Drama and English | BA (Hons) | University of Lincoln

Dr James Hudson - Programme Leader

Dr James Hudson is the Programme Leader for BA (Hons) Drama and English. His teaching and research is concerned with contemporary playwriting, British twentieth-century theatre, and the relationship between theatre and contemporary politics (particularly right-wing and reactionary politics). He is also the School Admissions Officer.

Academic Staff List

Welcome to BA (Hons) Drama and English

Combine your passion for theatre, performance, and literature with the BA (Hons) Drama and English degree at the University of Lincoln.

Combine your passion for theatre, performance and literature with the BA (Hons) Drama and English degree at the University of Lincoln.
This interdisciplinary joint honours programme allows students to engage with the vast majority of modules available on the Drama and English degrees and offers full access to the range of unique opportunities developed by both programmes.

English considers literature from a variety of theoretical, historical, and cultural perspectives, while the theatre and performance components of the course allow students to encounter creative practice, technical theatre, and performance skills together with a critical study of drama and theatre.

Led by experts in drama and English literature, professional performers, theatre makers, and industry specialists, this course will help prepare you for a range of careers. Through a mixture of core and optional modules, both practical and theoretical, you'll be able to curate your own journey through the programme. While the English side of the course covers poetry, fiction, and drama, as well as less traditional literary forms such as life-writing and graphic novels, in Drama students can choose to focus on script work, play analysis, live performance, technical theatre, devised work, and more.

As part of your studies you may also choose to study abroad through one of our many international schemes, or take up a placement in a professional setting, working alongside a theatre company, arts organisation, school, or other education setting.

The course also provides opportunities for you to perform, create, and participate in a variety of performances, trips, and events with a range of partners including interdisciplinary students, professional artists and performers, and external organisations. Recently we've worked with organisations including the BBC, National Youth Theatre, Nottingham Playhouse, and the Royal Air Force.

How You Study

Teaching practice on the Joint Honours degree is diverse and takes place mainly through lectures, seminars, studio-based workshops, and individual tutorials.

During the first year, on the English side of their course students are introduced to literary forms and theories, and texts and authors spanning almost a millennium, from the Gawain poet to Kazuo Ishiguro. In Drama, students take core modules designed to embed crucial skills, including ensemble and devising work, as well as play analysis and script performance.

In their second and third years, students are able to tailor their degree to match their own individual interests and aptitudes. They can choose from a wide range of optional modules and complete an independent study/dissertation in either subject on a topic of their choice.

What You Need to Know

We want you to have all the information you need to make an informed decision on where and what you want to study. To help you choose the course that’s right for you, we aim to bring to your attention all the important information you may need. Our What You Need to Know page offers detailed information on key areas including contact hours, assessment, optional modules, and additional costs.

Find out More

An Introduction to Your Modules

† Some courses may offer optional modules. The availability of optional modules may vary from year to year and will be subject to minimum student numbers being achieved. This means that the availability of specific optional modules cannot be guaranteed. Optional module selection may also be affected by staff availability.

