Postgraduate Prospectus

www.essex.ac.uk/lifts | Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies
Why study literature,
film, and theatre studies
at Essex?
n
n
n
n
n
Interdisciplinary department
offering close supervision and a
friendly atmosphere for intellectual
debate
Long history of poets, novelists
and theatre writers working with
our students
Dedicated film screening facility
with a new, state-of-the-art cinema
Use of the well-equipped Lakeside
Theatre at our Colchester Campus
(seating 217) for practical work
Thriving postgraduate community
of students from around the world
Career prospects
A number of our graduates have
gone on to undertake successful
careers as writers.
Other past MA and research
students are now established
as scholars, university lecturers,
teachers, publishers, publishers’
editors, journalists, arts
administrators, theatre artistic
directors, drama advisers, and
translators.
About our Department
We combine expertise in literature, film,
and theatre studies to provide a strong
and supportive environment for your
postgraduate studies.
We are distinctive in the breadth of our
cultural interests, providing knowledge
across a range of literatures, including
English, United States, French, Italian and
Latin American. US literature, and drama
and theatre have always been prominent,
while writers like US poets Robert Lowell
and Ed Dorn, and British dramatists Edward
Bond and Michèle Roberts, have at
different times taught in our Department, a
tradition we continue with the development
of our MA Creative Writing.
Many of our academic staff are scholars
of international reputation including our
professors, John Gillies, Richard Gray,
Peter Hulme and Marina Warner, who are
recognised experts in the fields respectively
of Shakespeare, US literature, postcolonial
studies, and cultural history. Richard Gray
was the first specialist in US literature to
be appointed to the British Academy, while
Marina Warner is a distinguished novelist
also appointed to the British Academy.
Since 2009, Nobel Prize winner Derek
Walcott has worked annually with our
students as our Professor of Poetry. In
January 2011, he was awarded the
prestigious TS Eliot Prize for his collection,
White Egrets.
productions of new plays here but there
has been a wealth of new work produced
by our own staff and students.
An essential element of our Lakeside
Theatre’s programme has been the
opportunity it has given our students to
write or direct new plays, as well as
re-define classics and re-discover neglected
masterpieces. Our record of dramatic
exploration and enterprise is unique.
Taught courses
All our MAs can be taken either full-time
for one year or part-time over two years.
Five modules are followed, over the autumn
and spring terms, and generally consist
of ten two-hour seminars, the format of
which may include introductions by your
tutor, presentations by you and discussion
based on a programme of reading.
Assessment is by four essays of
4,000-5,000 words, a reflective piece
on research methods and a dissertation
(of approximately 20,000 words). Where
appropriate, films, plays or pieces of
creative writing can be submitted as
your dissertation.
There is normally considerable freedom
for you to choose the topics of your essays
and dissertation. You will be issued with our
MA guide giving detailed advice on writing
at MA level and your written work will be
supervised by appropriate specialist staff.
As we have long been home to practising
poets, novelists, dramatists and actors, plus
critics and theorists, you are part of an
environment where you can combine critical
with creative work. On our film courses, for
example, you explore different world
cinemas and learn about the history of film,
its formal aesthetics, and its contexts of
production and reception. You can also
learn filmmaking.
Over the past three decades, our Lakeside
Theatre at our Colchester Campus has
been established as a major venue for good
drama, known for a commitment to new
writing for the stage. Not only do many
professional touring companies bring their
MA Literature•
MA Literature is our flagship course. Two
of your five modules are compulsory:
The Study of Literature Today acts as an
introduction to the study of literature at
graduate level and as a focal point for all
our students on this course, while Research
Methods in Literary and Cultural Analysis
offers essential training in the skills and
methodology necessary to succeed at this,
and higher, levels of graduate research.
Beyond that, our course is characterised
by a high degree of choice, with room for
you to focus on specialist interests, such as
US literature or Shakespeare, or to sample
from different areas. You graduate with
Postgraduate Prospectus 2012 | 159