BA (Hons) Drama

Key details

BA (HONS) DRAMA

Start Year

2023

Attendance

Full Time

Award

Degree of Bachelor of Arts

UCAS course code

W400

Entry Requirements

ABB

Duration (years)

Offering an exhilarating immersion in all aspects of theatre, this course combines a comprehensive grounding in acting, directing, and practical stagecraft with the thoughtful and inventive study of plays themselves. You’ll master dramatic traditions from across time periods and all around the world, and you'll draw on that knowledge to enrich your own experience in the theatre. 

Throughout your degree, you'll be supported by UEA's unique combination of academic experts on theatre and performance, as well as practising theatre directors and world-leading scriptwriters. Once you graduate, your degree will open the doors of the theatre world to you – or you might choose to take all the skills you've learnt to any number of careers across the creative industries and beyond. 

About

Our professionally equipped 200-seat Drama Studio will be at the centre of your Drama degree at UEA. You'll have the keys to this amazing space, giving you the chance to control everything in your own productions, from performance and staging to costume, lighting, and sound-design. You'll have similar opportunities to immerse yourself in practical stagecraft to those on offer in a Drama School.   

But your Drama degree doesn't only offer a practical training ground. 

At UEA, you’ll encounter an astonishing array of drama and a wealth of performance styles, from naturalism to Noh theatre. You’ll engage with major theoretical and directorial approaches, from Aristotle to Boal, from live art to physical theatre. You’ll examine the use of theatre and performance – by the State, by political activists and by theatre and performance practitioners – to solidify or challenge structures of power. You’ll also discover the cutting-edge theatre companies that are shaping contemporary performance today.

Everything you're learning will deepen your practical work in the theatre. Our drama seminars offer you unrivalled opportunities to master theoretical approaches to dramatic writing through your own practical performances. 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. Each year, you will bring everything that you’ve learned together in practical projects, and will undertake a wide variety of applied drama work. You’ll also have the chance to study on placement with a professional company or venue (which may include TV, radio, and film, as well as theatre). This will build not only your experience and confidence, but also your contacts book. 

You'll also benefit from our highly regarded student-run Minotaur Theatre Company, which gives you the chance to gain even more performance, technical, and scriptwriting experience. Find out more about life in the School of Literature, Drama, and Creative Writing on our Instagram @uealdc.

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Important Information

Whilst the University will make every effort to offer the courses listed, changes may sometimes be made arising from the regular review of course programmes. Where this activity leads to significant (but not minor) changes to programmes, there will normally be prior consultation of students and others. Changes may for example consist of variations to the content and method of delivery of programmes, courses and other services, to discontinue programmes, courses and other services and to merge or combine programmes or courses. The University will endeavour to keep such changes to a minimum, and will inform students.

Placement Year and Study Abroad

You have the option to apply to study abroad for one semester of your second year. Study abroad is a wonderfully enriching life experience – you will develop confidence and adaptability, and will have the chance to deepen your understanding of drama while learning about another culture. At UEA, you will also be surrounded by the many students we welcome from around the world to study with us. 

For further details, visit the Study Abroad section of our website. 

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Course Reference Number: 6775428

After the Course

But your Drama degree doesn't only offer a practical training ground. 

Career destinations

A degree at UEA will prepare you for a wide variety of careers. We've been ranked 1st for Job Prospects by StudentCrowd in 2022.

Examples of careers you could enter include: 

Theatre and film 
Journalism 
Media 
Teaching 
Finance 
Publishing

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TWITTER

Follow us on Twitter for all the latest news about the UEA Creative Writing programme and the achievements of our alumni: @NewWritingNet

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UEA Award

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Course Reference Number: 6775428

Assessment for Year 1

Assessment
Our BA Drama modules do not have written exams (apart from one technical theatre test). The technical skills you're developing will usually be assessed through tasks such as making a 3D model of a set, designing a costume, or placing mics on a soundstage. Your performance work will be graded, and so will the rehearsal process, capturing your development in the round. You'll also write analytical essays, creative responses, or pieces where you reflect on your own practice in the theatre. You only need to pass your first year and your marks do not form part of your final degree, which makes it the perfect opportunity to take risks and develop as a performer and thinker.

Feedback
You're given constant feedback on your practical work, helping you to deepen your craft as a performer. When it comes to written work, you'll often submit 'formative' work which leads towards your final submission and on which you receive feedback. You'll be supported by an academic adviser, who oversees your whole journey as a Drama student at UEA.

Structure

In your first year, you’ll receive the keys to the kingdom – or rather, the Drama Studio. But you have to earn them first, through an intensive induction course in all aspects of safe studio use. This practical focus continues throughout the year with training in lighting, sound, stage management, workshop skills, costume, and stage design. You’ll take your on-stage skills to the next level in our intensive module on Acting. This will be enriched by your study of plays from across the globe and across time, as you explore how contemporary writers are reimagining or contesting older traditions. In Theatre Now, you’ll encounter the exciting world of contemporary theatre companies, and think about how you might enter that diverse ecosystem. This rich mix culminates at the end of the year with a practical project from a work of modern British theatre.

Teaching and Learning

Teaching
Your Drama tutors combine a wealth of practical experience in all kinds of performance with deep academic knowledge of the history, theory, and contemporary practice of theatre. You'll benefit from visiting artists' workshops and the chance to hear from renowned, award-winning playwrights. You'll hone your practical drama skills in workshops and technical classes, and learn the fundamentals of the actor's craft (such as movement and breath control) in your Acting module. You'll study plays and get to grips with the contemporary theatre landscape in seminars. But at UEA there's no division between 'academic' and 'practical' study of plays – in those seminars, you'll find yourself workshopping parts for performance in order better to understand them!

Independent Learning
You'll spend time doing everything from reading plays to rehearsing parts for the stage to discovering the theatre scene in Norwich, at the same time as benefitting from student-run theatre company, Minotaur, where you can gain even more experience in practical performance. Your technical training will qualify you to work independently in our professionally-equipped Studio.

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Assessment for Year 2

Assessment
You'll continue to be assessed on your practical work in all its forms, whether that's acting, directing, filmmaking, or technical theatre. This year, you’ll have lots of chances to create your own performances. Your writing will be assessed, too, but this year you might also submit creative writing inspired by one of our celebrated scriptwriting workshops. In the Drama Outreach module, the entire process through which you devise your piece in collaboration with a real-world client will form part of your final mark, and you'll write an essay which reflects on that process and evaluates your project's success.

Feedback
Your practical work is constantly enriched by your drama tutors' feedback during rehearsals, and you'll continue to receive advice on 'formative' writing, too. In a scriptwriting workshop, you'll benefit from the constructive critique of your workshop's leader (a published, practising writer), and of your peers. Your collaborative work with a client in the Drama Outreach module will be informed by the regular advice of your drama tutors, and you'll receive feedback from the client at the end.

Structure

By your second year, you’ll be ready to take flight, engaging in practical work in a variety of real-world contexts. This could include schools, hospitals, and local theatre companies. You may also take up an internship with a professional venue or company, in the UK or abroad, and focus intensively on your performance or practical skills. You’ll also have the option to explore what it is to direct and act for the camera, with the intention of drawing out the most exciting and edgy filmic performances. Other options allow you to study drama from the traditional repertoire, like Shakespeare, right up to new, cutting-edge contemporary drama, political and feminist theatre, queer theatre, or technical theatre. You can also try your hand at scriptwriting, under the supervision of our leading creative writers, or branch out into other literature or writing modules.

Teaching and Learning

Teaching
In the second year, you'll continue to explore and discover new areas of practice – including more radical performance modes or forms of political theatre – and you might decide to specialise in areas such as directing, acting, or technical theatre. You'll have a wealth of opportunities to make your own theatre with the support of our staff, including in the Drama Outreach Project, where you'll be mentored through the process of producing a piece of theatre with an organisation such as a school, museum, or charity. If you choose to produce screen work, you'll be mentored by a well-regarded independent filmmaker. If you take a scriptwriting workshop, you'll benefit from the guidance of a published, practising writer.

Independent Learning
As you make theatre and performance work with greater confidence, you'll naturally work with greater independence. This might mean deepening your collaborations with your peers or making solo projects. You might choose to take a supervised industry placement to build up your professional experience, preparing you to enter the working theatre world after you graduate.

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Assessment for Year 3

Assessment
Your rehearsal and technical work throughout the Drama Production module will be continuously assessed by your mentor and the drama tutor who's leading the whole project, and your final performance will be marked and that mark moderated by an external examiner. Your Drama Project will also be assessed and externally moderated to ensure robust fairness and transparency. In the third year, you might find yourself writing reflections on your performances, academic essays, scripts, or pieces of creative-critical writing, where you fuse critical and imaginative writing.