Devising and Making 2023-24DRA1046MLevel 42023-24A practice-based introduction to the foundational elements of performance technique and performance making, in this module students may undertake instruction in vocal and physical technique, learning the fundamentals of movement for theatre, spatial and ensemble awareness and the operation of the voice. Alongside these, weekly workshops investigate the theories and methodologies that underpin performance making. As they develop an applied understanding of technique and the ability to engage in critical reflection, students can form groups and work towards devising original performances which are showcased at the end of the semester.CoreEnsemble Show 2023-24DRA1047MLevel 42023-24This module is the practical culmination of Level One, in which the skills and techniques of performance and devising learned in Devising & Making are implemented in a larger group ensemble context. Here students may devise, produce, and perform a piece of original theatre based on their exploration of a particular theme, idea, or concept, with the performances taking place in the main auditorium at Lincoln Performing Arts Centre.CoreTexts in Time: Medieval to Romantic 2023-24ENL1070MLevel 42023-24Texts in Time: Medieval to Romantic introduces students to a variety of materials from a range of cultural and historical contexts from the 12th century to 1830, and to methods of reading historically. Students will thus build a foundation on writers and historical periods which they can choose to pursue in greater detail at levels 2 and 3. Students will examine literature in English in a range of forms, such as poetry, drama, fiction, and essays, and the conditions under which these materials were created. There will be a particular emphasis throughout the module on questions concerning the self in society and the cultural tensions that arise when different understandings or definitions of identity clash. The chosen texts will demonstrate and explore understandings of the self in relation to matters such as sex, gender, race, nationality, class, religion, and age.CoreTexts in Time: Victorian to Contemporary 2023-24ENL1071MLevel 42023-24Texts in Time: Victorian to Contemporary introduces students to a variety of materials from a range of cultural and historical contexts from 1830 to the present, and to methods of reading historically. Students will thus build a foundation on writers and historical periods which they can choose to pursue in greater detail at levels 2 and 3. Students will examine literature in English in a range of forms, such as poetry, drama, fiction, and essays, and the conditions under which these materials were created. There will be a particular emphasis throughout the module on questions concerning the self in society and the cultural tensions that arise when different understandings or definitions of identity clash. The chosen texts will demonstrate and explore understandings of the self in relation to matters such as sex, gender, race, nationality, class, religion, and age.CoreDis-Locations: the Literature of Late Capitalism 2024-25ENL2023MLevel 52024-25Fragmentation, 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 19502000. 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 encourages an appreciation of the relationship between texts and their social, political and cultural contexts.CoreTheory Wars 2024-25ENL2017MLevel 52024-25This module considers the range of theories that we can use when we read and think about literature. Students will have the opportunity to study psychoanalysis, feminism, Marxism and postmodernism, among others, to think about why and how we structure meaning and interpretation in certain ways. We consider questions such as what is an author?, what is gender? and why do certain things frighten us? through theorists such as Roland Barthes, Judith Butler and Sigmund Freud.CoreAfter The End: Reading the Apocalypse 2024-25ENL2027MLevel 52024-25This module explores apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic texts using a range of novels, short stories, poems and films. Lectures will establish cultural and historical contexts and address issues such as form and genre. The module will explore a range of significant periods from early Judeo-Christian fears regarding the purging moral apocalypse, through Romantic preoccupations with nature and industrialisation, postmodernism and more contemporary concerns about viral or cybernetic apocalypse. We will draw from a range of disciplines including literary theory, psychoanalysis, cultural theory, philosophy and trauma theory.OptionalAmerican Literature I 2024-25ENL2024MLevel 52024-25This module explores the nineteenth-century literature of the USA, chiefly focusing on fiction and poetry. Authors covered include Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Walt Whitman and Willa Cather, among others.OptionalAmerican Literature II 2024-25ENL2025MLevel 52024-25This module covers a broad range of twentieth-century American fiction and poetry. Beginning with Fitzgerald, other authors studied include Ernest Hemingway, Jack Kerouac, Toni Morrison, Thomas Pynchon and David Foster Wallace.OptionalArthur and His Court 2024-25ENL2043MLevel 52024-25This module examines Arthurian narratives, myths, and traditions within a variety of contexts and media, and traces a variety of themes associated with Arthur and his court, including history and national identity; violence; kingship and rule; loyalty and betrayal; and love, sex, and gender roles. Students will be expected to assess the importance of a myth that spans more than a millennium and address how medieval texts made meaning within their specific socio-cultural situations, as well as how later periods make meaning through their deployment of the medieval in new contexts.OptionalBritish Medieval Literature 2024-25ENL2044MLevel 52024-25This module examines key British medieval texts, primarily in Middle English, from the High and Late Middle Ages (that is, from approximately the twelfth century to fifteenth century). It explores the breadth of literary activity in the period through a variety of genres--such as debate poetry, ethnographies, beast fables, romance, dream visions, satire, devotional and mystical writings, and mystery plays--and the evolution of a new form of English (the precursor of modern English), revealing that the medieval period is, in truth, a far cry from the misnomer by which it is often identified, the dark ages.OptionalClass, Power and Performance on Stage and Screen 2024-25ENL2029MLevel 52024-25OptionalClassic and Contemporary Fantasy 2024-25ENL2064MLevel 52024-25This module examines one of the most varied literary genres extant, one that, at times, is often relegated to the margins because of its slippery nature. Students will examine early examples of fantasy and trace the genres development across a number of key historical epochs, from the classical and medieval periods to the twenty-first century. They will consider especially Tolkien as a pivotal force in the growth of fantasy literature and theory, as well as The Inklings, a group whose works had a profound influence on the evolution of the genre in the twentieth century. A range of subgenres of the fantastic will be explored, which may include high and low fantasy, ironic fantasy, historical fantasy, or magic realism, and, alongside primary texts, they will read selections from modern theoretical and critical texts that articulate different interpretations and approaches to the fantastic.OptionalCollaborative Elective 2024-25DRA2043MLevel 52024-25This module enables groups of students from mixed disciplines to work together on a large-scale, interdisciplinary project. The module takes as its starting point a project brief from either an internal or external partner commissioning the student group to undertake and complete a collaborative project exploring pertinent cultural issues.OptionalContemporary Political Playwriting 2024-25DRA2045MLevel 52024-25In this module students have the opportunity to study a range of contemporary dramatic texts and performances grouped thematically into three key areas of contemporary cultural context: Neoliberalism; Borders and Nations; and Climate Change and the Environment. Applying the skills of close critical analysis developed throughout the