Literature, Visual Culture and Film Studies
Understand Culture Across Media
Gain the analytical skills to work with literature, film, and visual culture as interconnected forms of meaning, rather than as separate disciplines.
Tallinn University’s MA in Literature, Visual Culture and Film Studies is a two-year, English-taught programme for students who want to deepen their understanding of cultural productions and learn how to interpret, question, and analyse them in a more systematic way.
You will study literature, film, and visual culture together in small, seminar-based courses, focusing on interpretation, argument, and independent analysis across historical and contemporary contexts. From early on in the programme, you begin shaping a research focus that develops into your Master’s thesis and, for some graduates, continues into doctoral study
The programme is offered jointly by Tallinn University and the Estonian Academy of Arts. This joint structure deliberately crosses institutional and disciplinary boundaries, drawing on expertise in literature, film studies, art history, and visual culture, and allowing you to approach cultural questions from multiple perspectives within one coherent programme.
Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, is home to an extensive network of literary, film, and visual culture institutions and festivals. Its compact scale makes it a distinctive place to study culture, where archives, exhibitions, screenings, and public debate are easily accessible and can inform research and coursework alongside academic study.
Over the course of the programme, you change how you relate to culture itself — learning to live with complexity, to think across media, and to sustain independent, critical thought rather than look for ready-made answers. This way of thinking becomes a foundation for future paths in any field that requires cultural judgement, interpretation, and the ability to work with complexity including research.
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Who this programme is for
This programme is for applicants who feel that studying culture through a single disciplinary lens is no longer enough, and who are looking for a place to think more carefully about how literature, film, and visual culture intersect.
It suits students who:
- Have a background in the humanities or social sciences and want to continue their studies in a programme that allows different cultural forms to be studied together rather than separately.
- Are interested in developing their thinking further after their Bachelor’s studies — whether that interest emerged through coursework, a thesis, independent reading, or engagement with film, art, or literature outside the classroom.
- Are open to a programme where ideas are explored in depth over time, and where interpretation and argument are central to learning.
- May be considering further research or doctoral study, but are equally interested in gaining a deeper intellectual foundation that can inform different future directions.
Why study with us?
Because this programme is built around a specific academic collaboration that you won’t find in most humanities degrees. As a joint programme between Tallinn University and the Estonian Academy of Arts, it brings together expertise in literature, film studies, visual culture, and art history within a single, integrated programme. This allows you to approach cultural questions across media without having to choose between institutions or disciplinary silos.
Tallinn offers a distinctive setting for this kind of study. As Estonia’s capital, it concentrates archives, film festivals, exhibitions, and cultural institutions within a compact urban space. Internationally recognised events such as the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF), the HeadRead Literary Festival, and the Artishok Biennale form part of the city’s cultural landscape, alongside museums, archives and research collections. This proximity allows academic work to be situated within an active cultural environment, without turning the programme into practice-based training.
You work closely with academic staff and have the time and support to develop your own research interests across the programme. This suits students who may be considering doctoral study, while also offering an education that develops careful judgement, interpretation, and independent thinking across different future paths.
Scholarships for Tuition Fee Reduction
The tuition fee for the MA in Literature, Visual Culture and Film Studies is €1,900 per semester. The programme offers a high-level academic education in an internationally competitive field, while remaining financially accessible compared to many similar Master’s programmes in Europe. To support access to the programme, Tallinn University offers merit-based tuition fee support for high-performing students.
For applicants admitted in 2026, up to four students will receive a 50% tuition fee reduction for one academic year. This means that selected students pay €950 per semester during that year.
The scholarships awarded in 2026 apply to the academic years 2026/2027 and 2027/2028.
How is the tuition fee reduction awarded?
- First academic year: The reduction is granted to the four highest-ranked students based on entrance examination results.
- Second academic year: Full-time students may apply for continued tuition fee support. Rankings are based on the weighted grade point average. To be eligible, students must not be on academic leave during the relevant semester.
