MacMahon's "master theorem" (1915) is a jewel of enumerative combinatorics, with applications to partition theory and binomial identities, for example. The result is usually proved by combinatorial or analytical means. I will present an algebraic approach to the master theorem and various generalizations thereof. The method relies on basic properties of Koszul algebras. I plan to give a short introduction to (generalized) Koszul algebras and sketch how "Koszul duality" amounts to a version of the master theorem. As an application, I will present a new super version of the master theorem involving Berezinians. The talk is based on joint work with Phung Ho Hai and Benoit Kriegk.