Program Overview

This course combines modules in English literature with practical and theoretical drama modules. You’ll largely have flexibility to decide the precise balance between literature and drama in your course. You may, for example, choose to study a wide range of genres, including the novel and poetry, or gradually to specialize in dramatic literature and performance.

You will have access to the same range of literature modules as our full-time English literature students. That means you’ll be able to delve into periods from the medieval to the present day, explore diverse traditions from across the globe, and tackle a heady mix of genres, which currently range from the gothic to children’s literature, crime writing to Latin American fiction, nonsense writing to biography. It’s worth reading the detailed account of our BA English Literature degree to get a sense of the possibilities on offer.

In your practical drama modules you will work alongside full-time drama students in our professionally equipped 200-seat Drama Studio. You’ll have the keys to this amazing space, letting you control everything in your own productions, from performance and staging to costume, lighting, and sound-design. You’ll have the chance to bring all your performance skills together in major practical projects each year.

Studying literature will deepen your practical work in the theatre. As you get inside the words of plays in the seminar room, you’ll become better able to release their energies in your own performance. At the same time, your study of literature will be enriched by your performance work – you’ll understand how plays work from the inside. The two elements of your degree are always deepening and enhancing one another.