How to apply?
To receive the tuition fee reduction, admitted students must submit an application using the prescribed form no later than 5 September. Applications may be submitted after the admission process.
Programme Outline
The MA in Literature, Visual Culture and Film Studies is structured to move from shared theoretical foundations towards increasingly independent research. Core seminars introduce key concepts and analytical approaches, which are then developed through thematic courses and individual research work. Across the two years, students gradually refine a research focus that culminates in a Master’s thesis.
Full-time studies
During the two-year programme, students participate actively in seminars, engage in research-related activities, and complete a Master’s thesis.
During the second and third semesters, students engage in practical training organised by the school in collaboration with cultural institutions and international literary, art, and film festivals in Tallinn. These activities are designed to support students’ research interests and critical engagement with cultural institutions, rather than to provide vocational or production-based training.
At the end of the second semester, students submit a research proposal for their thesis and choose a supervisor.
The fourth semester is reserved for writing the thesis within the framework of the Master’s seminar. This research-focused semester allows students to concentrate on their chosen topic in depth. The thesis is publicly defended at the end of the final semester.
Core seminars and thematic courses
Key Concepts in Cultural Analysis: This seminar introduces key concepts in cultural theory and analysis, such as culture, nation, progress, power, space, border, gender, nature, and memory. Students engage in close reading, writing assignments, and group work to develop analytical skills relevant across the programme.
Key Concepts in Critical Theory and Visual Culture: This seminar focuses on major thinkers in critical theory and the social analysis of images, tracing discussions from G. W. F. Hegel’s philosophy of history to contemporary visual and cultural studies. Rather than concentrating on isolated ideas, the course explores connections and debates within the critical tradition.
Word and Image: This course introduces cultural phenomena that connect words and images across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Students examine the relationship between verbal and visual forms and the theoretical approaches used to analyse them.
Seminars in Literature, Visual Culture and Film I, II, III: These interdisciplinary seminars approach literary texts, films, and objects of visual culture through specific thematic lenses. Depending on the academic year, topics may include dystopia, ecocritical approaches, memory and trauma, postcolonial studies, and related fields.
Narratology and Film Analysis: This course introduces core concepts and methods of narratology and film analysis and provides practice in applying them to literary texts and films.
Adaptation: This seminar examines adaptations across different media, addressing critical and cultural debates surrounding literary, film, and video game adaptations. Adaptations are studied in relation to historical and cultural context, authorship, and genre.
Distribution of the courses over the four semesters (sample)
Study Support and Student Services
Tallinn University provides a range of student support services that accompany your academic studies and support your development during the programme.
Career counselling is available to all students and supports you in thinking through future directions during and after your studies. Career counsellors can help you reflect on career goals, further study options, and how to present your academic experience in applications and interviews.
Students also have access to psychological counselling services, offering confidential support for study-related or personal challenges. These services are free of charge and available both on campus and online.
Tallinn University is committed to inclusive study conditions. Students with special needs can receive individual support, including reasonable adjustments to studies and entrance examinations, guidance on scholarships and services, and ongoing counselling throughout their studies.
International students are supported through the university’s international student services, which provide guidance on practical study-related matters and life in Estonia. Students may also take part in Erasmus exchange programmes, allowing for study periods at partner universities elsewhere in Europe.
Academic Staff
Eneken Laanes is the professor of comparative literature and the Head of the research project Memory and Environment: The Intersection of Fast and Slow Violence in Transnational European Literatures (2025–2029, Estonian Research Council). Her research deals with transnational literature, film, art and memory in post-Soviet Eastern Europe. Laanes has her PhD in comparative literature from the University of Tartu. She has been a Juris Padegs Research Fellow at Yale University (2013–2014) and Kone Fellow at Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies (2019).
Laanes’s research interests include cultural memory, trauma, critical theory and cultural analysis, contemporary literature, theories of subjectivity, autobiography and self-writing, world literature, transnational literature and multilingualism, visual history. See her research profile here.
