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MA Modern and Contemporary Literature
at University of Essex

Essex, United Kingdom

  • Tuition Fee £ 19,740
  • Country Rank#40
  • Duration12 Months
  • Score IELTS: 7

Program Overview

Our MA Modern and Contemporary Literature degree offers a rich and unique perspective on the remarkable literature and culture of the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries. At Essex, you won’t just study the familiar canon of English literature; you will study world literature in English. You will explore literature across time, geography and genre, combining traditional scholarly research with fresh and innovative ways of reading and engaging with texts.

As a postgraduate student of literature, you will have the opportunity to explore a broad and diverse range of types of writings, from lyric poetry to contemporary fiction, and study an array of literary and cultural traditions, from European literature of the early twentieth century to American literatures, including recent Caribbean writing.

You will be able to construct your degree based on your interests, drawing on an extensive list of options, including modules on;

  • Modernism and postmodernism
  • Adaptation
  • The environment and new nature writing
  • Queer literature
  • African American literature
  • Themes of war, violence, conflict and human rights in literature
  • Literature and translation in a global context
  • Literature and film
  • US avant-garde poetry


Based in our Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies, you’ll join a community of novelists, dramatists, story-tellers and poets.

We’ve nurtured a long tradition of distinguished writers whose work has shaped literature as we know it today, from past giants such as the American poets Robert Lowell and Ted Berrigan, to contemporary writers such as mythographer and novelist Dame Marina Warner, and Booker Prize-winner Ben Okri.

Cost Of Studying At University of Essex

Interest rates as low as 8.9% *

250K+

Students Assisted

800Cr+

Loan Amount Disbursed

5000+

Loans Sanctioned