Feedback
As well as constant advice on your practical work as it develops, you'll receive full written feedback on your work in both the Drama Production and Drama Project modules. Written work in your third year – which may also include a choice between research-led seminars or a full-length dissertation in either a creative or a critical mode – continues to be supported by feedback on formative writing.

Structure

Your third year brings together all the skills you’ve developed so far in a major production, centring on a single play or group of plays. You and your peers will work together on all aspects of the production process, from the earliest planning stages, through rehearsal and publicity, to taking your final bow. You’ll also engage in an individual project (often a performance, script, or film), and may opt to write a dissertation (which might be an extended piece of critical analysis or an original script) or to take another specialist module.

Teaching and Learning

Teaching
You'll spend the whole first semester of your third year working as a near-professional theatre company in our Drama Production module. You'll be led by a member of our core Drama teaching team and mentored by professionals in stage management, costume design, singing, set building, movement, and marketing. Elsewhere in the third year, you might find yourself in a creative writing workshop, literature seminar, or working one-on-one with a member of our Drama team on your dissertation (which can take the form of your own original script, if you wish).

Independent Learning
As well as collaborating with drive and passion with your peers in the third-year production, you'll also bring together everything you've learnt across the degree by working independently on a Drama Project (supervised by a member of our Drama team). Recent superb examples have ranged from a documentary on mental health in black communities in London to a piece of solo gig theatre focussed on a woman imprisoned for smuggling drugs, which went on to become the award-winning show HATCH.

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Assessment for Year 1

Compulsory Modules

INTRODUCTION TO WORLD DRAMATIC LITERATURES

Code LDCD4007A

Credits 20

What’s the history of dramatic literatures, and how have ground-breaking plays shaped it? Introduction to World Dramatic Literatures enables you to examine a wide range of influential plays — from comic to tragic, realist to absurd — offering a broad arc of dramatic history. As well as the work of major European dramatists, you will be able to draw on the dramatic literature of Asia, Africa and/or the Americas. You will learn how to analyse playtexts in their historical and aesthetic contexts, observe and discuss performed extracts, and perform in them if desired.

POSTWAR BRITISH DRAMA

Code LDCD4008B

Credits 20

This volatile and rich period after World War II in Britain radically transformed the British Theatre and saw the rise of a number of innovative theatre companies throughout the second half of the twentieth century. You will examine British Theatre in the context of ideas that originated in Europe and Britain at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the 20th. You’ll explore the work of seminal theatre companies, playwrights and directors in the United Kingdom and interrogate the performance styles through the lens of British and European social history through the decades. Through a detailed examination of dramatic texts, video clips, memoirs, journal articles and newspaper clippings, as well as practical workshops and participatory performances of work from the period under scrutiny, you’ll explore all aspects of theatrical performance from design to direction.

APPLIED DRAMA AND TECHNICAL SKILLS

Code LDCD4016A

Credits 20

A mixture of workshops, seminars, physical skills, technical classes, aiming to begin the process of training in all areas related to the delivery of an intelligent performance. You will learn to work together in drama through exercises and through improvisation and on text. You will also be introduced to the second level of Responsible Person training (‘RP2’) through weekly classes in technical disciplines (you will normally choose 2 from: Sound, Lighting, Costume, Design, Stage Management, Workshop Skills, Meisner Work).

THEATRE: THEORY AND PERFORMANCE

Code LDCD4017B

Credits 20

You'll investigate theories of theatre through the reading and discussion of key theoretical texts, and through practical workshops exploring voice, movement and performance processes, while continuing elements of the technical skills training begun in Semester 1.

THEATRE NOW

Code LDCD4019A

Credits 20

You'll explore innovative contemporary theatre and performance companies. By watching shows, taking part in seminar discussions, and taking part in practical workshops, you'll discover how contemporary theatre-makers are reimagining the artform. You'll get to know the wide variety of theatre in Norwich and work with a visiting artist.

Optional A Modules

(20 credits)

SCRIPTWRITING AND PERFORMANCE

Code LDCD4004B

Credits 20

This is an introduction to yourself as a writer, and to the process of giving and receiving criticism to and from your fellow writers. Through a series of writing exercises, readings and discussions, key dramatic skills are inculcated and practised, leading to the production of a short, but complete script.

ACTING: WORKING WITH PLAYS

Code LDCD4020B

Credits 20

This module proposes to offer a foundational exploration of acting techniques, that anticipates and prefigures a fuller experience in 2nd year modules such as LDCD5016A, LDCD5055A and LDCD5060B and LDCD5054B. A mixture of technical exercises and approaches to text will present students with formative vocabularies and experiences of acting that will enhance their engagement and confidence in 2nd year modules and beyond. The intersection between the actor’s psycho-physical readiness and their understanding of a text is fundamental to the tradition of Western theatre training and practice. The implications of this intersection for an actor or director are profound, whether the genre of performance is in the naturalistic spectrum or not. This is also the context in which we can consider other modes of performance than those most familiar to us.. This module will: Challenge preconceived and received notions of what is necessary to effective acting, and invite students to recalibrate their approach to representing human experience on stage or on film. Equip students with tools for reading dramatic texts, so as to mine the writing for the information that will nourish that incarnation. Equip students to express themselves in a variety of modes, readying the physical instrument in parallel to the analytical instrument. Develop the first layers of technique and confidence to stand on a stage, to be heard and be seen, and thereby to reveal what is truly human about the theatrical moment. Enable them to feel at home on the large stage of the Main Studio, working with one another, seeing one another demonstrate different modes of behaviour on that stage, guided in different genres of performance with different playwrights’ texts. Textual reference points include but are not limited to: Shakespeare, Chekhov, Hellman, Miller, Beckett, Williams, Pinter, Churchill, Mamet, Baker, Kane Critical and theoretical reference points will include but not be limited to: Stanislavski, Artaud, Brecht, Littlewood, Bogart, Berry, Berkoff, Gonsalves, Lehmann. Is the fictive cosmos conducive to the presence of the actor or antagonistic to it? What is an aside, or a soliloquy? Can Wilde and Orton be played using Stanislavskian principles? What do Alienation, or meta-text, or meta-performance imply about the role of the audience and their relationship to the performer? The module will assess students, both formatively and summatively, via text reading, acting exercises and rehearsed scenework. Written reports on performances and reflective writing will complement a portfolio of practical work.

WRITING TEXTS

Code LDCL4020B

Credits 20

In this module theories of literature and experiments in writing will intersect. In weekly lectures and seminar discussions, and through the reading of a carefully curated dossier of essays, you’ll explore important questions about writing and literature. What is the difference between writing and speaking? What is a literary text and how does it differ from non-literary texts? What is the relationship between the act of reading and the act of writing? How is a literary text influenced by other texts? You’ll also become confident in carrying out your own textual experiments and trying out a range of creative rewriting exercises on existing texts. In this you might explore modes of adaptation and translation, try out different ways of writing to constraint, play literary-generative games such as cut-up technique, as well as undertake a variety of textual interventions and experiments. You’ll be encouraged to hack existing literary texts and rewrite them to your own purpose. You’ll take texts apart and put them back together differently. Through specially-designed writing exercises you will gain new insights into a variety of approaches to writing and literature. Your encounters with literary-theoretical texts will likewise cast new light on the writing process and the ways in which the text produced relates to textual theories. By the end of the module you’ll have gained a keen understanding of how texts work. This will make you a better reader and writer. You’ll also become confident in stepping back and thinking about your own writing critically.

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Important Information

Whilst the University will make every effort to offer the modules listed, changes may sometimes be made arising from the annual monitoring and review of modules. Where this activity leads to significant change to a programme and modules, the University will endeavour to consult with affected students. The University may not be able to offer a module for reasons outside of its control, such as the illness of a member of staff. Availability of optional modules may be restricted owing to timetabling, lack of demand, or limited places. Where this is the case, you will be asked to make alternative module choices and you will be supported during this process.

Students must select 60 credits in semester 1 and 40 credits in semester 2.

Assessment for Year 2

Compulsory Modules

DRAMA OUTREACH PROJECT

Code LDCD5018B

Credits 20

You will take part in group practical applied theatre work which entails public performance and delivery of interactive events to target audiences in the community or on campus..

Optional A Modules

(20-40 credits)

EXPERIMENTS IN PERFORMANCE

Code LDCD5020A

Credits 20

In this module you will examine the development of experimental theatre and performance from its foundations in the late 19th century avant-garde to the present. You will address key experimental movements in their artistic contexts (including development, adaptation and theory) and assess how they produced radical new theatre and also shaped the production of the existing repertoire. As well as developing analytical skills in the field of theatre and performance, you will be introduced to experimental approaches to acting through physical investigation and reflection on modes of training. Applications from Visiting Students on Theatre degree programmes may be considered.