course, students are expected to consider how contemporary theatre is engaging with the social, political and environmental fallout of 'the end of history' and examine the various dramaturgical strategies employed by contemporary theatre-makers to address these challenges. The module runs as a series of practical sessions in which the plays are workshopped as well as discussion-based seminars.OptionalExperimental Writing 2024-25ENL2066MLevel 52024-25This module, conceptually, textually, formally, and intellectually challenging, is designed to introduce students to a range of innovative literatures, in a variety of forms, in order both to interrogate the idea of experimental writing, and its own often aggressive interrogation of the expressive potential of literature.OptionalIndustry Placements: Career planning 2024-25DRA2051MLevel 52024-25The Placement module encourages students to engage with the creative industries beyond the University through an 80-hour placement with a business or organisation of their choosing. Through direct workplace experience, students may develop new skills, strengthen existing ones, establish valuable professional networks, and target future employment opportunities. Following the placement students are assessed via presentations where they reflect upon their professional development and the impact of their work with the partner organisation.OptionalLiterature of the Fin de Siècle 2024-25ENL2065MLevel 52024-25This module examines some of the preoccupations of the fin de siècle through a series of texts and authors who helped to shape the cultural climate of the 1880s-1900s. These decades gave rise to a pervasive feeling of vital urgency and exhilaration in Britain, as well as a conflicted sense that society was teetering on a cliff edge of irredeemable degeneration. Texts will be read alongside and in light of social and political developments, such as anxieties about Britains empire and position on the global stage, evolution and degeneration, sexual identity, womens rights, the rise of occultism and spiritualism, Decadence, and radical politics. The study of fin de siècle writing will be set against the backdrop of the infamous Oscar Wilde trial, and the sensationalised Jack the Ripper murders, contemporary anxieties about criminality, the empire, and eugenics.OptionalMaking It New: An Introduction to Literary Modernism 2024-25ENL2016MLevel 52024-25In this module students will have the opportunity to explore the early twentieth century, one of the most creative periods in English literature, when writers like James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf and D.H. Lawrence were challenging conventional ways of writing and reading, and rewriting how we experience and understand the world and ourselves. Required reading will include some of the most powerful works from the modern movement between 1910 and 1940 including James Joyces Ulysses and T.S. Eliots The Waste Land.OptionalModern Drama (Level 2) 2024-25ENL2011MLevel 52024-25OptionalPostcolonialism 2024-25ENL2022MLevel 52024-25This 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. Students will be encouraged to look at the treatment by white writers of issues of race and empire in the early twentieth century. They will also have the opportunity to 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.OptionalRenaissance Literature 2024-25ENL2018MLevel 52024-25Students studying Renaissance Literature have the opportunity to look in detail at a range of texts from the late Elizabethan period to the mid-1630s, including work by Shakespeare, John Donne, Ben Jonson and Mary Wroth. They also have the chance to explore the historical and cultural contexts in which these texts were produced, and the effects that they had on the politics and culture of the British Isles in the period. Lectures aim to examine post-Reformation England and late humanism, patronage, gender relations, early modern literary theory, education and philosophy.OptionalRestoration Literature 2024-25ENL2021MLevel 52024-25Students taking Restoration Literature, the companion module to Renaissance Literature, can study in detail a range of texts written between the era of the English Civil War and the first decade of the eighteenth Century, including work by John Milton; Andrew Marvell; Aphra Behn; and John Wilmot, the 2nd Earl of Rochester. Students have the opportunity to also study the historical and cultural contexts in which these texts were produced. Lectures aim to examine the origins and effects of the civil war, the ethics of rebellion and reform, the Restoration theatre, religious controversies, gender relations, developing philosophical thought and Restoration manners.OptionalRomanticism: Literature 1780-1830 2024-25ENL2063MLevel 52024-25Students will study English literature of the Romantic period (1780-1830), including poetry, fiction, autobiography, and political polemic. The module will address revolutions in politics and literary form and ideas of nature, the sublime, sensibility and feeling, abolition and slavery, Enlightenment feminism, the Gothic, Orientalism, and childhood. Students will have the opportunity to study works by writers including William Wordsworth, William Blake, Mary Shelley, Jane Austen, and Olaudah Equiano, placing them in their cultural context.OptionalScenography and Design 2024-25TTH2005MLevel 52024-25This module can introduce students to the histories and contemporary practices of scenography, as well as design as it relates to theatre and performance. Students may have the opportunity to navigate the subject historically, theoretically and practically, exploring multiple elements of design both atomically and holistically.OptionalSpecialist Elective 2 2024-25DRA2054MLevel 52024-25OptionalSpecialist Elective B 2024-25DRA2053MLevel 52024-25OptionalStage Combat 2024-25DRA2037MLevel 52024-25This module aims to teach students the basics of engaging in stage combat and gives them the option of progressing to the Academy of Performance Combat Basic Three Weapon exam.OptionalStaging Shakespeare & Co 2024-25DRA2044MLevel 52024-25This practically-based module engages with selected plays of the Early Modern period and uses them as texts for performance on the contemporary stage. Working both as dramaturgs and performers, students can form a production ensemble and stage an Early Modern classic presented on the main auditorium of the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre. Students may connect their interpretation and re-interpretation the text and its performance history with their own ideas and experiences to situate the Early Modern text within our contemporary cultural moment. Recently staged performances on this module include versions of John Websters The Duchess of Malfi and Christopher Marlowes Dr Faustus.OptionalStudy Period Abroad - English and Drama 2024-25ENL2030MLevel 52024-25This module provides an opportunity for students on the joint English and Drama BA to spend a semester at second level studying at one of the Universitys partner institutions, developing academically and personally. During the semester abroad students undertake a course load at the partner institution of equivalent standard to that of one semester of the programme at Lincoln. Participation in study abroad also offers unique opportunities for personal student development in the widest sense, taking in cultural, sporting and social opportunities. In order to participate, students are usually expected to obtain a 2:1 or higher at Level 1, have a good record of attendance and participation, and must complete an application process. A limited number of places will be available each year, and participation is at the discretion of the Module Co-ordinator and the Programme Leader.OptionalTeaching Drama 2024-25DRA2052MLevel 52024-25This module introduces students to the theory and practice of teaching drama within a variety of professional and academic contexts. It aims to provide students with a basic repertoire of skills, knowledge and experience for those considering teaching as a career, allowing them to develop and apply a range of teaching methods oriented around the way that the subject of drama is learned and taught. Key to the teaching and learning strategy on the module is engaging directly in schools or other appropriate learning environments.OptionalTheatre