Mari Laaniste is a researcher studying various forms of visual and audiovisual culture: film, animation, comics, cartoons and the interrelations of words and images in popular culture. She defended a MA (2002) degree at the Institute of Art History and Visual Culture at the Estonian Academy of Arts, and has since published research mostly on Estonian animation and fiction film.
Her PhD dissertation focuses on Priit Pärn’s Soviet-era works. She teaches classes on visual culture and film at the Estonian Academy of Arts and the University of Tallinn, has edited books and organized conferences in the ongoing series “Studies in Contemporary Culture” as well as curated comics exhibitions, published some fiction and is also active as a critic.
Daniele Monticelli is the professor of italian studies and semiotics. He has studied and researched in Italy, Germany, Estonia, the US and teaches subjects in contemporary Italian history, society and politics, philosophy of language, comparative literature and research seminars.
His research is characterized by a wide and interdisciplinary range of interests which include the relations between translation and ideology particularly under totalitarian rule and censorship, semiotic theory and poststructuralism, the literary construction of affects, passions and cognition, contemporary critical theory with particular focus on the political thought of Agamben, Badiou and Rancière. He has authored literary and essayistic translations from Estonian into Italian and actively contributes to the cultural and political debate in the Estonian media and society.
Follow his minilecture Is Love an Endangered Emotion?
Julia Kuznetski (Tofantšuk) is the Professor of English at the School of Humanities at TLU. She has taught courses on literature and literary theory (World Literature, British Literature from the Renaissance to the Present, 20th-21st-century British Literature, British Women Writers of the 20th-21st Century, 19th-century British Literature, 19th-century British Art, British and American Art in the 20th-21st Century, etc.), as well as practical English (English C2, Analysis of Academic Texts, Contemporary English, etc.), at BA, MA and PhD level. She has contributed to study programme development on all academic levels and is a member of several professional organisations (ESSE, FINSSE, MLA, ASLE, KAJAK, ENUT) and Advisory Board member of Lexington Books Ecocritical Theory and Practice series.
Julia Kuznetski’s PhD thesis (2007) was on construction of identity in the fiction of contemporary British women writers, for example, Eva Figes, Jeanette Winterson and Meera Syal. She has published articles, book chapters (Routledge, Peter Lang WV, Palgrave Macmillan) and delivered conference papers on gender and identity, transnational feminism, postcolonial and diaspora studies, ecocriticism and ecofeminism, which are her main research interests.
Andres Kurg is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Art History, Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn. His research explores the architecture and design of the Soviet Union in the late 1960s and 1970s in relation to technological transformations and changes in everyday life as well as its intersections with alternative art practices.
He studied art history at the Estonian Academy of Arts and architectural history at University College London. He has published articles in AA Files, ArtMargins, Journal of Architecture, Home Cultures and contributed to many collected volumes and exhibition catalogues. In 2008 he co-edited Environment, Projects, Concepts: Architects of the Tallinn School 1972-1985. He recently co-curated Our Metamorphic Futures. Design, Technical Aesthetics and Experimental Architecture in the Soviet Union 1960–1980 in Vilnius National Gallery of Art and Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design (2011–12), a project funded by a grant from the EU Culture programme. In 2015 he was a Guest Scholar at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles; in Spring 2017 he was Visiting Senior Researcher in European Studies at the MacMillan Center, Yale University, New Haven.
