Master of Arts in Literature

Our department offers a distinctively comparative approach to the study of literature, at Essex you dont 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, 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 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.

A good literature degree opens many doors and our 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.

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.

A 2:2 degree in one of the following subjects: American Studies; Art History; Creative Writing; Film and Media Studies; History; Journalism; Law; Literature; Modern Languages; Music; Performance Studies; Philosophy; Politics; Sociology; Theatre/Drama Studies. You need an IELTS 7.0 overall with a minimum component score of 5.5 except for 6.5 in writing, TOEFL IBT 100 overall with minimum component scores listening 17, reading 18, writing 26, and speaking 20.