productions by professional touring companies and a wealth of new work written, produced and directed by our own staff and students Improve your playwriting and performance skills at our Lakeside Theatre Workshops Our Research Laboratory allows you to collaborate with professionals, improvising and experimenting with new work which is being tried and tested Your future A good literature degree opens many doors We offer supervision for PhD, MPhil and MA by Dissertation in different literatures and various approaches to literature, covering most aspects of early modern and modern writing in English, plus a number of other languages Our University is one of only 11 AHRC-accredited Doctoral Training Centres in the UK This means that we offer funded PhD studentships which also provide a range of research and training opportunities A number of our Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies...

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MA Literature

£ 6,125 + VAT

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