Dr (Emilia) Diana Popa is a film scholar and researcher at Tallinn University. Diana started working at Tallinn University in 2020 as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant project entitled: “Translating Memories: The Eastern European Past in the Global Arena”. Previously, she was an ERC postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Edinburgh part of the “Illuminating the ‘Grey Zone’: Addressing Complex Complicity in Human Rights Violations” project (2018-2020). She received her PhD in Film Studies from the University of St Andrews, Scotland (2018) with a thesis on the specificity of the aesthetics of slowness in contemporary (post 2000) Romanian cinema. Since then, Diana developed an interdisciplinary research agenda situated at the intersection of audio-visual archives, film and cultural memory studies. In her work, she examines how audiovisual media remediate the Eastern European past and memory in local, regional and transnational contexts. Her articles have been published in Slavic & Eastern European Journal; Law, Culture and the Humanities; Journal of European Studies and Short Film Studies.
Regina-Nino Mion’s main research interests are in phenomenology (Husserl), art philosophy and aesthetics, and pictorial representation. She defended her doctoral dissertation in philosophy at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland in 2014. She has received a number of research grants: Sciex-NMSch Fellowship (University of Fribourg), TÜBITAK Research Fellowship (Istanbul Technical University) and Mobilitas Pluss post-doctoral researcher grant (Estonian Academy of Arts). She has lectured at the University of Iceland, University of Helsinki, Istanbul Technical University and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. She has published research articles in collections “The Pleasure of Pictures: Pictorial Experience and Aesthetic Appreciation“ (2018, published in book series Routledge Research in Aesthetics) and “The Iconology of Abstraction: Non-figurative Images and the Modern World“ (2020, published in book series Routledge Advances in Art and Visual Studies)
Matthias Jost is a lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA), where he teaches at the Institute of Art History and Visual Culture. Originally educated in Germany in philosophy and Germanic literature, Jost has a background that bridges humanities and cultural studies. At EKA he contributes to curricula on literature, visual culture and film studies — bringing an interdisciplinary perspective to the study of art history, cultural theory, and visual media.
Admission Requirements
General requirements
- Completed Bachelor’s degree or the equivalent
- Proof of English Proficiency
Please see the complete overview of admission and application requirements for Master's level applicants.
Entrance exams
- The admission exam consists of a written and oral part. The written part is based on
- Statement of research interests (1-2 pages) [to be submitted to DreamApply]
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Writing sample (an excerpt from either the BA thesis or a paper, 10 pages) [to be submitted to DreamApply]
If your BA studies did not end with a BA thesis, academic referenced essays written during your BA studies in total capacity of 10 pages are accepted. Your published scholarly articles may also be accepted as writing samples.
If your BA thesis (or equivalent writing sample) was not written in English, please provide a translation into English with the original writing sample. You may do your own translation, no notarized translation required. - The oral part is an interview. The applicants who are accepted to the interview will be notified via e-mail. If the date and time offered for an online interview does not suit the applicant it may be possible to delay the interview until the next interview date which is usually in the next month. NB! Only applicants receiving the minimum required points for the statement of research interest and writing sample will be invited for the interview.
For the purposes of identity verification at the admission procedure the Admission Committee has the right to record the oral part of the admission exam carried out via video bridge.
Assessment of the candidates
- Statement of Research Interest: 30 points (min. required 21 points)
- Writing Sample and Previous Study Results: 30 points (min required 21 points)
- Interview: 40 points (min. requirement 28 points)
Important! Only applicants receiving the minimum required points for the first two components will be invited for the interview.
What we assess
| Exam Part | Evaluation Criteria | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Writing sample and previous study results | The effectiveness of prior education and the demonstrated competencies required for the successful completion of the curriculum | max 10 points |
| The structure of the writing sample, the quality of argumentation, and the use of secondary sources | max 10 points | |
| Proficiency in academic English (if the work is written in English; otherwise, academic written expression) | max 10 points | |
| Statement of research interest | The ability to justify the choice of the programme and to relate it to one’s personal research interests | max 10 points |
| The alignment of research interests with the programme | max 10 points | |
| The ability to comprehend future prospects upon completion of the programme | max 10 points | |
| Interview | The candidate’s motivation and clarity of goals | max 10 points |
| The ability to develop and refine a research interest plan | max 10 points | |
| The candidate’s analytical ability | max 10 points | |
| Oral communication skills | max 10 points |
How we assess
The examination board will assess each applicant individually based on the criteria. The board members go through the Statement of research interests, the writing sample and the previous study results and make a joint decision whether to invite / not invite an appicant for an interwiew. At least two board members must participate at the interview. One of the participating board members will be leading the interview, all members may ask questions. After each interview there is a discussion among the board members who were present at the interview. Points for all assessed components will be entered into the table which calculates the average of the points given and the final subtotal points.