Practice 2024-25DRA2050MLevel 52024-25This module on the Contemporary Theatre Practice pathway will introduce students to practical strategies for the making of performance in the real-world contemporary theatre industry. The focus is on approaching performance through the lens of a professional practitioner. While we take existing models from contemporary theatre companies and theatre makers, we are also interested in developing a professional skill-set and attitude at this level and enabling students to consider themselves on their professional trajectory as makers. Students can explore the associated practices of improvising, devising and dramaturgy. Companies and theatre makers covered on the module include Massive Owl, Forced Entertainment, Goat Island, Gob Squad, Action Hero, The Wooster Group, Reckless Sleepers, Lone Twin, Uninvited Guests, Proto-type. The teaching team includes staff who have worked with these companies and have direct experience of making theatre today.OptionalTheatres of Experiment: the Avant-Garde 2024-25DRA2042MLevel 52024-25This module explores the genealogies, practices, politics, cultural legacy and impact of the European Avant-garde circa 1880-1930 and can turn to more recent developments in the course of the module. Students may study the theories, manifestoes, interventions and artworks from key movements including: Symbolism, Futurism, German Expressionism, DaDa, Surrealism, Absurdism and Russian Constructivism, before turning to contemporary expressions of avant-garde practice such as 1960s Happenings and the Fluxus Group. The module asks: What can the theatre and other practices of these avant-garde movements and landmark practitioners teach us in our approach to making theatre today? Where can vestiges of avant-gardism be seen in diverse contemporary performances and artworks? And how do avant-garde artists attempt to create radical fusions of art, life and politics?OptionalVictorian Worlds: Literature 1830-1914 2024-25ENL2070MLevel 52024-25OptionalA Dream Deferred: Class in American Literature 2025-26ENL3072MLevel 62025-26OptionalActing Technique: Stage Naturalism 2025-26DRA3080MLevel 62025-26The module teaches students how to act in the style of naturalism. It aims to refine performance technique, and instil solid, manageable principles about the craft of acting. Seen from the actor/character point of view, it is about actions and objectives, which are what you do in order to get what you need. The module examines various strategies and approaches principally derived from the work of Stanislavski and Laban. Using these practitioners, as well as studying the postmodern characterisation of Churchill and Crimp, the first two thirds of the module (8 weeks) concentrate on introducing acting and scene study techniques. In the final four weeks of teaching, workshops will become weekly work-in-progress sessions where students will demonstrate their scenes and critique the work of their peers in a masterclass/ rehearsal format. The module concludes with a public performance of the scene plus a post-show viva. There is also a directing dimension to the module, as scenes have to be interpreted and staged; scene and play analysis is also fundamental to the work of the director. No actor (or director) can begin to act (or direct) successfully without knowing how best to mine the text, wherein most clues are to be found about how to perform the scene, the character and the play.OptionalAmerican Detective Fiction and Film: 1930 to the Present Day 2025-26ENL3081MLevel 62025-26Why have detective narratives proved so enduringly popular? This module will interrogate the iconic figure of the private eye in American popular culture, through the fiction and film of the twentieth and twenty-first century.OptionalArts and Cultural Industries 2025-26DRA3056MLevel 62025-26This module offers you the opportunity to develop a detailed understanding of the arts as an ecosystem in relation to the wider world. You'll be introduced to the organisational infrastructure of the creative sector to equip you for a career in the arts and enhance your core employability skills for life after graduation. Acknowledging that what happens offstage is as important, if not more important than what happens onstage, this module provides you with real-world guidance for working in creative and cultural industries though lectures, discussion, group and individual working, research, and a series of talks and presentations from industry professionals working in a variety of creative contexts. You'll also be encouraged to keep abreast of government policy and issues such as audience accessibility and diversity within the arts, and ask how the current political climate shapes this generation of arts organisations, makers and companies.OptionalCabaret, Satire & Song 2025-26DRA3062MLevel 62025-26What does it mean to be popular? Why are popular performance modes such as clowning, cabaret, the musical and stand-up comedy so often overlooked within the serious study of theatre? In this module, students can engage with the historical, theoretical and practical contexts of a range of popular performance forms.OptionalContemporary Drama 2025-26ENL3004MLevel 62025-26OptionalDegree Show Festival 2025-26DRA3059MLevel 62025-26Final Project allows students the opportunity to work collaboratively to produce their Degree Show performance. Students will work together to propose and deliver an ambitious, large-scale performance that builds on their three years of experience on the Theatre programme. Embracing a broad spectrum of theatrical modes and genres, work may include (but not limited to) site-based pieces, restagings and adaptations, devised performance, intermedial, physical theatre and live art. All performances will have the opportunity to be shown in the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre as part of its professional programme.OptionalDirecting 2025-26DRA3077MLevel 62025-26What is the role of the director? What is the difference between directing an existing text and directing a piece 'from scratch'? What are the artistic and aesthetic concerns of the director, and what does it mean to direct theatre in the twenty-first century? This module introduces students to the practical process of classical and contemporary methodologies for directing theatre, from researching the script, through casting and rehearsals to auteurship, guided improvisation, and material development.OptionalDissertation (15c) 2025-26DRA3057MLevel 62025-26The Dissertation module provides the opportunity for a student to investigate and pursue a theatre and performance arts topic of his or her own choosing over an extended piece of academic writing. Each student is allocated a supervisor that will help them to select and refine a topic appropriate for extended study, evaluate progress and read and offer feedback on draft work. Students will be expected to work on their own initiative to undertake research and synthesise it into a logical and original argument in the form of a 4,500 piece of scholarly writing.OptionalDissertation (30c) 2025-26DRA3058MLevel 62025-26The Dissertation module provides the opportunity for a student to investigate and pursue a theatre and performance arts topic of his or her own choosing over an extended piece of academic writing. Each student is allocated a supervisor that will help them to select and refine a topic appropriate for extended study, evaluate progress and read and offer feedback on draft work. Students will be expected to work on their own initiative to undertake research and synthesise it into a logical and original argument in the form of a 9,000 word piece of scholarly writing.OptionalGenre and Popular Culture 2025-26AME3015MLevel 62025-26OptionalGothic in Literature and Film 2025-26ENL3006MLevel 62025-26Monsters and attics, desolate landscapes, imprisonment and pursuit: the gothic genre emerged in the late eighteenth century to depict our darkest fears and desires. Termed 'the literature of nightmare', gothic departs from a realistic mode of representation and employs a powerful means of symbolic expression. Students are given the opportunity to investigate ways in which the genre has explored psychological and political anxieties, and themes of sexual and social transgression. We consider literary texts