POLITICAL THEATRE

Code LDCD5025B

Credits 20

How can theatre change the world? You'll attempt to find out by examining the use of theatre and performance by theatre artists and activists to challenge power and create the possibility of change. You’ll look at political theatre in the USA, South America, South Africa, and Europe in the 20th century and beyond; week by week you will encounter plays, writers, performers, and theorists and build up your own toolkit of political theatre. You’ll also create short plays and performance works, and take part in forum theatre, dance, stagings, and events which will enhance your political and theatrical understanding. You will be assessed through writing a short play, a sustained comparative essay, and an original performance work. Themes studied might include feminism, LGBTQ theatre, anti-racism, and Marxism. You will debate, create, and study and emerge having found your own voice as a political theatre-maker.

FEMINIST THEATRES

Code LDCD5058A

Credits 20

Module Description What was the feminist theatre movement and what does it mean for you now as a writer, theatre maker and/or scholar? Feminist Theatre allows you to explore key feminist theatre makers from the Suffrage movement to the present, focusing on radical companies and writers of the 1970s and 1980s. Combining seminars and practical workshops, you will investigate what feminist historiography is and how you can engage creatively with archives. The module invites you to draw on a lineage of feminist ideas and methods to consider and challenge the continued under representation of women in theatre (and beyond). Assessment will be part analytical and part creative or creative-critical work, with an option to create a performance. All welcome! No need to identify as a woman or feminist to take part.

SHAKESPEARE (PRE-1789)

Code LDCL5070B

Credits 20

The aim of this lecture-seminar module is to help you become a better reader of Shakespearean drama. Shakespeare is now so universally known and read that it is easy to forget that he wrote at a specific historical moment for specific audiences, actors and theatrical spaces. What happens to our understanding of Shakespeare's plays when we read them within the context of theatrical performance? This is what our module enables you to do -- and in doing so, it aims to give you fresh, new ways to interpret Shakespearean language and theatricality. Lectures equip you with methods and contexts for reading Shakespeare's plays; seminars give you the chance to put these into practice through close, attentive readings of his plays. Each week we study a different play in detail. The summative assessment asks you to put what you've been learning into practice by writing a critical analysis of more than one play using some of the module's methods.

Optional B Modules

(40-60 credits)

SCRIPTWRITING: STAGE/RADIO

Code LDCC5015B

Credits 20

Scriptwriting: Stage/Radio deepens your ability to create and understand dramatic texts, through exercises in writing drama and the analysis of a range of plays and/or radio scripts. In this module you’ll explore different forms and styles and your work will receive feedback from both the tutor and your peers. Your first assignment will be a portfolio of shorter pieces, and then you’ll write a play or radio drama of up to 30 minutes length. The course is hands-on, inspiring and practical, and you’ll be writing every week.

SCRIPTWRITING: TV/FILM

Code LDCC5016A

Credits 20

Scriptwriting: TV/FIlm deepens your ability to create and understand dramatic texts, through exercises in writing drama and the analysis of a range of screenplays for film and TV. In this module you’ll explore different forms and styles and your work will receive feedback from both the tutor and your peers. Your first assignment will be a portfolio of shorter pieces, and then you’ll write a screenplay of up to 30 minutes length. The course is hands-on, inspiring and practical, and you’ll be writing every week.

SCRIPTWRITING: TV/FILM

Code LDCC5016B

Credits 20

SCRIPTWRITING: SCREEN AND STAGE

Code LDCC5017A

Credits 20

Scriptwriting develops your ability to create and understand dramatic texts, through exercises in writing drama and the analysis of a range of plays and/or film scripts. In this module you’ll explore different forms and styles and your work will receive feedback from both the tutor and your peers. Your first assignment will be a portfolio of shorter pieces, and then you’ll write a play, radio drama or screenplay of up to 30 minutes length. The course is hands-on, inspiring and practical, and you’ll be writing every week.

SCRIPTWRITING: SCREEN AND STAGE

Code LDCC5017B

Credits 20

PERFORMANCE SKILLS: THE ACTOR AND THE TEXT

Code LDCD5016A

Credits 20

What is the actor’s relationship with the text? If the spoken word is a window into a character’s inner world what does the actor need to do to bring that inner landscape to life? This creatively challenging Module will give the developing actor a tangible set of tools with which to approach the text. Whether it be verse or prose the module aims to bring the spoken word to life not just through the voice but through the whole body. We will get inside the words in order to experience their visceral nature, in order to release their energy so as to understand why certain words have been chosen over others, why certain rhythms and sounds create particular kinds of character. The Module will encourage connection and spontaneity in the performer whist marrying this vitality with rigorous text analysis. We are aiming to create pro-active performers who are in charge of their own craft and can bring a character to life through a vocal, textual and psychophysical approach. The Module will be an exciting journey towards finding autonomy and artistic intuition in the art of interpreting Dramatic texts. The main methods of study will be through: (1) individual performance of poems and speeches, (2) scene classes and duologues (3) character study of roles in a variety of plays.

PRACTICAL FILM MAKING AND PERFORMANCE

Code LDCD5054B

Credits 20

You will, primarily, undertake practical film-making activities in which you will begin to explore the craft of screen-writing, directing, shooting, and editing through the process of making your own short films. In each assigned task you will take on a variety of different roles in order to attain a basic understanding of different aspects of the medium. This will help you get a sense of what area of production you feel most drawn to and may want to pursue after completing the Module. As well as gaining hands on experience of the film process you will also be given the opportunity to experiment with performance in order to discover acting styles appropriate for the camera.

DIRECTING

Code LDCD5061A

Credits 20

A theoretical and practical introduction to directing theatre, musicals, opera and performance. Through the module the students will discuss the role of the director in different performance modes. This will include an examination of this role historically and how it has developed in different performance traditions. The course will look at different directing practices with an eventual focus on directing spoken word theatre. The course will critique the different theories of directing as well as critique the role of the Director as conceptualised by acting theory. However, it will seek to develop individual talents rather than hand on a given methodology, and to speak to the skills and interests of each individual in the group. The role of the contemporary director is often elided with that of the Creative Producer. We will look at what a Producer might do that is distinct from Directing. The intellectual and theoretical basis for a Director’s work is often based in intuitive responses to a given work. The module will look at the work of different directors, examine their working methods and look at the thought underpinning this practice. Each week will combine theoretical study with practical application. Directing is essentially a very practical activity based in complex cognitive processes. The module will reflect this synthesis

TECHNICAL THEATRE

Code LDCD5062B

Credits 20

An exploration of the core disciplines of Technical Theatre introduced in 1st year RP2, this module bridges the gap between that basic induction and the demands of the 3rd year Production and Projects, in which the majority of Drama students will take part. The module will focus on core matters of Technical Theatre: Stage Management, Lighting Design/Operation, Sound Design/Operation, Set Design/Construction. It will include reference and introductions to Audio-Visual tech, radio mic work, the development of technical equipment, industry standards, safety standards, and professional working practice. It will also include engagement with theoretical, historical and conceptual work around technologies, design and scenography. Through practice and analysis, students will engage with the artistic aspects of technical theatre, and the role of design in expressing a theatrical vision. The work will happen mostly in and around the Main Studio, where the students will deepen their familiarity with the in-house technical set-up. Some parts of the course will explore small-scale technical set-ups in a range of spaces on and possibly off campus. The module will potentially include short work experience placements, shadowing and/or assisting in other venues, with reporting on professional practice in those places to be part of a portfolio assessment. The divergence of working environments and practice will broaden the students’ experience and readiness to work confidently outside the familiar studios on campus.  The teaching will be primarily delivered by our in-house technicians, Rob Little and Chad Mason, with the possible assistance of an AT, offering an additional skillset, and, hopefully, the reinstated Grad Technician. Visits to other venues will supplement the students’ learning. Learning Outcomes are to: · Consolidate and existing knowledge and place it in a more secure and professional frame of reference · Deepen the confidence of the student to embark upon, plan and execute technical solutions in a wide variety of working environments, including small scale and touring theatre. · Deepen students’ understanding of the role of design in creating a theatrical vision, from historical, conceptual and theoretical perspectives. · Understand technical theatre design principles in contemporary professional contexts and employ those principles in their work. · Develop a confident working flexibility to innovate and improvise technical solutions whilst operating within professional and safety protocols. The module will derive part of its assessment regime from work with one or more of the following: Outreach projects; Post War production; Special Topic in Drama Level 5; and possibly non-UEA projects happening off-campus in a partner venue, such as Sewell Barn or Norwich Theatre.

