BA (Hons) English and Drama

Level One

English Literature 1832 to 1910

Students reading ‘English Literature 1832 to1910’ will study major and less well-known Victorian and Edwardian texts in the context of a number of themes. This approach enables students to explore historical contexts as well as to engage with the literature of the time within a framework that sees ‘literature’ not as a reflection of society, but as an activity within society, an activity that is both the result of and contributing factor to social change. This module covers both semesters.

Introduction to Poetry

This module looks at what makes poetic language different from ‘normal’ language, at how poets use the sounds and meanings of words, and at how poetry can be used to change and challenge our understanding of the world. The aim is to enable students to enjoy poetry more and talk about it with confidence and clarity.

Introduction to Narrative

Narrative stories are everywhere in our lives: in books, on TV, in history, the news, in our conversation and in our heads. This module aims to give students an understanding of how stories work. Contemporary British fiction by writers such as Kate Atkinson, Hanif Kureishi, Irvine Welsh, Ian McEwan and Ali Smith will be used to introduce a set of critical concepts for the analysis of narrative fiction.

Improvising and Devising

Study Skills for Drama

Tragedy & Comedy (Option)

Drama and Dramaturgy (Option)

Documentary Theatre (Option)

Level Two

Postcolonialism

This module examines literary representations of the world that emerge from the history of European exploration and expansion, and considers literary responses from groups that were marginalized through imperialism. We look at the treatment by white writers of issues of race and empire in the early 20th Century. We also explore ways in which postcolonial literatures develop strategies of 'writing back' to the imperial centre and re-thinking identity in terms of race, gender and nation. The final section offers a study of postcolonial Britain and some global implications of postcolonial writing.

Dis-Locations: The Literatures of Late Capitalism

Fragmentation, uncertainty and conflict characterise a world in aftermath of war, at end of empire, and at the beginning of a period of radical social and cultural change. This module aims to chart the emergence of the contemporary world from these fractured beginnings through an introduction to British literature of the period 1950 – 2000. From the post-war Windrush migration to the rise of the historical novel at the turn of the millennium, the Angry Young Men to new feminist perspectives and postcolonialism, this module explores relevant theoretical perspectives on the late 20th Century and encourage an appreciation of the relationship between texts and their social, political and cultural contexts.

Making it New : An Introduction to Literary Modernism

In this module students explore one of the most creative periods in English literature, the early 20th Century when writers like James Joyce, TS Eliot, Virginia Woolf and DH Lawrence were at work. The aim is to enable students to read and even enjoy these often notoriously difficult texts, to understand what light they throw on literature more widely and to relate them to the contexts in which they were generated.

Theory Wars

During the 20th Century new theoretical approaches to literature were developed such as structuralism, dialogics, deconstruction, new historicism, feminism, queer and traumatological theory, all of which questioned traditional notions of literature. This module will look in detail at the new theories and their effects upon the study of literature as an academic discipline.

Acting Process (Option)

Site Specific Performance (Option)

Theatre and Globalisation (Option)

Level Three

English Literature 1710 to 1832

Students reading 'Literature 1710-1832' study a selection of canonical and less well-known texts from the period, and the historical and cultural context of the texts' production. They will investigate the rise of the novel and the development of poetry from the time of Pope to that of the Romantics along with topics such as satire, realism, sensibility, the Gothic and the sublime. Issues explored include anxieties and conflicts around the notions of class, gender, nation, empire, nature, reason and imagination. This module covers both semesters.

This module explores issues of identity and culture through the study of cross cultural representation. Students will examine textual and filmic representations of the encounter between different cultures and compare the production and reception of similar texts in different cultural contexts. Our basic proposition is that, in part, such cultural texts call in to being imagined communities which serve to construct cultural identity.

