Master of Arts - Literature

This University of Essex department offers a distinctively comparative approach to the study of literature; at Essex students don’t just study English literature, they study world literature in English. Students explore literature across time, geography, and genre, combining scholarly research with innovative, practical ways of engaging with texts. Students grapple with the challenges of conducting research into Shakespeare and other early modern literature, and study a truly extensive range of work; reading takes students from African American literature, through Caribbean literatures, to the literature and performance of New York, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Moscow and London.

At Essex, they have an impressive literary legacy. Their history comprises staff (and students) who have been Nobel Prize winners, Booker Prize winners, and Pulitzer Prize winners. The 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 they are a community of award-winning novelists, poets and playwrights, as well as leading literature specialists.

A good literature degree opens many doors and Essex's students have gone on to work in a number of careers such as writers, and others are now established as scholars, university lecturers, teachers, publishers, publishers’ editors, journalists, arts administrators, theatre artistic directors, drama advisers, and translators.