Optional C Modules

(0-20 credits)

CRITICAL THEORY AND PRACTICE

Code LDCL5031A

Credits 20

This is a module you will find helpful throughout your degree, informing and perhaps changing the way you read and analyse literature, film and other cultural forms. Across the twelve weeks, you’ll not only engage with the rich, complex and provocative work of literary critics and theorists – including deconstructive, feminist, post-colonial and queer theorists – but also of some of the thinkers and writers who have influenced them: such as Marx, Freud and Saussure. You will therefore encounter some of the most important and exciting thinkers of the modern period, acquiring an understanding of developments in linguistics, economics, psychoanalysis and philosophy, and tracing the ways in which these overlap with, and inform, literary and cultural study.

EUROPEAN LITERATURE

Code LDCL5033B

Credits 20

In this module, you’ll examine examples of twentieth-century European writing (all read in translation). Rather than (merely) place writers in their national contexts, you’ll deal with topics, issues and formal experiments that complicate, sometimes transcend, national boundaries. In fact you’ll interrogate what 'European' might mean in relation to literature - where are the borders? Are continental Europeans fundamentally 'other'? And if so, how does this otherness manifest itself aesthetically, thematically, tonally and formally? You'll look at how writers from different countries frequently challenge the conventions of genre and the conventions of reading and interpreting. Among a range of important innovations (or continuities), you may explore varieties of 'European' modernism, postmodernism, the absurd, fantasy, noir, and other genres. You’ll also ask how European writers have responded to the challenges, upheavals and catastrophes of the twentieth century and how they deal with the ethnic, religious and cultural diversity of Europe.

ROMANTICISM 1780-1840

Code LDCL5034B

Credits 20

1780-1840 was the Age of Revolution and Romanticism, often regarded as a revolutionary style of writing. It was the age of the American and French Revolution and the Wars they entailed, the age of slavery and rebellion, of travel, exploration and the beginning of the later nineteenth-century British empire. You may think of Romantic writing as mainly nature poetry, primarily work by Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, and Byron. But the signs of a ‘Romantic’ sensibility can also be found in a much broader constituency of writing: the novel, letter writing, the essay, political and aesthetic theory, and social commentary. In this module you’ll be introduced to some of the most exciting Romantic period writing, including poetry, fiction and non-fictional prose. You’ll also explore key period artistic and literary concepts such as the sublime, beautiful, picturesque, the Hellenic, and pastoral, and you’ll analyse the many ways in which the writers of the period exploited concepts of landscape. You will look at issues such as the Supernatural and Dreaming. Your understanding of Romantic writing will be enhanced by an analysis of aesthetics, politics, and of the work of women writers. During the course you’ll explore poetry by Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley, as well as Jane Austen’s novel Mansfield Park (1816) and Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein (1818; 1831). You may also consider writings by poets, such as John Clare, Charlotte Smith, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Mary Robinson, as well as prose works by Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine and Mary Wollstonecraft and others. You’ll look at how writing is gendered in the period and the implications of this for both male and female writers. You’ll be taught through a mixture of one-hour weekly lectures and two-hour weekly seminars, as well as self-directed study. You’ll gain experience in communicating your ideas in tutorials, as well as through written work and presentations. You’ll be assessed through two formative pieces (a close reading and a project bibliography) and one summative piece on a project chosen by yourself in discussion with your seminar tutors.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY WRITING (PRE-1789)

Code LDCL5041A

Credits 20

In this module you will explore how words open out onto worlds in eighteenth-century literature. We begin by reading Samuel Johnson's Preface from his monumental Dictionary of the English Language in relation to a selection from David Dabydeen's novel Johnson's Dictionary. In the opening week, we'll see how paying close attention to language can help us think about the enrtwinement of eighteenth-century literature with exploration, empire, and enslavement. The first half of the module focuses on texts about people, real or imagined, who travel across geographical and cultural boundaries. The writers in the first half will include authors such as Jonathan Swift, who wrote the fictional travelogue Gulliver's Travels, Oliver Goldsmith, who impersonated a Chinese visitor to London in his series of essays The Citizen of the World, and Samson Occom, the first Native American writer to publish an autobiography. While the first half of the module focuses on the wider world, the second half of the module focuses on the inner world of the mind. We will read texts like the Gothic novelist Ann Radcliffe's A Siclian Romance alongside the poetry of Anne Finch, Alexander Pope, and Phillis Wheatley, the first African American writer to publish a volume of poetry. In this part of the module, we will see how writers investigate the workings of the mind using the resources of literary form and trace the connections between the mind and the wide world. We conclude with the writings of the Black British writer Ignatius Sancho, whose letters are full of observations on eighteenth-century literature, and who will help us reflect on how we might read the literature of the eighteenth century today. By taking this module, you’ll be reading a range of exciting texts that will expand your sense of what literature can do. You’ll also gain sharpened analytical and research skills that will help you see significant textual patterns in texts and trace connections between literary texts and the larger world in which they move. You'll also read texts that will help you understand the history of women's writing and you'll be introduced to the beginnings of Native American and Black writing in English. The module fulfils the pre-1789 requirement.

SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY WRITING: RENAISSANCE AND REVOLUTION (PRE-1789)

Code LDCL5042A

Credits 20

In this module, you’ll discover a huge variety of writing from one of Britain's most exciting and turbulent periods of cultural, political and intellectual transformation: the seventeenth century. We begin by exploring how English literature was formed out of its encounters with classical texts and how women established a place for their writing within English literary culture for the first time. In the centre of the module, we discover how seventeenth-century people wrote about their encounters with other cultures, whether as travellers to the Ottoman Empire (which stretched across the Middle East), or as colonists meeting Native Americans in Massachusetts. In the module's latter section, we ask how literature was transformed by the tumultuous upheavals of the English civil war and the execution of the monarch, events which have sent shockwaves through the centuries which still resonate today. The modules’ themes come together in the study of Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko, one of the first novels and a pioneering work of women’s writing, which tells the terrible story of an African prince who was enslaved in Surinam. Authors we study include famous figures such as Ben Jonson and John Milton (including a look at his masterpiece, Paradise Lost), as well as many lesser-known writers, including women such as Lucy Hutchinson and Hester Pulter, or the astonishing Turkish travel writer, Evliya Çelebi. The module works through lectures, which establish larger questions we might ask of the week's material, and seminars, in which we read passages of texts together closely.

MODERNISM

Code LDCL5045A

Credits 20

The modernist movement transformed literature and the arts worldwide in the early part of the 20th century, peaking in the period between 1918 and 1939. Although the term modernism was rarely used by authors in this period, in the period after World War II it became the usual term to describe a group of writers, responding to one another, whose work is characterised by radical experiments with language and form, which aimed to do justice to a range of many subjects such as the mysteries of consciousness and the unconscious, gender, sexuality, and desire, violence and democracy, the primitive and the mechanical. We will be reading a range of authors, including such long-canonised figures as James Joyce, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, HD, Gertrude Stein, and Virginia Woolf, but expanding the modernist canon in the light of recent scholarship to other more recently revived authors such as Djuna Barnes, Mina Loy, Dorothy Richardson, and Jean Rhys. We will trace some of the origins of modernism in earlier literary movements such as Symbolism, Imagism, Aestheticism, and Impressionism, and explore its kinship with foreign literary movements such as Dada and Surrealism. Modernism invented modern methods of criticism and we will be placing a particular emphasis on the close reading of poetry and poetic prose. A study of modernism is essential for understanding all 20th century literature and this module is highly recommended for any students wishing to take any modules in 20th-century literature.

MEDIEVAL WRITING (PRE-1789)

Code LDCL5063A

Credits 20

To read medieval writing is to encounter otherness, to engage with a culture (really a variety of cultures) that at times seems familiar, recognizable, yet which repeatedly reminds us of its difference and distance from us. When a huge and intimidating green knight enters King Arthur’s court at Camelot and issues his challenge, he is disturbing not because he is entirely alien, but because he is alike enough to unsettle the court’s sense of identity. The fourteenth-century poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, one of the most complex and challenging works of literature ever written, might serve as a metaphor for our experience of medieval writing, and of the language in which it is written: Middle English. It is strangely familiar. Yet through the experience of otherness we find our multiple identities, and in studying Medieval Writing you will (re)discover the genres and modes that have shaped our literary histories: lyric, comedy, tragedy, romance, allegory, satire, historiography, autobiography and fantasy, to name but a few. The module is configured along the themes of ‘pilgrimage, travellers and exiles’, which allows us to understand the diverse forms of interaction — real and imagined — between European and non-European cultures: military, religious, and mercantile exchanges, for example. You will discover a culture of dazzling intellectual richness and variety that will dispel any lazily pejorative modern clichés about the term ‘medieval’. And you will be given the tools to make those discoveries – in addition to learning how to read Middle English, you will learn about the materiality of medieval texts (e.g. how to understand manuscripts), and of the historical coordinates of those texts: the Black Death, the Peasants’ Revolt, religious persecution, the feudal system and its decline. Whether it’s the cosmopolitan intellectual brilliance of Chaucer, the fantastic realities of Arthurian romance, the autobiography of Margery Kempe, the travel writing of Sir John Mandeville, or the ethical dilemmas posed by the Gawain-poet, Medieval Writing has something for you.