from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries, including literature and film, and we give attention to sub-genres such as female gothic, imperial gothic and childrens gothic.OptionalGrowing Up and Growing Old: Youth and Age across the Nineteenth Century 2025-26ENL3080MLevel 62025-26This module explores what it meant to grow up and to grow old in the nineteenth century, through often contradictory accounts of experiencing age categories from childhood to old age. Students will have the opportunity to examine various constructions of ageing, to reflect on age as a crucial facet of identity. This module considers age as a lens to explore the nineteenth century as a transitional period of growth and expansion as well as decay and decline, through a range of Romantic and Victorian texts.OptionalIndependent Study: English 2025-26ENL3043MLevel 62025-26In this module students have the opportunity to research in depth an author or topic of their choosing. Students are expected to commence research over the summer between Levels 2 and 3 and, on their return, have regular, one-to-one meetings with a tutor who is a research specialist in that field. The supervisor offers advice and direction, but primarily this module encourages independent research leading to the production of a 10,000 word dissertation.OptionalIrish Writing since 1900 2025-26ENL3071MLevel 62025-26This module is designed to examine how terms such as Ireland and Irishness have been constructed and questioned across the last century, a period of immense and often turbulent historical and social change. It aims to explore the representation of place, the nature of nationalism, the changing family unit, gender roles and Ireland's relationship to globalization in Irish poetry, drama and fiction.OptionalLife Writing 2025-26ENL3032MLevel 62025-26This module responds to the recent interest in the representation of lives within literary studies. It discusses a range of life representations (including biography, autobiography, letters, confessions, memoirs, and poems) from the Romantic period to the contemporary moment. Students may consider the origins of autobiography, address Modernist experiments with life representations, and discuss twentieth-century and contemporary innovations, including disability narratives and cross-cultural autobiographies. Themes such as the construction of selfhood, conceptions of memory, the relational self, and the ethics of life writing are addressed.OptionalLiterature and the Environment 2025-26ENL3050MLevel 62025-26The first principle of ecological thinking is that it is not only human beings that are meaningful, and that we are neither so separate from, nor so dominant over, the non-human as we tend to think. In this module students can 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 sometimes, as a uniquely valuable one. Students can read texts from ancient Greek pastoral to contemporary dystopias, and from the poet John Clare to the woodland historian Oliver Rackham.OptionalLiterature and the Visual, 17701870 2025-26ENL3095MLevel 62025-26OptionalLiterature, Film and Gender 2025-26ENL3005MLevel 62025-26OptionalLost in the Funhouse: Experimental American Literary Fiction Since the Sixties 2025-26ENL3011MLevel 62025-26OptionalMadness, The Body, Literature 2025-26ENL3069MLevel 62025-26OptionalMonsters and Violence in Middle English Romance 2025-26ENL3077MLevel 62025-26This module explores the representation of East-West contact in Middle English romances, with a particular emphasis on the interlacement of racial and ethnic otherness and on different types of violence, from martial exploits and religious coercion to rape and cannibalism. Students will have the chance to experience the breadth of the romance genreits many thematic and topical branches, and its many sub-genres and their respective conventionsas well as insight to the actual act of crusading, and the cultural and social crises that arose from this act.OptionalMoving Home: Literatures of American Migration 2025-26ENL3070MLevel 62025-26OptionalPerformance, Media & New Technologies 2025-26DRA3061MLevel 62025-26What happens when performance meets new technology? How can digital technologies reshape and reconfigure the possibilities for performative and aesthetic experience? In this module students can practically engage with a range of new and broadcast technologies to develop a piece of performance practice that explores the relationships between technology and the experience of performance.OptionalPhysical Theatre 2025-26DRA3048MLevel 62025-26In this module you'll explore a range of approaches to the constantly evolving field of Physical Theatre. Through a series of workshops, you will investigate different techniques, styles, methodologies ranging from classical traditions to contemporary performance. You'll have the opportunity to gain a practical and analytical insight into the countless possibilities of the body in performance - in relation to other bodies, to the space, to the audience. You will work to develop skills that will equip you to use the body expressively, imaginatively, communicatively, collaboratively. You will engage with and draw inspiration from a variety of stimuli - words, images, sounds, scents, objects, culture and society - in order to devise original performances, using the body as the primary vehicle to generate, express and communicate meaning.OptionalPostmodernism: Apocalypse and Genesis 1967-2000 2025-26ENL3031MLevel 62025-26OptionalProfessional Production 2025-26DRA3078MLevel 62025-26OptionalScience Fiction 2025-26ENL3036MLevel 62025-26This module considers the genre of modern science fiction and its evolution into one of todays most popular narrative genres. Analysing a variety of forms novel, short story, drama, graphic novel and film students will have the opportunity to examine the socio-historical contexts of some of the most influential narratives of this period. This ranges from the emergence of scientific romance in the late nineteenth century, to late twentieth-century forms like cyberpunk and radical fantasy; from the problems of defining genre fictions and privileging science fiction over fantasy, to our enduring fascination with alternate histories, non-human agents (robots, animals, genetic hybrids, the environment), ecocatastrophe and post-apocalypse.OptionalSex, Texts and Politics: The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer 2025-26ENL3078MLevel 62025-26This module concentrates on the works of Geoffrey Chaucer, with a particular emphasis on The Canterbury Tales, perhaps Chaucers most famous work. Students will have the opportunity to examine the General Prologue and a variety of tales in relation to their historical context and literary antecedents, and, throughout, specific attention will be given to questions of genre (ranging from fable and epic to satire and romance), literary authority, narrative construction, and medieval aesthetics.OptionalShakespeare I 2025-26ENL3074MLevel 62025-26This module provides an opportunity for students to study the works of Shakespeare in detail. The dissemination, influence, and adaptation of Shakespeare is unrivalled, and without an understanding of the conventions that the works dissolved and those that they initiated, a full appreciation of the canon of English literature is inevitably lessened. This modules challenges Shakespeares status as an icon of tradition and elitism by reading the texts in the light of recent developments in critical theory, and by locating them in the culture of their age. Students will be invited to examine the ways in which different theoretical approaches might have a bearing upon the interpretation of Shakespeare, they will also be conversant with the religious climate of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the conditions of performance and play-going in Shakespeares theatre, and the significant cultural and historical events of the period.OptionalShakespeare II 2025-26ENL3075MLevel 62025-26This module allows students to study the works of the Bard in detail, and to read them in the light of critical theory and literary history. Shakespeares plays are a cornerstone of the canon of English literature, but in wider culture they are often treated as inflexible repositories of truth and human nature. This module will resist such approaches, and