Find more information about the deadlines here.
Careers and Further Study
Graduates of the MA in Literature, Visual Culture and Film Studies develop advanced skills in interpretation, analysis, research, and academic writing. These skills form a strong foundation for a range of future paths rather than a single professional track.
Many graduates continue to doctoral studies in literature, film studies, visual culture, cultural theory, and related fields, both in Estonia and internationally. The programme is structured to support this pathway through sustained research work, close supervision, and the completion of a substantial Master’s thesis.
Other graduates apply the skills developed during the programme in research-oriented and analytically demanding roles, including work in education, publishing, cultural institutions, criticism, and related fields where cultural judgement, writing, and interpretation are central. While the programme is not vocational or practice-led, its focus on independent thinking and research equips graduates to adapt their expertise to different professional contexts.
During the programme, students may engage with cultural institutions and events in Tallinn in ways that support their research interests. Guidance on internships and further opportunities is available on an individual basis, depending on students’ goals and interests.
Meet some of our Alumni
Michael Keerdo-Dawson
Literature, Visual Culture and Film Studies MA (2019), Lecturer, Filmmaker.
My experience with the Literature, Visual Culture and Film Studies MA was very positive; I was introduced to a whole new world of cultural theory and philosophy; gained skills in close reading, academic research, and critical analysis; and also improved my abilities as a writer and presenter. I would recommend this MA for anyone interested in deepening their understanding of cinema, literature, and culture. Whether you are a budding theorist or practitioner, this programme will deepen your understanding and make you think differently.
On 1st of June 2024 he defended his PhD thesis
Hazuki Okemoto
Literature, Visual Culture and Film Studies MA (2019), Translator, Marketer, Customer Support, Salesperson.
I have once written an essay about the devils and demons for a course regarding the Medieval arts in this programme. Why? - Because I got this idea in Kaunas while travelling. I didn’t know that I had been so creative and considered myself as just a person who does and likes (fine) arts before coming to Tallinn from the countryside of Japan. Literature, Visual Culture and Film Studies is an interdisciplinary programme, which provided me with a number of opportunities to broaden my potentials and belief that I can produce creative writing and visual arts.
Silvia Kurr
Literature, Visual Culture and Film Studies MA (2019), Teacher of English, PhD student.
The Literature, Visual Culture and Film Studies MA programme expanded my knowledge beyond my primary field of research and helped me find a research topic for a PhD project in the field of intermedial studies. As an international programme, this MA gives students a great chance to make friends from all over the world. For me personally, it was perhaps the best part of the whole experience. I would recommend this programme for anyone who has diverse research interests and is looking for an opportunity to study in an international environment.
Monireh Sadat Razavi Ganji
Literature, Visual Culture and Film Studies MA (2020)
As an innovative joint programme between Tallinn University and the Estonian Academy of Arts, "Literature Visual Culture and Film Studies" enables its students to gain comparative knowledge, interdisciplinary skills, and intercultural experience with a distinctive approach. I feel so honoured to have joined this newly established programme as one of its pioneering students."
Juliana De Carvalho
Literature, Visual Culture and Film Studies MA (2020)
"The practical training experience at the Black Nights Film Festival gave me more knowledge than I could have ever expected. It also confirmed how the cinema of festivals and the cinema of diversity brings an enriching experience that goes beyond what we are used to seeing in the mainstream channels of film distribution. This experience was extremely motivating for my future as a professional and for me as a person who loves cinema and art."
