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University of Essex homepage Course Finder Literature
Subject

Literature

Vibrant. Experimental. Supportive.

Literature
Undergraduate Masters Research

You're curious. Well read. An analyst.

You’ve read the classics, but you want a fresh take on literature. You want to discover that your new favourite author is someone you’ve never heard of before. You want to study literature that allows you to explore the world and other cultures. You want to travel through time, imagine ahead to the future, but also see the present in a whole new light.

Our courses

We offer BA English Literature as a single honours.

If joint honours are more your thing check out:

BA English and Comparative Literature 

BA English and United States Literature

BA English Language and Literature

BA Literature and Art History

BA Literature and Creative Writing

BA Literature and Sociology

BA Drama and Literature 

BA Film Studies and Literature

BA History and Literature

BA Journalism and Literature

BA Philosophy and Literature

 

A graduate at graduation in robes, smiling at the camera holding their certificate. The graduate is outside, with a few other graduates in robes behind her.
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Let's talk about your potential. To begin your studies this year, you can apply to Essex now through Clearing by filling out one simple application form.

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Why study here?
  • You can study a diverse range of literature, including Arthurian legends, writings from Europe, the US and the Caribbean, the plays of Shakespeare, Romantic poetry, science fiction and so much more.
  • You can respond both critically and artistically to your studies in our unique literary conservatoire.
  • All our undergraduate courses have the option of spending a term or a full year studying abroad. 

Literature courses in Clearing for 2023

1 - 6 of 31 results

Courses (31)

Now in clearing

BA English Literature

Study mode:

Full-Time

Campus:

Colchester Campus

Course options:

Study Abroad

Placement Year

Studying English Literature at Essex will revolutionise the way you think about literature. We’ll challenge you to reflect on how literature shapes, and is shaped by, the world.

Now in clearing

BA Creative Writing

Study mode:

Full-Time

Campus:

Colchester Campus

Course options:

Study Abroad

Placement Year

Explore the urge to create and build new worlds, to share language and stories with others. On our course you work on the craft of writing through a multi-genre approach, through and across a variety of writings from fiction and poetry, to non-fiction, psychogeography, performance writing and beyond.

Now in clearing

LLB Law with Literature

Study mode:

Full-Time

Campus:

Colchester Campus

Course options:

Study Abroad

Placement Year

We teach the law that matters. We are ‘freer, more daring and more experimental’ than a traditional law school, so your legal education is relevant and responsive to the needs of a changing society.

Now in clearing

BA History and Literature

Study mode:

Full-Time

Campus:

Colchester Campus

Course options:

Study Abroad

Placement Year

Develop your knowledge of both history and literature, and investigate the ways in which the two disciplines integrate. You will be introduced to key tropes in literature and drama alongside your history modules in your first year, and continue to combine history and literature modules in your second and third years.

Now in clearing

BA Literature and Sociology

Study mode:

Full-Time

Campus:

Colchester Campus

Course options:

Study Abroad

Placement Year

Travel the world with the turn of a page. Our literary expertise is geographical as well as chronological - here you don’t just study English literature, you study world literature in English.

Now in clearing

BA Drama and Literature

Study mode:

Full-Time

Campus:

Colchester Campus

Course options:

Study Abroad

Placement Year

Study a wide range of dramatic texts, from Ancient Greek times to the present day, and develop an understanding of the principal developments in European Theatre. You can benefit from our Lakeside Theatre, which has been established as a major venue for excellent drama, known for a commitment to new writing for the stage.

Looking to start in 2024?

Hear from our students and graduates

Eseabasi is a BA Literature and Sociology (including Placement Year) student. Here she shares what she enjoys most about her course and what she's gained from her work placement. 

What do you enjoy most about your course?

Where did you do your placement and what kind of work and tasks were involved?

Are there any ‘stand out’ moments from your experience on placement?

Student holding books next to the library at Colchester Campus
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Sian working at Aceville Publications
Sian - Editor of Veggie Magazine

Literature graduate Sian has a busy career as an Editor. "I usually write around 25 pages per monthly magazine, and there’s plenty of work to delegate to the Deputy Editor and Content Writer, including blogs to upload on the latest trends. I direct feature meetings, and I have many managerial meetings to attend, photoshoots to direct at our studio, meetings with PRs in London, and new vegan menus to try. "

Be inspired by a literary legacy

As a well-established home to practising poets, novelists and critics, we have a reputation for nurturing the most radical writers and thinkers. Our concerns are local and global: as readers and writers, we adopt a comparative method as we traverse near and faraway places, discovering new modes of writing and reconsidering classics. You'll be part of an interdisciplinary department specialising in literature, creative writing, theatre, film and journalism. 

We offer MA Literature and MA American Literatures, but if you would rather a joint honours we also offer MA Film and Literature and MA Translation and Literature.

Learn about our teaching and assessment plans, in light of the pandemic, for the 2020/21 academic year on the department pages.

Why study here?
  • You will explore connections with other art forms alongside world-renowned scholars, poets, dramatists, story-tellers and novelists
  • Discover an extensive range of world literature across time, geography and genre
  • We have an impressive literary legacy. Our history of staff and students have been Nobel Prize winners, Booker Prize winners and Pulitzer Prize winners
Sian working at Aceville Publications
Sian - Editor of Veggie Magazine

Literature graduate Sian has a busy career as an Editor. "I usually write around 25 pages per monthly magazine, and there’s plenty of work to delegate to the Deputy Editor and Content Writer, including blogs to upload on the latest trends. I direct feature meetings, and I have many managerial meetings to attend, photoshoots to direct at our studio, meetings with PRs in London, and new vegan menus to try. "

Dynamic. Innovative. Experimental.

We have a fresh take on literature. We're specialists in world literature – including American, Caribbean, and European literature – Early Modern and Renaissance literature, Romanticism, translation studies and adaptation, as well as colonial and postcolonial literatures. We're proud of the talent we nurture. Our history of staff and students have been Nobel Prize winners, Booker Prize winners and Pulitzer Prize winners.

Based in our Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies we like to utilise our interdisciplinary nature to push the boundaries. Our research projects are topical, with a strong focus on ecocriticism, green writing and literary geographies.

Read our academic biographies to find out more about us and use our research finder to find a topic and a supervisor to suit you.

Why study here?
  • Be part of an active and interdisciplinary research community where students and staff work together in a creative and intellectually challenging environment.
  • We run weekly research seminars with speakers invited from UK and abroad, as well as regularly hosting major conferences.
  • Our research students organise and present at our annual PhD conference.
A row of old looking library books
Our research

The Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies has internationally recognised expertise in the literatures of the British Isles, the Americas, and Europe, combined with strengths in world cinema, film theory and practice, contemporary theatre and poetry, as well as adaptation and translation studies. 

Find out more

 

We understand that deciding where and what to study is a very important decision for you. We'll make all reasonable efforts to provide you with the courses, services and facilities as described on our website. However, if we need to make material changes, for example due to significant disruption, or in response to COVID-19, we'll let our applicants and students know as soon as possible.



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