VICTORIAN WRITING

Code LDCL5067B

Credits 20

This module aims to equip you with a knowledge of writing from across the Victorian period, in a variety of modes (fiction, poetry, science, journalism, criticism, nonsense). We will examine authors such as George Eliot, Tennyson, Dickens, Darwin, Charlotte Bronte, and the Brownings. You will thus develop an awareness of how different kinds of writing in the period draw on, influence, and contest with each other. Likewise, you will acquire a sense for the cultural, political and socio-economic contexts of 19th-century writing, and some of the material contexts in which that writing took place (serial publication, popular readership, periodical writing, public controversy).

CONTEMPORARY FICTION

Code LDCL5069B

Credits 20

What is the state of the art of the novel at present? And what are some of the distinguishing preoccupations and characteristics of the contemporary novel? This module seeks to consider these questions with a view to developing an understanding of the condition of the novel today. The module focuses on fiction published in the UK and Ireland in the last ten years, with a particular focus on more inventive writing. We’ll read a small set of contemporary novels, the content and form of each of which will exemplify some of the possibilities for fiction in the present day. We’ll consider the relation between the contemporary novel and the contemporary moment – for example, our concerns regarding the environment, identity, nationhood, and history – and think also about what it might mean to be or to call oneself contemporary: to be together with one’s own time. The list of authors chosen for the module changes regularly, as you would expect. Recently, it has included the likes of Ali Smith, Zadie Smith, Deborah Levy and Kamila Shamsie. You’ll consider a range of ways of conceiving and interpreting the contemporary novel, and discuss these ways with your peers. There is no consensus about what does or should constitute a canon of contemporary fiction, although there is a growing critical literature on the subject, some of which we’ll read. It will be our job, in lectures and in seminars, to think carefully about what novels published in the last ten years offer the best argument for the continued viability of the novel itself as a contemporary art form.

SHAKESPEARE (PRE-1789)

Code LDCL5070B

Credits 20

EMPIRE AND AFTER: GLOBALIZING ENGLISH

Code LDCL5079A

Credits 20

In this module you will study literary practice within the context of the British Empire, and the political and cultural responses to it. It will enable you to understand the role of literature in imperialism, colonization and decolonization, how it both shaped and was shaped by these large historical forces, and how we might account for the continuing presence of these forces on the world today. The module will introduce you to the theoretical and conceptual apparatus of postcolonial literary studies and to some of the most important ideas for understanding the formation of the modern world, such as race and racism, nations and nationalism, colonial discourse and postcolonial theory, and how gender and sexuality were pivotal in the formation of colonial and post-colonial identities. Beginning with canonical works by British writers from the eighteenth century through the nineteenth and into the twentieth centuries, the module will then consider literary and political responses to the experience of empire and colonization by writers from South Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Australasia, and the Americas. The module will discuss writers such as Daniel Defoe, Joseph Conrad, Chinua Achebe, Jean Rhys, Tsitsi Dangarembga, VS Naipaul, Amitav Ghosh, Kate Grenville, J.M Coetzee and Tessa McWatt.

LITERATURE STUDIES SEMESTER ABROAD (SPRING)

Code LDCL5081B

Credits 60

A semester spent at a university abroad with the approval of the School. Students interested in European universities should see the Erasmus exchange modules. In all instances you must consult with Study Abroad Office.

Optional D Modules

(0-20 credits)

TRANSATLANTIC LITERATURES

Code AMAL5081A

Credits 20

This module will explore the diversity and histories of literatures emerging from transatlantic crossings and exchange. Taught through a lecture circus format, it will draw on the research expertise of colleagues in both AMA and LDC, in order to demonstrate the breadth of the Transatlantic as both a geography and an imaginary. Materials will include literary responses to the Middle Passage of the Atlantic slave trade, writing from the Caribbean, the work of writers whose careers took them from America to Paris—or from London to New York—and transatlantic literary networks. Each lecture will be given by a different academic, based on their own areas of research, and include Q&A's on how they conceive of the Transatlantic as a critical concept and constellation, and as a crucial site for understanding decolonisation.

ARTS AND HUMANITIES PLACEMENT MODULE

Code HUM-5004B

Credits 20

This module will provide you with the opportunity work within a creative/cultural/charity/ heritage/media or other appropriate organisation in order to apply the skills you are developing through your degree to the working world and to develop your knowledge of employment sectors within which you may wish to work in the future. The module emphasises industry experience, sector awareness and personal development through a structured reflective learning experience. Having sourced and secured your own placement (with support from Careers Central), you work within your host organisation undertaking tasks that will help you to gain a better understanding of professional practices within your chosen sector. Taught sessions enable you to acquire knowledge of both the industries in which you are placed as well as focusing on personal and professional development germane to the sector. Your assessment tasks will provide you with an opportunity to critically reflect on the creative and cultural sector in which you have worked as well as providing opportunities to undertake presentations, gather evidence, and articulate your newly acquired skills and experiences.

LGBT AND BEYOND: SEXUAL CULTURES, QUEER IDENTITIES, AND THE POLITICS OF DESIRE

Code HUM-5007A

Credits 20

How do notions of gender and sexuality shape culture, and how are in turn our understanding and experiences of gender and sexuality shaped by cultural production? How important are other times, places and identifications – associated with class, race, ethnicity – to these understandings and experiences? And to what extent can a film, an image, a testimony, or a place capture such complexity? Addressing these questions from an interdisciplinary approach, the aim of the module is to explore the ways in which gender and sexuality are constituted through a broad array of experiences, practices, and cultural products. The module focuses on issues raised in classical and contemporary research in history, politics, media, cultural studies and visual cultures such as: representation and cultural production; subjectivity; identity; identification; bodies and embodiment; performance and performativity; among others. Overall, by exploring theory in conjunction with queer cultural production that explores questions of power, identity, and desire across different racial, national, and cultural landscapes, the module aims to problematise how gender and sexuality are not stable identities or classifications but are instead processes involving normalisations, hierarchies and relations of domination that can be challenged, troubled and/or queered.

VIDEOGAMES: THEORY, PRACTICE, AND RECEPTION

Code HUM-5008B

Credits 20

This module offers students the opportunity to develop a comprehensive understanding of the cultural, political, and economic contexts of the videogames industry, and the techniques and principles used in game design. The module will give an overview of the key academic debates from video game history from production to reception, considering the current state of the industry, issues of representation in games, and study of games culture within a broader context. The module will provide students with the opportunity to play and critique a variety of games hardware and software. In addition, the module provides an understanding of hardware platforms and software tools used in the creation of videogames, making use of UEA's Media Suite to offer a practice-based component to aid in the understanding of the principles behind games development. Students will be able to learn entry level games design practices. No previous experience of coding or games development is required to undertake the module, just an interest in the subject.

MAKING IT PUBLIC: PUBLISHING, AUDIENCE, & CREATIVE ENTERPRISE

Code HUM-5013B

Credits 20

What does it mean to publish, which, from the Middle French ‘publier’ means ‘to make public, to make known, to make famous’? How do you do it? This module will provide you with an introduction. With support from live project examples from UEA Publishing Project (UPP) and practical resources provided by the Media Suite, this module will help you acquire the basic skills for designing and publishing your own short publication; a book, a magazine, a fanzine, audiobook, or podcast. It will also act as preparation for internships available with UPP the following academic year, for those interested in pursuing them. In seminars you will learn what it takes to be a successful editor, and, by considering issues of readership, marketing, promotion, finance, scheduling, and copyright law, you will know how to successfully plan and manage your project. You will be introduced different kinds of publishing —commercial, independent, DIY, and digital — and gain understanding of editorial roles and processes, the ins-and-outs of pre-production, and the best way to market and publicise your creative product. Students will also have the opportunity to attend the annual London Book Fair.