Level Three English Options

Students choose either a single option from each semester or a double semester option which covers both:

Postmodernism: Apocalypse and Genesis 1967-2000 (Semester A Option)

This module will explore the nature of the contemporary through analysis of selected literary texts. The initial date, 1967, has been chosen as it marks a point of transition from a post-war world based upon a liberal consensus to a time of radical uncertainty, extreme and experimental forms of expression, the breakdown of notions of realism in all the arts, sciences and philosophy. Literature, alongside the radicalisation of all intellectual concepts, including reason and common-sense, has played a significant role in debating, illustrating, and disseminating these new ways of thinking both in terms of form and content.

19th Century Literature and Exploration (Semester A Option)

This module will be primarily concerned with the formulation and transformation of identity in the far reaches of the British Empire. Students will be required to read fictional and nonfictional accounts of exploration of a variety of regions subject to imperial conquest, including India, Africa, the Arctic and potentially other regions. The module will be primarily concerned with interactions between explorers and indigenous people as well as accounts of explorers who "went native". The aim will be to investigate the different types of hybrid identities that can arise in different regions and to ask what similarities exist between them.

Gothic in Literature and Film (Semester B Option)

Monsters and attics, desolate landscapes, imprisonment and pursuit: the gothic genre emerged in the late 18th Century to depict our darkest fears and desires. Termed ‘the literature of nightmare’ and ‘the dark side of fantasy’, gothic departs from a realistic mode of representation and employs a powerful means of symbolic expression. This course investigates ways in which the genre has explored psychological and political anxieties, including sexual and scientific transgression.

Women’s Writing and Feminist Theory (Semester A Option)

A diverse range of prose, poetry, and drama written by women from the 17th Century to the contemporary moment is considered alongside key concepts in feminist theory. Writers range from Aphra Behn to Jane Austen to Zora Neale Hurston to Jeanette Winterson. Topics range from the feminine aesthetic and French feminism to feminist utopianism and cyberfeminism.

Literature, Film and Gender (Semester B Option)

This module explores a wide range of gender topics (masculinities, the backlash against feminism, crossdressing, queer theory, and transgendering) through a variety of literary texts and films. Shakespeare, Ibsen, Hardy, and Woolf, are considered alongside more popular fiction by writers, such as Susanna Moore, and films, including Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Mrs Doubtfire, Boys Don’t Cry, and Peeping Tom.

Contemporary Drama (Semester B Option)

This is a study of drama and performance from the 1960s to the contemporary moment, and involves a consideration of plays by writers including Peter Handke, Edward Bond, Howard Brenton, Caryl Churchill, Sarah Kane, and Steven Berkoff. Topics emphasised include political theatre, postmodernism, ‘in-yer-face theatre’, and issues of censorship. This module is taught through workshops involving both academic discussion and practical work.

Literature and The Environment (Semester B Option)

The first principle of ecological thinking is that others exist beside humans, and that we are neither so separate from, nor so dominant over, the nonhuman as we tend to think. In this module we explore what difference it makes to read literature from this perspective. We study literature as part of our complex interaction with our environment, and perhaps, in some ways and on some occasions, as a uniquely valuable one.

Life Writing (Semester A Option)

The module will introduce students to a range of life writing (including biography, autobiography, letters, confessions, memoirs, and poems) from the Romantic period to the contemporary moment. Students will explore the relationship between self and society, private and public, fact and fiction, and think about autobiography as a social, political, and literary practice.

Adaptation (Semester A Option)

This module explores the concept, practice and processes by which a finished text is 'rewritten'. Students will examine instances of adaptation, and although the module will primarily focus on the adaptation of novels into drama and film, other forms such as musical theatre will be discussed. The module will examine the move from one medium to another, and study the categories of adaptation and the techniques and methods available to the adaptor.

Southern Accents (Semester A Option)

This optional module explores representations of the southern states of America in prose fiction, film, drama and music. In the first section southern stereotypes and ‘resistant’ representations, produced by southerners and others, are examined in relation to social, political and historical contexts. This is followed by a section on African American representations of the south. Finally, a section on music and vernacular traditions explores the influence of the south on American popular music. Students are encouraged to adopt an interdisciplinary approach to examine questions of regional identity in a wide range of texts.