Bernadette Ščasná
Literature, Visual Culture and Film Studies MA (2020), Junior Research Fellow, PhD student.
If you have many passions but do not wish to head in a single direction, the Literature, Visual Culture and Film Studies MA programme might be the right one for you – that is, if you are not afraid of the cold Estonian winter. The best part about the programme for me was the fact that it is open to people with different academic backgrounds which often resulted in interesting discussions and group work. I myself did not know much about film or art theory before joining the programme but what I have learned was very interesting and useful. I enjoyed the wide range of possibilities when choosing my research topic and was glad that I could turn my hobby (films and video games) into an MA thesis. One of the highlights was also the possibility to help out with the organization of different festivals, which also gave me some practical experience. Thanks to this programme I was able to gain new perspectives, learn a lot of things, and visit some interesting museums.
Mayra Lynn Assink
Literature, Visual Culture and Film Studies MA (2021)
I chose the Literature, Visual Culture and Film Studies MA Programme for its wide and interdisciplinary approach. I wanted to find an international MA that combined Film and Literature and I was given a programme that did this and more. Now, when people ask me what I studied, I tell them that I studied narratives in all their forms and beyond the act of writing. Especially critical analysis, close reading and creativity were emphasised. My favourite courses were the seminars in which we as students teamed up with a professor and emerged ourselves in the field they were doing research on. This not only brought a lot of knowledge together but also gave one the confidence to continue research in the field that one found interesting. I would definitely recommend this programme to anyone who has an interest in an international research environment and who is keen to learn more about the way any kind of narrative emerges.
Margherita Marchetti
Literature, Visual Culture and Film Studies MA (2021)
As a curious person, I always felt the need to expand my knowledge, to investigate concepts and to express my own point of view on them. I could not think of specializing in just one branch of cultural studies without feeling I was missing out on all the rest. When I first read the name of this program, I thought "this is the one for me." Does it sound too naïve? Well, it was.
This program was the right place for me to develop my critical thinking and to learn to express myself through academic, yet personal and creative writing. Do you know the story about Academia that put you in boxes? Well, it is definitely not about this program. During my studies I always felt supported by teachers in my personal research; I have been encouraged to deeply investigate cultural materials and to express my perspective on them. This program creates the space for brilliant discussions concerning cultural academic topics, through the comparative analysis of literary, visual and audiovisual material. Sometimes it was challenging, but it was always worth it.
I would recommend this program to anybody who wants to gain a relevant cultural knowledge, and who is searching for a stimulating, international cultural environment.
Rahul Sharma
Junior Researcher-Doctoral Student at Estonian Academy of Arts
Being a film scholar and filmmaker, I often grappled with combining theoretical knowledge with practical experiences. LVF seemed to bridge that gap offering an interdisciplinary study of literature, film and visual culture, and broadened my theoretical perspective.
The intensive seminars ranged from a variety of topics including film theory, ecocriticism, memory studies as well as giving one ample opportunity to chart their own development through free electives. With an emphasis on intertextuality, narratology and cultural theory, the course not only underlines philosophical and historical implications of the study of audiovisual media and literary texts, but sets a breeding ground for future researchers.
Personally, the course allowed me to undertake writing a thesis on representation of diasporic identities in cinema. Completion of the course helped me get accepted to a PhD programme of my choice within a year. Currently, I am researching representations of in-between Russian-Estonian identities in visual art and documentary films, while I will teach some general courses and other specialised courses on Indian cinema at EKA in the forthcoming semesters.
Contact Us
- Specific questions regarding the programme should be directed to the School of Humanities:
Elsi Vänto
aDdressNarva mnt 25, 10120 Tallinn
E-MAILelsi.vanto@tlu.ee
- For additional guidelines regarding admission procedure please contact the international admission specialist.
E-MAILadmissions@tlu.ee
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- Questions regarding student life at Tallinn University:
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