CREATIVE WRITING: INTRODUCTION (SPR)

Code LDCC5004B

Credits 20

Have you ever wondered what it means to write creatively? Or how you might articulate what Zadie Smith calls ‘your way of being in the world’? Together we’ll address these questions. You’ll explore the work of some of the finest writers in the world, while also receiving clear guidance on how you might bring shape to the promptings of your imagination. This module will get you writing prose fiction and/or poetry. While there is no single, authorised way to write, there are things worth knowing about. You’ll discover some of these things in class; others you’ll pick up through being alert to what you have read and the way in which it functions. The most important thing, however, is to discover your own way of doing things. What drives you to capture a certain moment, or tell a certain story in a certain way? That’s what we'll be aiming for. Along the way you’ll develop an understanding of the craft of writing – the technical nuts & bolts – while acquiring the disciplines necessary to being a writer - observation, drafting, and submitting to deadlines. You'll be guided through a series of themes and concepts that go to the heart of creative writing, from voice and structure, to imagery and form. You'll generate material throughout the course, both through guided exercises and private study. Very often you'll be asked to write about ‘what you know’, drawing on notebooks, memory, family stories, your sensory impressions. In prose you will go on to look at such things as character, dialogue, point-of-view, ‘showing’ versus ‘telling’, plotting, etc. In poetry, there will be an exploration of the possibilities of pattern and form, sound, voice, imagery, and rhythm. By the end of the course you’ll have developed a body of work to call your own and a sense of what it means and what it takes to write seriously.

THE WRITING OF JOURNALISM (AUT)

Code LDCC5013A

Credits 20

What kinds of writing skills produce great journalism? This question is essential to creating powerful journalism and it’s a central concern of this module. The Writing of Journalism enables you to develop a critical awareness of the skills and structures involved in creating effective journalism. You’ll consider a range of journalistic forms and find out how best to nurture and develop your own writing. You'll have the opportunity to explore the ways in which journalistic writing works – its contexts, its demands, and its inventiveness. This will enable us to approach journalism as a discourse with its own conventions, practices, and ideologies. This module is concerned with journalism as a practice, and a genre. As such, it involves discussion, peer-workshops, and practical experience of reading and writing news and feature articles. In addition to writing your own journalism, you will examine journalistic writing and critical work concerning the craft, in order to probe and challenge your own ideas and assumptions about the practice and production of this writing form. Rather than see the practice of journalism and the critical study of journalism as distinct activities, this module aims to engage you as critical readers and writers whose work is informed by both contexts. In so doing, you’ll gain a greater understanding of the demands and conventions of journalistic writing, develop and sharpen your own work, and gain the discursive flexibility which will allow you to navigate the writing of journalism today.

READING AND WRITING IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND (PRE-1789)

Code LDCL5062B

Credits 20

In this module we will study some of the most important poetry and prose of the English Renaissance, including masterpieces by Christopher Marlowe, Sir Philip Sidney, and Edmund Spenser, as well as Shakespeare's early narrative poetry (not covered on the Shakespeare module). We will be studying these writers in a unique way. Behind this great outpouring of Elizabethan writing lay a vibrant literary culture which valued rhetoric, argument, elaborate and often playful self-presentation, and which insisted that good reading helped you to develop an individual style as a writer. In response to your reading of Renaissance literature, you will put the tenets of this culture into practice, building up over the course of the module a collection of short pieces of writing in prose (or sometimes, if you wish, poetry). When reading Sidney's ground breaking 'Defence of Poetry', for instance, you might draw on his rhetorical and argumentative techniques to write your own defence of any modern art form of your choice. Or when looking at the way Thomas Nashe plays with the form of his printed books you might have the opportunity to experiment with innovative ways of presenting your own writing to its readers. Revised versions of these short pieces of writing, built up across the module, constitute your summative assessment. This module allows you to think critically in genres other than conventional academic essays, and in doing so aims to foster connections between critical and creative writing. You will have the chance to develop more confidence and self-awareness as a writer and critic through studying some of the greatest English literature.

WORDS AND IMAGES

Code LDCL5068A

Credits 20

The module will explore the relationship between words and images in contemporary literature. It will cover what is meant by reading images, examine the varying but related stories that words and pictures tell, and analyse the narrative techniques employed in illustrated texts. As well as developing a critical vocabulary with which to discuss how these two media can be combined, the module will survey shifts in the generic conventions of such literature over the last few decades so that students will develop an awareness of the various narrative techniques utilised by the medium. Rather than assuming comics, graphic novels, and picture books are simplistic, debased or ‘low-brow’, the module aims to address the medium as a site of exciting and innovative literary and artistic experimentation. Students will also have the chance to carry out their own creative work in the genre.

LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY

Code LDCL5072A

Credits 20

This module will offer a series of different approaches to the question of how Literature and Philosophy can speak to each other as academic disciplines, demonstrating the breadth and diversity of the two fields, as well as acquainting students with the research in literary criticism and philosophy currently being pursued at UEA. As well as examining the ways in which literature can illuminate and trouble philosophical argument, it will explore literature and 'the literary' as a topic for philosophical analysis, and the kinds of thinking such a topic would demand. Setting literature and philosophy into dialogue in this way will engender a more capacious understanding of the particular philosophical issues, and literary techniques, under discussion. The course will allow students to develop an awareness of the limits and advantages of various modes of literary and philosophical expression, and to foster more sophisticated skills in both literary and philosophical criticism. The module will be made up of a lecture circus, with two weeks given to each lecturer on a particular topic related to their current research (there will be five in all, including a lecture from the module convener, plus two from Philosophy and two from Literature, Drama and Creative Writing). The seminars will discuss issues arising from these lectures, working with texts set by the lecturer.

READING AND WRITING CONTEMPORARY POETRY

Code LDCL5073B

Credits 20

Using the reading and study of poetry from the post-war context up to the present day, you'll consider some of the concerns of poetry, including voice, form/structure and the 'poetry of witness'. You'll also look at contemporary visual art to consider correspondences between the arts. The poets studied will be drawn principally from an Anglo-American tradition and may include such writers as Frank O'Hara, Adrienne Rich, Yusef Komunyakaa, Carol Ann Duffy, Carolyn Forché, Patience Agbabi and Hannah Silva among others. Formative work includes creating a mini-anthology of contemporary poetry and there will be the chance to discuss poems you've written or read. You'll be able to write creatively and/or critically for assessment.

THE SHORT STORY (AUT)

Code LDCL5074A

Credits 20

What is a short story? What do short story writers have to say? What about short story critics and theorists? Is the short story a narrative in miniature? Or is there more to a short story than simply being 'short'? And why are critics so concerned with whether the short story is alive or dead? These are the kind of questions this module will investigate by asking you to think as a short story reader, theorist, critic and writer. Reading will be drawn from short story writers - and writing about the short story - roughly spanning the 19th century to the present, and from a range of cultural contexts. Our interest will not be to establish a history of the short story, but instead to explore the range of thematic preoccupations, changing definitions, and critical debates surrounding the form, including its political and ideological perspectives. You will have the opportunity to respond to these questions in critical and/or creative forms of assessment. Writers studied might include Edgar Allan Poe, Katherine Mansfield, Julio Cortazar, Anton Chekov, Ali Smith and Ryunosuke Aqutagawa. This list is suggestive only.

THE WRITING OF HISTORY

Code LDCL5077A

Credits 20

What makes a good history essay? What makes a good literary critical essay? How are they different? How do the disciplines of History and English Literature approach argument and evidence, narration and description? What are the generic, formal and stylistic expectations that govern academic writing in each of these disciplines? Some version of these questions will have occurred to any student attempting to meet the assessment criteria in a university degree. They are perhaps particularly pressing for students studying both literature and history, where somewhat different approaches are required by each discipline. This module brings historians, literary critics and creative writers into a multi-disciplinary conversation designed to explore the tensions as well as the continuities between history and literary studies. By asking faculty members from the two schools to investigate similar territory from contrasting perspectives, you will explore how very similar subjects and sources can be treated differently by different disciplines (and by different methodological orientations within those disciplines). Historians, literary critics and creative writers will give guest lectures that describe and analyse their research process and writing practice. There will also be some more theoretically driven weeks where the work of key philosophers and theorists of history and literature will be read and discussed. You are encouraged to reflect on your own approach to the writing of history and literary criticism and will have the opportunity to learn reflexive writing. The summative assessment asks you to analyse a source text using the resources of both disciplines, and then to write a reflexive essay positioning your own approach in relation to other historians and critics studied on the module.