American Genre and Popular Culture (Double Semester Option)

Students will be able to examine changing representations of cultural, political and social issues by examining American drama and film from the 1930s to the present day. This will form the background to a detailed case study of the popular genre of hardboiled detective fiction, drawing together the themes outlined earlier in the module.

Science Fiction (Semester B Option)

This module considers the genre of modern science fiction (SF) and its evolution into one of today’s most popular narrative genres. Analysing a variety of forms – novel, short story, drama, graphic novel and film – students will examine the socio-historical contexts of some of the most influential narratives of this period: from the emergence of "scientific romance" in the late 19th Century, to late 20th Century forms like cyberpunk and radical fantasy; from the problems of defining "genre fictions" and privileging SF over fantasy, to our enduring fascination with alternate histories, non-human agents (robots, animals, genetic hybrids, the environment), ecocatastrophe and post-apocalypse.

Caribbean Literature and the Atlantic World (Semester B Option)

The Caribbean has historically played a crucial role in the Atlantic world and has, as a region, been radically altered by migration (of products, of peoples and of ideas). Through a selection of texts and relevant criticism this course will explore the postcolonial and transatlantic contexts of Caribbean writing. From the trans-atlantic slave trade to the Haitian Revolution, Trujillo’s Dominican dictatorship to post-revolutionary Cuba, negritude, Caribbean-US immigration and contemporary cultures of oppression, this module is an opportunity to study the impact of the Caribbeanon shaping how we see, write, and think about postcolonialism and the Atlantic world.

English Independent Study (Double Semester Option)

In this module, students, having agreed a topic with a tutor, have the opportunity to study in depth an author or topic of their choice. Students have regular, one-to-one meetings with a tutor specialising in their area of interest who offers advice and direction, but primarily this module encourages independent research and independent thought leading to the production of a 10,000 word dissertation.

In their final year, students can opt to do their ‘Independent Study’ with Drama or English. If students opt to do their Independent Study with English they will study the following additional Drama modules:

Semester A:

Off the Page (Option One)

Physical Theatre (Option One)

Directing (Option One)

Maskwork (Option Two)

Theatre and Consciousness (Option Two)

The Musical (Option Two)

Semester B:

Solo Performance (Option)

Multimedia Performance (Option)

Theatre Company (Option)

If students opt to do their Independent Study with Drama they will study the following additional Drama modules:

Semester A:

Advanced Scene Study (Option)

Acting for Media (Option)

Children's Theatre (Option)

Semester B:

Drama and Contemporary Performance (Option)

Staging the Supernatural (Option)

Producing (Option)

• Lincoln Media Production Centre: purpose-designed with digital technology to support a range of media including television, scriptwriting, location filming and recording, and post-production (audio & video).

• Lincoln School of Performing Arts: based in the new Lincoln Performing Arts Centre (LPAC) – a purpose-built facility that includes a 450-seat professional theatre with a flexible stage, state-of-the art technical facilities, and studios and rehearsal spaces.

• Avid editing suites (approved Academic Partner).

Graduates are prepared for employment in various theatre professions, both on and off stage.

Outside of the theatrical professions, opportunities exist in teaching, the civil service, librarianship, marketing, public relations, journalism, television/film/video production and research, charity and arts administration.

All students will be interviewed and auditioned by the Drama faculty.

2012 Entry	UK/EU	International
Full-time	£9000	£11266
Part-time	£75 per credit point	£94 per credit point
Placement (optional)	Exempt	Exempt
Assessment Only	£38 per credit point	£47 per credit point

 

2013 Entry	UK/EU	International
Full-time	£ Available soon	£ Available soon
Part-time	£ Available soon	£ Available soon
Placement (optional)	Exempt	Exempt
Assessment Only	£ Available soon	£ Available soon

For further information and funding your study please see our Fees & Funding pages.

Fees and Funding