concentrate instead upon the ways in which the plays address the concerns of their day, as well as how they have been made to signify in other eras. Students can develop an understanding of how Shakespeares work dealt with early modern dramatic conventions, politics, and thought; how it addressed questions of history, religion, and race; and how it shaped the culture within which it was written. This module considers Shakespeares mature comedies, histories, and tragedies.OptionalSingle Author Study A 2025-26ENL3085MLevel 62025-26This module allows students to pursue an in-depth study of one authors literary or dramatic works. The author of choice varies from year to year according to academics current research interests, but potential authors may include writers of fiction and/or poetry such as Angela Carter, Charlotte Bronte, Iain Banks, Thomas Pynchon, M.R.James, Jane Austen and Sylvia Plath; and dramatists such as Caryl Churchill, Thomas Middleton, Aphra Behn, Ben Johnson and debbie tucker green. Students will explore the writers oeuvre in terms of themes, style, and engagement with form and genre traditions, and with contemporary cultural debates. We also address practicalities of authorship such as the role of editors, publishing/performance formats, and different readerships/audiences. Students will also consider the writers legacies including the afterlife of their works in adaptation. As well as studying texts, students will engage with conceptual debates about the role of the author : is attention to the authors life an outmoded and over-deterministic approach to the study of a text? or a necessary part of contextualisation? As we scrutinise the figure of the author in biography, literary societies, literary tourism and popular culture, we ask : what purposes does the author as a cultural construction serve ? and does this have anything to do with reading?OptionalSingle Author Study B 2025-26ENL3086MLevel 62025-26This module allows students to pursue an in-depth study of one authors literary or dramatic works. The author of choice varies from year to year according to academics current research interests, but potential authors may include writers of fiction and/or poetry such as Angela Carter, Charlotte Bronte, Iain Banks, Thomas Pynchon, M.R.James, Jane Austen and Sylvia Plath; and dramatists such as Caryl Churchill, Thomas Middleton, Aphra Behn, Ben Johnson and debbie tucker green. Students will explore the writers oeuvre in terms of themes, style, and engagement with form and genre traditions, and with contemporary cultural debates. We also address practicalities of authorship such as the role of editors, publishing/performance formats, and different readerships/audiences. Students will also consider the writers legacies including the afterlife of their works in adaptation. As well as studying texts, students will engage with conceptual debates about the role of the author : is attention to the authors life an outmoded and over-deterministic approach to the study of a text? or a necessary part of contextualisation? As we scrutinise the figure of the author in biography, literary societies, literary tourism and popular culture, we ask : what purposes does the author as a cultural construction serve ? and does this have anything to do with reading?OptionalSolo Performance 2025-26DRA3065MLevel 62025-26This module enables students to explore and analyse the various techniques of producing material which will eventually lead to the production of a Solo Performance. During the course of the module, students are expected to analyse and engage with the work of a variety of contemporary solo artists which will influence and guide their work. Engagement with a wide variety of Solo artists is important and the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre will provide a rich vein of resources in the form of incoming artists. These opportunities for students on this module are designed to enable them to discover a personal voice and a unique voice as a solo performance artist.OptionalSouthern Accents 2025-26ENL3009MLevel 62025-26OptionalSpecialist Elective II Semester A 2025-26DRA3064MLevel 62025-26This module offers students the opportunity to work alongside established academics conducting research into a specialist area of drama, theatre and/or performance studies. Specific module content will be informed by the research expertise of the tutor, who will connect students with the contexts, practices, theories and debates associated with this field of research, developing skills of textual and critical analysis alongside creative and critical practices.OptionalSpecialist Elective II Semester B 2025-26DRA3075MLevel 62025-26This module offers students the opportunity to work alongside established academics conducting research into a specialist area of drama, theatre and/or performance studies. Specific module content will be informed by the research expertise of the tutor, who will connect students with the contexts, practices, theories and debates associated with this field of research, developing skills of textual and critical analysis alongside creative and critical practices.OptionalThe Literature of Childhood 2025-26ENL3010MLevel 62025-26This module explores how childhood is constructed in a wide range of literary texts texts by adults for adults, by adults for children, and by children themselves. Underpinning the module is the notion of childhood as a cultural construct into which writers invest various, even contradictory, meanings. Students have the opportunity to explore texts by adults who idealise or demonise the child to suit their personal and philosophical agendas. Students may then analyse the mixture of didactic and therapeutic agendas in enduring genres of childrens literature such as the fairytale, adventure story and cautionary tale. Finally, we turn to children as authors in a study of juvenilia.OptionalTheatre For Young Audiences 2025-26DRA3053MLevel 62025-26What part does theatre play in the lives of children today? How do we make such theatre relevant, accessible, and alive in a world dominated by screen-based interaction? What is the most appropriate setting and subject matter to engage children in a theatrical experience? Students will form small groups and devise short performances designed to tour to Primary Schools in the City of Lincoln. The tour will usually play in a different Primary School every day for one working week, with audience sizes ranging from 80 - 300 children. The tour will replicate a professional touring model, accompanied by a dedicated Technician with a full complement of audio, visual and lighting equipment. The audience will usually comprise of 4 - 7 year old children, their teachers and teaching or learning assistants. Students will require DBS Checks to tour, and these will be provided by the School of Fine and Performing Arts.OptionalTwenty-First Century British Fiction 2025-26ENL3079MLevel 62025-26This module aims to explore new thematic trends, stylistic innovations and cultural developments in post-millennial British fiction, including a focus on globalising processes, transnational migration and digital technology. The module also addresses the development (and rethinking of the concepts) of gender and class in literature of the period and account for the continuing importance of the literary form in an age of digital publishing.OptionalWomens Writing and Feminist Theory 2025-26ENL3002MLevel 62025-26Students can study a diverse range of prose, poetry, and drama written by women from the eighteenth century to the present is considered alongside key concepts in feminist theory and the history of the womens movement. Writers range from Mary Wollstonecraft to Zora Neale Hurston to Jeanette Winterson. Topics range from the feminine aesthetic and French feminism to feminist utopianism and cyberfeminism.OptionalWriting for the Stage 2025-26DRA3060MLevel 62025-26This 30-credit Level 3 module will investigate different modes of writing for, through and in performance. The module introduces radical new dramaturgies and the potentiality of text as material, site and set. Students can develop approaches, strategies and techniques for writing for performance, inclusive of the notion of writing-as-performance, and a critical understanding of their application in theatre today.Optional

