Corruption at the core of modern literary work (13)
I believe the answer is:
decomposition
'corruption' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'at the core of modern literary work' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'at' could be 'on' (location) and 'on' is present in the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is located in the answer.
'of' could be 'o' and 'o' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for decomposition that I've seen before include "rot" , "Process of decay" , "Disintegration" , "Putrefaction" .)