INTERMEDIATE FRENCH II - B1 CEFR

Code PPLB5032B

Credits 20

En avant ! Do you want to become more proficient in French? Do you want to develop independent language-learning skills? This module will allow you to push the boundaries of your French further and develop listening, reading, speaking, and writing skills at A2+/B1 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). In this module you’ll learn to express and justify opinions, debate, negotiate and be able to solve problems in unexpected situations in French. You’ll be taught in a very interactive and friendly environment and will often work in pairs or small groups. Your two-hour seminar will focus on listening, reading, and writing skills, while the oral hour will help you develop your confidence in speaking. We’ll tackle grammatical concepts in class, as a means for you to improve your communication skills. You’ll also have opportunities to explore aspects of Francophone culture, thanks to the variety of material we use (songs, podcasts, leaflets…) to develop your linguistic skills. During the semester, you’ll explore topics such as the press, cinema, leisure, and tourism.

INTERMEDIATE GERMAN II - B1 CEFR

Code PPLB5033B

Credits 20

Would you like to take your German to a higher level and start to become a more independent user? Wouldn’t it be tempting to take part in a job interview or pitch a start-up idea in German? How about describing your favourite student recipe? Maybe you simply love discussing your views in person and on digital platforms. This follow-on course is perfect if you have completed the Intermediate module or have basic A-level experience in German but not if you are already working at a higher level than this. You will become more independent in conversation with others as you continue to explore essential grammar and vocabulary at a higher level. You will learn how to talk about experiences, hopes and ambitions in a more complex way and how to master the skill of persuasion. During this module you will develop a deeper understanding of the German way of thinking through looking at current affairs and some iconic German language films and series. In a relaxed environment you will participate in interactive, collaborative activities, working in groups to try out and be creative with new words and grammar structures. The fun of language learning will never be far away and promises to give you the confidence to hold your own in discussions and presentations. As well as speaking and listening to each other you will apply strategies to help you produce and understand longer texts. A sound intermediate course in German will enable you to add a vital and highly valued skill to your CV. At this crucial political and cultural moment in time the study of the German language and culture will without doubt make you a more attractive graduate and informed global citizen, whatever your specialism or area of interest. The module is not suitable for students already working at B2 or a higher level of German. Pre-requisite is a language level assessment test with the tutor.

INTERMEDIATE SPANISH II B1 CEFR

Code PPLB5034B

Credits 20

Do you want to be able to communicate effectively with 538 million people worldwide and develop your intercultural awareness? Are you looking for a vital skill to add to your CV and becoming more employable? Wouldn’t it be nice to do so in a friendly and amusing environment? Take your Spanish skills to a higher level! Whatever your specialism or area of interest, this follow-on module is perfect for you, if you have already successfully completed the Intermediate level or have GCSE/pre-A level experience (or equivalent) of Spanish and wish to develop this to a standard comparable to A level/ Baccalaureat / B1 in the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). You will become more independent in conversation with others as you continue to explore essential grammar and vocabulary at a higher level. In a relaxed environment you will participate in interactive, collaborative activities, working in groups to try out and be creative with new words and grammar structures. Through Spanish, you’ll learn to present information and engage in discussions. Using popular cultural forms such as film and media, you’ll develop your reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. Upon successful completion of this module, you will have achieved an upper-intermediate level of Spanish. Not enrolled yet?

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Assessment for Year 3

Compulsory Modules

DRAMA PRODUCTION (YEAR 3)

Code LDCD6007A

Credits 60

This module enables you to cover the development and delivery of a full-scale theatre production (usually of a scripted, possibly classical play): involving planning, rehearsal, technical contribution, performance and self-evaluation. Please note, you will be expected to be available during all business hours of the working week throughout the Autumn semester, in addition to evening and weekend rehearsals during the final weeks of the process.

DRAMA PROJECTS

Code LDCD6011B

Credits 30

Individual performance projects with supervision, leading to presentation (usually before the external examiner). The module requires you to present a finished performance piece (max. 15 minutes for solo pieces: max. 30 minutes for joint pieces) developed from research and rehearsal using any appropriate media. You may choose to write, direct, perform, produce or anything else appropriate, including any mix of these roles. The overall conception, design and presentation of the piece should be clearly the responsibility of the individual(s) offering the project. The performance is presented to a panel of drama faculty markers (normally, but not essentially, including the External Examiner).

Optional A Modules

(30 credits)

CREATIVE WRITING DISSERTATION (SPR)

Code LDCC6004B

Credits 30

The Creative Writing Dissertation invites you to draw on all the skills you have developed in your degree as both a writer and a critic, giving you an insight into the thrills and challenges of working – as closely as circumstances allow – as a professional, independent writer. You will produce a substantial piece of creative work – a short story of approximately 6000 words; a script of approximately 60 minutes in duration; a collection of poems of 15-20 pages; or a hybrid project, the parameters of which will be determined by the nature of the project. In addition, you will produce a critical reflection of 2000 words, in which you engage, at a sophisticated level, with the nature of your own practice and the relationship between your own work and the contexts from which it emerges. You will be supported in this work by a supervisor, with whom you will work one-on-one, discussing intentions, reviewing drafts and thinking through your critical subtexts. In addition, a series of strand-specific workshops will encourage the generation of new material, offer strategies for developing a sustained piece of work, while also providing guidance on the critical reflection. In short, the dissertation offers a wonderful opportunity to stretch yourself as a writer, developing skills and independent motivation that will carry you beyond UEA, whether into postgraduate study or into the professional practice of writing. To be confirmed on the dissertation, you will need signed agreement from a supervisor by the end of June. While you should know which strand pathway you wish to follow, you do not need a concrete idea at this stage, although a sense of one will be useful so you and your supervisor can devise a more focussed approach. There will be a briefing session at the beginning of June, where you will be able to think about ideas and potential supervisors. If you do not have supervisor agreement by the end of June, you will automatically be moved to one of your reserve choices.

CREATIVE WRITING: SCRIPTWRITING

Code LDCC6105B

Credits 30

This module will enable you to explore the theory and practice of writing for stage, screen and radio through the work of produced writers, secondary reading and your own writing. You’ll study 4 key texts for stage, film, TV and radio. This module is exclusive to English Literature with Creative Writing students (and for other students who have achieved a mark of 68%+ in a previous Creative Writing module or Adaptation and Transmedia Storytelling or Writing the American Script).

DRAMA AND LITERATURE: THE QUESTION OF GENRE

Code LDCD6017B

Credits 30

You will explore the relationship between the study of literature and the study of dramatic performance both creatively and theoretically. Its practical aspect consists of an adaptation for the stage of a literary text, which you will freely chose and test by workshop performance, and its theoretical aspect consists of attempts to define the narrative modes of the epic, the lyric and the dramatic, with the dramatic further dividing into tragedy and comedy. These two aspects of the course converge in considerations of how you have drawn on these narrative modes in your own adaptations, and how great writers throughout the centuries have created works which stand on thresholds between them e.g. theatrical novelists or lyrical dramatists. One question which underlies all critical engagement with the subject of genre is whether generic awareness should be understood as an historical encumbrance which stands in the way of representing or expressing personal experience, or whether it is a necessary and enabling resource for increasing the receivers’ pleasure or extending their philosophical horizons. Critics have stood on either side of the debate.

SPECIAL TOPIC IN DRAMA

Code LDCD6108B

Credits 30

This module is designed to help you deepen your confidence and practice in the acting skills you've encountered up to and including the 3rd year. It is not a requirement that you should have done the Drama Production module in the Autumn semester. Building on the foundations of the 1st year and following 2nd year modules such as Actor and the Text, and The Director, the Actor and the Script, this weekly seminar-workshop allows you to review and deepen your creative tool-kit as a performer. You will be working on exercises, both new and familiar, which stretch your acting and strengthen your craft. At the heart of this will be a more intense and complex working with the Meisner Technique. You will be guided in the development of a confident, personal approach to your acting process which will serve you after you graduate. Your weekly classes will be supplemented by additional, focused workshops, outside the timetable. Come prepared to dig in: the work will be revealing, emotional, enlivening, playful, fun, scary, joyous and life-affirming.

