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MA Film and Literature

University of Essex

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University of Essex

Course options

2 options available

  • Qualification

    MA - Master of Arts

  • Location

    Colchester Campus

  • Study mode

    Full time

  • Start date

    01-SEP-25

  • Duration

    1 year

Course summary

Explore the relationship between literature and film in an exceptionally broad array of contemporary and historical contexts, and from a variety of different perspectives. You discover cutting-edge approaches to cinematic and literary aesthetics, adaptation, and relationships between different media, reception contexts, ethics, and interfaces between theory and practice.

On our course you gain a deep understanding of the theoretical and practical interactions between literature and film, choosing specific areas of literary and cinema studies to complement your preparation for a creative practice or theoretical dissertation project of your choice. You will forge and develop connections between audio-visual and textual media. Focusing a variety of cultural productions and diverse forms of enlightenment, and entertainment, you will encounter parallel and sometimes more densely intertwined media histories, discovering the complex ways in which media anticipate, interfere with, and draw on one other.

Through weekly seminars, screenings, and discussions of key cinematic and literary texts, you consider different ways that texts create their meanings. You study topics including:

  • Areas such as modernism, poetic practice, American prose, Caribbean literature, and African American literature
  • Documentary and fiction film production including screenwriting, pre-production, camera, lighting, sound, storyboarding and editing
  • Landmark directors and movements such as Expressionism and the avant-garde
  • Film theory including feminism, psychoanalysis, queer theory, haptic cinema
  • Adaptation and comparative media

You also benefit from a series of masterclasses conducted by invited industry professionals which focus on the craft of filmmaking: developing your technical understanding of cinematography, directing and editing/postproduction.

These also introduce you to potential employment routes and industry career pathways, from setting up your own production company, to identifying and tapping into distribution networks and preparing and marketing your completed films.

Your future

We actively encourage and assist you to find appropriate internship and work placement opportunities during your studies, allowing you to practice and develop your skills and experience as well as enhancing your graduate employment prospects.

Several our Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies graduates have gone on to undertake successful careers as scholars, university lecturers, teachers, publishers, journalists, arts administrators, theatre artistic directors, drama advisers, filmmakers, film editors, and translators.

Tuition fees

Students living in United States
(International fees)

£ 21,700per year

Tuition fees shown are for indicative purposes and may vary. Please check with the institution for most up to date details.

University information

University of Essex

University of Essex

  • University League Table

    30th

  • Campus address

    University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, Essex, CO4 3SQ, United Kingdom

VIEW PROFILE
The careers team offer dedicated international careers advice and support throughout studies and after graduation.
Central London is easily accessible from all of the university's campuses.
Gain access to the curriculum from nine European universities through the YUFE (Young Universities for the Future of Europe) virtual campus.

Subject rankings

  • Subject ranking

    Drama, Dance & Cinematics

    27th out of 95 4

    69th out of 96 4

  • Entry standards

    / Max 198
    148 75%

    21st

  • Graduate prospects

    / Max 100
    62.0 62%

    27th

    38

  • Student satisfaction

    / Max 4
    3.24 81%

    10th

    4

  • Entry standards

    / Max 202
    117 58%

    64th

  • Graduate prospects

    / Max 100
    68.0 68%

    68th

    22

  • Student satisfaction

    / Max 4
    3.16 79%

    49th

    12

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