How you are assessed

Assessment methods on this course may vary for each module. For modules based in English, examples include coursework such as written assignments, reports, or dissertations; equally, there are practical assessments such as presentations, observations, and written exams. The weighting given to each assessment method may vary across each academic year and from module to module. For modules based in drama, students will encounter a wide variety of assessment types, including but not limited to performances, essays, individual and group presentations, annotated performances, presentation of practice, portfolio, Viva Voce, structured rehearsal/workshop, and programme notes.

Fees and Scholarships

Going to university is a life-changing step and it's important to understand the costs involved and the funding options available before you start. A full breakdown of the fees associated with this programme can be found on our course fees pages.

Course Fees

For eligible undergraduate students going to university for the first time, scholarships and bursaries are available to help cover costs. The University of Lincoln offers a variety of merit-based and subject-specific bursaries and scholarships. For full details and information about eligibility, visit our scholarships and bursaries pages.

Course-Specific Additional Costs

We encourage students to see as much theatre and performance as they can, and we support students with a ticket allocation at the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre. Each student will receive event/performance credits which can be used against ticketed performances.

For specific optional modules where a placement may be involved, students will be expected to fund travel costs to and from their individual placement, plus any accommodation, and general living costs.

Students who wish to join runs at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe are currently required to contribute £150 towards the cost of attending and are responsible for their travel and general living costs. Accommodation costs in Edinburgh are covered by the University.

Students on this course are expected to obtain their own copies of primary texts indicated for use and discussion in seminars (where available) and will be responsible for any additional costs incurred.

Entry Requirements 2023-24

United Kingdom

A Level: BBC (112 UCAS Tariff points from a minimum of 3 A levels or equivalent qualifications).

International Baccalaureate: 29 points overall.

BTEC Extended Diploma: Distinction, Merit, Merit or equivalent.

T Level: Merit

Access to Higher Education Diploma: 45 Level 3 credits with a minimum of 112 UCAS Tariff points.

A combination of qualifications which may include A Levels, BTEC, EPQ, etc.

Applicants will also need at least three GCSEs at grade 4 (C) or above, which must include English. Equivalent Level 2 qualifications may be considered.