SHAKESPEARE'S DRAMATIC WORLDS (PRE-1789)

Code LDCL6056B

Credits 30

On this module, you'll gain a deep understanding of Shakespeare's plays by immersing yourself in the contemporary theatrical scene within which he wrote - his dramatic worlds. When Shakespeare was emerging as a playwright in the 1590s, there was already one writer whose uniquely rhetorically flamboyant, even bombastic, plays, dominated the theatrical market place: Christopher Marlowe. By the time Shakespeare was a leading figure of the London theatre scene in the early 1600s, a counterpoint to his work was emerging: the plays of Ben Jonson, which embody a sceptical attitude towards the 'magic' of the theatre, very different to Shakespeare's. You'll read across this theatrical landscape, the most important period of English writing for the stage, casting some of Shakespeare's greatest plays into a new light by reading them alongside plays such as Marlowe's Tamburlaine and Jonson's The Alchemist. What conceptions of performance and theatricality seem to be embodied in these plays? How do they imagine politics and government, and how do they conceptualise gender and women's role in society? What is ultimately distinctive about Shakespeare's achievements in his own dramatic worlds? We envisage reading one play each week, and seminars will be devoted to close-reading and discussion of that play, directly preparing you for your essay-based summative assessment. Although this module will appeal to you if you studied the 'Shakespeare' module in your second year, it imagines no prior knowledge and is absolutely suited to someone coming to Shakespeare and the theatre of this period for the first time. This module's credits count toward the fulfilment of the pre-1789 requirement

LITERATURE DISSERTATION: (PRE-1789) (SPR)

Code LDCL6062B

Credits 30

In the Literature Dissertation, you get to conduct independent research on a literary topic of your choosing, with supervision from an academic with relevant expertise. In addition to guidance from your supervisor, you will have group workshops helping you to define and delimit your topic, to plan your research and writing, to structure your argument, and to contextualise your work within broader critical debates. By the end of the semester you will have completed an extended essay of 8000 words. To be confirmed on the dissertation, you need signed agreement from a dissertation supervisor by the end of June. You do not need a concrete topic to bring to a supervisor in the first instance: just a general subject area (this could be an author, a period, a genre, a critical approach), so you and the supervisor can devise a more focused topic together. There will be a briefing session at the beginning of June where you will be able to think about subject areas and potential supervisors. If you do not have supervisory agreement by the end of June, you will automatically move to one of your reserve choices.

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Entry Requirements

A Levels

ABB including one of the following subjects: Drama, Theatre Studies, English Literature, English Language and Literature, English Language, History, Ancient History, History of Art, Archaeology, Anthropology, Classical Civilisation, Classical Studies, Politics, Government and Politics, Psychology, Sociology, Film Studies, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Media Studies, Psychology, Law If you are taking an EPQ and three A-levels, we may offer you a one grade reduction on our advertised typical offer, if you achieve an A in the EPQ.

T Levels

Not accepted

BTEC

DDM in an Arts/Humanities subject (usually Performing Arts). Excludes BTEC Public Services, Uniformed Services or Business Administration

Scottish highers

AAABB including one of the following subjects: Drama, Theatre Studies, English Literature, English Language and Literature, English Language, History, Ancient History, History of Art, Archaeology, Anthropology, Classical Civilisation, Classical Studies, Politics, Government and Politics, Psychology, Sociology, Film Studies, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Media Studies, Psychology, Law

Scottish highers advanced

BCC including one of the following subjects: Drama, Theatre Studies, English Literature, English Language and Literature, English Language, History, Ancient History, History of Art, Archaeology, Anthropology, Classical Civilisation, Classical Studies, Politics, Government and Politics, Psychology, Sociology, Film Studies, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Media Studies, Psychology, Law

Irish leaving certificate

3 subjects at H2, 3 subjects at H3 including one of the following subjects: Drama, Theatre Studies, English Literature, English Language and Literature, English Language, History, Ancient History, History of Art, Archaeology, Anthropology, Classical Civilisation, Classical Studies, Politics, Government and Politics, Psychology, Sociology, Film Studies, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Media Studies, Psychology, Law

Access course

Access to Humanities and Social Sciences Pathway. Pass Access to HE Diploma with Distinction in 30 credits at Level 3 and Merit in 15 credits at Level 3

European Baccalaureate

75% including 7 in one of the following subjects: Drama, Theatre Studies, English Literature, English Language and Literature, English Language, History, Ancient History, History of Art, Archaeology, Anthropology, Classical Civilisation, Classical Studies, Politics, Government and Politics, Psychology, Sociology, Film Studies, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Media Studies, Psychology, Law

International Baccalaureate

32 including HL 5 in one of the following subjects: Drama, Theatre Studies, English Literature, English Language and Literature, English Language, History, Ancient History, History of Art, Archaeology, Anthropology, Classical Civilisation, Classical Studies, Politics, Government and Politics, Psychology, Sociology, Film Studies, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Media Studies, Psychology, Law

GCSE offer

You are required to have Mathematics and English Language at a minimum of Grade C or Grade 4 or above at GCSE.

Additional entry requirements

UEA are committed to ensuring that Higher Education is accessible to all, regardless of their background or experiences. One of the ways we do this is through our contextual admissions schemes.

If you do not have an A-Level or equivalent qualification in one of the subjects listed above, once you have submitted your UCAS form we may then contact you to ask you to submit a short analysis of a passage of a literary text in support of your application.

We welcome and value a wide range of alternative qualifications. If you have a qualification which is not listed here, please contact us via Admissions Enquiries.

If you do not meet the academic requirements for direct entry, you may be interested in one of our Foundation Year Programmes.

Important note

Once enrolled onto your course at UEA, your progression and continuation (which may include your eligibility for study abroad, overseas experience, placement or year in industry opportunities) is contingent on meeting the assessment requirements which are relevant to the course on which you are enrolled.

International Requirements

We accept many international qualifications for entry to this course. View our International Students pages for specific information about your country.

If you do not meet the academic and/or English language requirements for direct entry our partner, INTO UEA offers progression on to this undergraduate degree upon successful completion of a preparation programme. Depending on your interests, and your qualifications you can take a variety of routes to this degree:

International Foundation in Business, Economics, Society and Culture (for Year 1 entry to UEA)

International Foundation in Humanities and Law (for Year 1 entry to UEA)

Students for whom english is a foreign language

Applications from students whose first language is not English are welcome. We require evidence of proficiency in English (including writing, speaking, listening and reading): 

IELTS: 6.5 overall (minimum 5.5 in all components) for year 1 entry

We also accept a number of other English language tests. Review our English Language Equivalencies for a list of example qualifications that we may accept to meet this requirement.

If you do not yet meet the English language requirements for this course, INTO UEA offer a variety of English language programmes which are designed to help you develop the English skills necessary for successful undergraduate study: 

Interviews

If your application tells us that you’re capable and enlivened by your chosen course, we will invite you to an online audition with an academic. This is a chance to meet us, discuss the course, and perform a monologue from a play you love. You’ll be asked to prepare a monologue of your choice, which we’ll work on with you. We’ll also talk about your current studies, extra-curricular interests, and the theatre that excites you. If you receive an offer, you’ll be invited to an applicant day, when you can see the campus, meet current students, and take part in a performance workshop, giving you a taste of what it would be like to study Drama here at UEA.

Gap year

We welcome applications from students who have already taken or intend to take a gap year.  We believe that a year between school and university can be of substantial benefit. You are advised to indicate your reason for wishing to defer entry on your UCAS application.

Intakes

This course is open to UK and International applicants. The annual intake is in September each year. 

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Course Reference Number: 6775428

Fees and Funding

Tuition Fees

View our information for Tuition Fees.

Scholarships and Bursaries

We are committed to ensuring that costs do not act as a barrier to those aspiring to come to a world leading university and have developed a funding package to reward those with excellent qualifications and assist those from lower income backgrounds. View our range of Scholarships for eligibility, details of how to apply and closing dates.

Course related costs

View our information about Additional Course Fees.

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UEA Award

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Course Reference Number: 6775428

How to Apply

Apply for this course through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Services (UCAS), using UCAS Hub. 

UCAS Hub is a secure online application system that allows you to apply for full-time undergraduate courses at universities and colleges in the United Kingdom.

Your application does not have to be completed all at once. Register or sign in to UCAS to get started. 

Once you submit your completed application, UCAS will process it and send it to your chosen universities and colleges.

The Institution code for the University of East Anglia is E14.

View our guide to applying through UCAS for useful tips, key dates and further information:

How to apply through UCAS

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UEA Award

Develop your skills, build a strong CV and focus your extra-curricular activities while studying with our employer-valued UEA award.

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Course Reference Number: 6775428

BA (Hons) DRAMA

BA (HONS) DRAMA

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Placement Year and Study Abroad

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After the Course

Career destinations

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Assessment for Year 1

Structure

Teaching and Learning

Assessment for Year 2

Structure

Teaching and Learning

Assessment for Year 3

Structure

Teaching and Learning

Assessment for Year 1

Compulsory Modules

Optional A Modules

Important Information

Assessment for Year 2

Compulsory Modules

Optional A Modules

Optional B Modules

Optional C Modules

Optional D Modules

Important Information

Assessment for Year 3

Compulsory Modules

Optional A Modules

Important Information

Entry Requirements

A Levels

T Levels

BTEC

Scottish highers

Scottish highers advanced

Irish leaving certificate

Access course

European Baccalaureate

International Baccalaureate

GCSE offer

Additional entry requirements

International Requirements

Students for whom english is a foreign language

Interviews

Gap year

Intakes

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