The University accepts a wide range of qualifications as the basis for entry. We will also consider applicants with extensive and relevant work experience and will give special individual consideration to those who do not meet the standard entry qualifications.
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Non UK Qualifications:

If you have studied outside of the UK, and are unsure whether your qualification meets the above requirements, please visit our country pages https://www.lincoln.ac.uk/home/studywithus/internationalstudents/entryrequirementsandyourcountry/ for information on equivalent qualifications.

EU and Overseas students will be required to demonstrate English language proficiency equivalent to IELTS 6.0 overall, with a minimum of 5.5 in each element. For information regarding other English language qualifications we accept, please visit the English Requirements page https://www.lincoln.ac.uk/home/studywithus/internationalstudents/englishlanguagerequirementsandsupport/englishlanguagerequirements/

If you do not meet the above IELTS requirements, you may be able to take part in one of our Pre-sessional English and Academic Study Skills courses.

International

If you would like further information about entry requirements, or would like to discuss whether the qualifications you are currently studying are acceptable, please contact the Admissions team on 01522 886097, or email admissions@lincoln.ac.uk

Interviews

As part of the admissions process, Drama and English applicants will be invited to attend an interview. More information can be found within our Dance and Drama - Frequently Asked Questions.

"I made some incredible friends, had the most wonderful memories and still maintain they were the best three years of my life. I am now a full time English teacher and passing on the knowledge Lincoln helped me acquire to my students! The University of Lincoln helped me become a successful academic, and the people I met, both staff and students, helped me become a confident, determined individual and shaped who I am today."

Madelyn Essex, Drama and English BA (Hons) graduate

Facilities

Students can work and perform in the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, a £6 million, 450-seat theatre on campus. The Centre hosts a year-round programme of performances from students and national touring companies. Facilities include industry-standard studio and rehearsal spaces.

Each student will receive event/performance credits which can be used against ticketed performances at the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre.

View of the audience seating area from the stage of the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre

Features

Visiting Writers

Students with interests in creative writing and contemporary literature benefit from readings and masterclasses by published authors and other guest speakers in creative industries, such as publishing. Past guests have included former Poet Laureate, Dame Carol Ann Duffy, Dame Penelope Lively, and Patience Agbabi.

Activities

In English students have the opportunity to go on field trips. Detinations have previously included Newstead Abbey, former home of the poet Lord Byron, and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London. There may also be opportunities to work with manuscripts in the archives at Lincoln Cathedral or optional workshops with local artisans on medieval arts and culture.

Study Abroad

The growing reputation of the Lincoln School of Fine and Performing Arts has led to the development of partnerships with other international institutions. We have established two exciting ‘study abroad’ affiliations in North America, with the University of Ottawa in Canada and at Drury University in Missouri, USA. These partnerships enable up to eight drama students per year to participate in an exchange programme, where they will study for a term at one of these partner institutions. These international exchange programmes can provide a fantastic opportunity for students to develop life skills, expand the breadth of their education, and enhance their employability upon graduation.

Exchange students applying to study outside of Europe do not pay tuition fees at their host university, but continue to pay tuition fees at their home institution.

Participants will usually be responsible for all other costs themselves including travel, accommodation, general living expenses, visas, insurance, vaccinations, and administrative fees at the host institution.

Students undertaking an exchange keep their entitlement to UK sources of funding such as student loans and should apply to their awarding body in the normal way, indicating that they will be studying abroad.

If a period of study or placement abroad is a mandatory part of your degree, you may be entitled to extra funding. Students should direct enquiries to their funding body about this.

Students may also be able to apply to their Local Education Authority or the Student Awards Agency for Scotland for further funding to assist with travel expenses. Please contact them for further information.

Performance Opportunities

Joint Honours students also have the option to apply for The Lincoln Company, The School of Drama’s professional company of emerging theatre, dance, and performance makers. As the company-in-residence at Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, each year they work to produce and tour high-quality, original performance to venues and festivals around the UK including Edinburgh Festival Fringe – the world’s largest platform for the arts.

Drama also offers additional, optional, extracurricular Technique Classes, which allows students to improve their skills as performers. Previous technique classes have included topics such as singing, ensemble work, play-reading for enjoyment and analysis, and stage combat.

Group of students on stage during a performance

Research

Students are welcome to attend the numerous research events hosted by the School of English and Journalism, which provide opportunities to learn more about the work in which members of staff are engaged, and to hear more about specialist research by visiting speakers. These include events run by the Medieval Studies Research Group, Nineteenth-Century Research Group, 21st-Century Research Group, and the English and Creative Writing Seminar Series.

https://www.lincoln.ac.uk/home/ej/english/englishresearch/researchgroups/

Student Experience

Level 3 students, Sydney Vanderhoeven-Palmer from our Drama and English course and Caoimhe Shanahan-Peart from Drama and Theatre, share their experiences of studying, practice, and research, and tell us why they applied to Lincoln.

Career Opportunities

Students can develop the skills and knowledge relevant to a variety of roles within the theatre industry, including actor, director, playwright, producer, stage manager, and technician. Graduates may pursue careers in related professions such as theatre making, directing, stage management, technical theatre, producing, marketing, and arts administration.

Graduates can also go on to careers in publishing, journalism, advertising, public relations, the civil service, and communications. Some choose to continue their studies at postgraduate level, while others undertake qualifications in teaching

Visit Us in Person

The best way to find out what it is really like to live and learn at Lincoln is to join us for one of our Open Days. Visiting us in person is important and will help you to get a real feel for what it might be like to study here.

Book Your Place

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Key Information

BA (Hons) Drama and English