Overview
This distinctive, flexible and varied degree combines the study of English literature with workshop-based practical theatre work, allowing you to explore English, theatre and performance from a range of creative and critical perspectives.
The programme is designed to balance core learning in English, theatre, and performance across the three years of the degree, while offering opportunities to tailor your experience in response to the subjects, learning environments, and skills that you find most supportive and inspiring.
Throughout this course, you’ll study literatures in English from the medieval to the contemporary period, exploring richly diverse literary texts across different genres, including fiction, poetry and drama. Through engaging with different kinds of texts from across the globe and from different periods of history, you’ll consider how and why these texts are produced, read, and understood, and analyse the impact of their creativity and power. Literature modules explore themes relevant to how we live today, including race and ethnicity, gender, climate change and nature, social class, disability, and wellbeing.
You will also develop your skills as an artist-researcher through practical workshops, seminars and lectures led by our own specialists in theatre and performance. This side of your degree focuses on 20th and 21st century theatre and performance practices, and examines the purpose and importance of theatre today. You will study the history and development of contemporary theatre, develop skills in performance, collaboration and theatre making, and stage your own work. Informed by a research-led understanding of the cultural sector, modules will explore the relationship between performance, theatre and a range of contemporary interests and concerns, including sustainability, decolonisation, and social justice.
Course Details
Throughout the degree, core modules in English, and theatre and performance will ensure a grounding in both disciplines. Alongside these core modules, optionality will increase as you progress through your degree, giving you opportunities to specialise as you develop your confidence, interests and understanding.
At level 1, modules like Reading Between the Lines and Writing Matters introduce you to university-level study in English, equipping you to read critically and write with rigour and persuasion. Alongside these, Studio Practices and Performance Perspectives introduce the practical and critical foundations of performance studies and prepare you for making and presenting work for a live audience. Drama: Text and Performance offers additional opportunities to link the two sides of your degree, building on perspectives grounded in English literature studies to think critically about drama as performance and a literary genre.
At level 2, English Literature modules Writing Environments and Body Language, explore two urgent challenges, the climate crisis and personal wellbeing, and examine how these issues can be understood and expressed through literary texts. Re-thinking Theatre and Performance Histories offers a grounding in theatre research through an exploration of key developments in theatre and performance since the 20th century, while Creative Practice and Performance Contexts is a studio-based module, supporting the development of specialist skills in a specific area of theatre or performance practice.
After your second year of study, students may apply for transfer to an International Degree at one of a wide range of universities with which the University of Leeds has established links. You may also spend a year in industry on a work placement as an optional third year of your degree programme.
At Level 3, you’ll undertake a Final Year Project (FYP), which forms the capstone of your degree. You will be able to choose from a group performance project for a public audience, or an extended independent research project in English Literature,
or Theatre and Performance.
Depending on your choice of FYP, you will also select either three or four options from a wide range of specialist research-led modules across English Literature, and Theatre and Performance Studies. These modules change every year according to staff availability and current research interests, but typical options include Modernist Sexualities; Theatricalities: Beckett, Pinter, Kane; Bowie, Reading, Writing; Postcolonial London; Contemporary Theatre Makers; Intercultural Shakespeare; Performance Design and Space.
[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]
View Timetable
At Level 1, candidates will be required to study the following compulsory modules:
| Code | Title | Credits | Semester | Pass for Progression |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ENGL1065 | Reading Between the Lines | 20 | Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) | |
| PECI1112 | Studio Practices | 20 | Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) | |
| PECI1113 | Performance Project: From Text to Performance | 20 | Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) |
Candidates will then select from the following options, up to a limit of 60 credits per semester. They will choose one module from each of the following baskets:
Basket 1:
| Code | Title | Credits | Semester | Pass for Progression |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ENGL1055 | Writing Matters | 20 | Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) | |
| ENGL1070 | Drama: Text and Performance | 20 | Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) |
Basket 2:
| Code | Title | Credits | Semester | Pass for Progression |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PECI1110 | Performance Matters | 20 | Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) | |
| PECI1111 | Performance Perspectives | 20 | Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) |
Candidates will also be required to study 20 credits from the following optional modules . Alternatively, they may take up to 20 credits of Discovery modules in place of an option module.
| Code | Title | Credits | Semester | Pass for Progression |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ENGL1221 | Modern Fictions in English: Conflict, Liminality, Translation | 20 | Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) | |
| ENGL1261 | Poetry: Reading and Interpretation | 20 | Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) | |
| ENGL1855 | Race, Writing and Decolonization | 20 | Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) | |
| PECI1114 | Studying Theatre and Performance | 20 | Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) | |
| PECI1240 | Introduction to Musical Theatre | 20 | Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) | |
| PECI1706 | Managing Festivals and Events | 20 | Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) | |
| PECI1707 | Exploring the Performing Arts | 20 | ||
| PECI1709 | Stage Management | 20 | Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) |
Candidates may take up to 20 credits of Discovery modules in place of an option module.
[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]
View Timetable
Candidates will be required to study the following compulsory modules
| Code | Title | Credits | Semester | Pass for Progression |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ENGL2045 | Body Language: Literature and Embodiment | 20 | Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) | |
| PECI2112 | Re-thinking Theatre & Performance Histories | 20 | Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) | |
| PECI2113 | Creative Practices | 20 | Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) |
It is also compulsory to choose one module from the following:
| Code | Title | Credits | Semester | Pass for Progression |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ENGL2030 | Writing Environments: Literature, Nature, Culture | 20 | Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) | |
| ENGL2050 | Theatre, Society and Self | 20 | Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) |
In addition, candidates are required to study between 20-40 credits from the following optional modules to a limit of 60 credits per semester. Where modules are divided into numbered baskets, modules are mutually exclusive and students cannot choose more than one module from each basket.
PCI:
| Code | Title | Credits | Semester | Pass for Progression |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PECI2110 | Reflection and Research | 20 | Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) | |
| PECI2705 | Theatre Directing | 20 | Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) | |
| PECI2706 | Cultural Flashpoints in the Performing Arts | 20 | Not running in 202425 | |
| PECI2707 | Arts Marketing | 20 | Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) | |
| PECI2708 | Exploring Musical Theatre | 20 | Not running in 202425 | |
| PECI2709 | Performance Design | 20 | Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) | |
| PECI2712 | Somatic Practices in the 20th and 21st Century | 20 | Not running in 202425 | |
| PECI2713 | Performer Training in the C20th and C21st | 20 | Not running in 202425 | |
| PECI2714 | Politics, Identity and Performance | 20 | Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) |
English:
Basket 1
| Code | Title | Credits | Semester | Pass for Progression |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ENGL2029 | Renaissance Literature | 20 | Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) | |
| ENGL2065 | Postcolonial Literature | 20 | Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) | |
| ENGL2085 | Medieval and Tudor Literature | 20 | Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) | |
| ENGL2090 | Modern Literature | 20 | Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) |
Basket 2:
| Code | Title | Credits | Semester | Pass for Progression |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ENGL2095 | Other Voices: Rethinking Nineteenth-Century Literature | 20 | Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) | |
| ENGL2096 | The World Before Us: Literature 1660–1830 | 20 | Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) |
Basket 3:
| Code | Title | Credits | Semester | Pass for Progression |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ENGL2055 | American Words, American Worlds | 20 | Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) | |
| ENGL2080 | Contemporary Literature | 20 | Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) |
Students may take up to 20 credits of Discovery modules.
[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]
View Timetable
Candidates will be required to study ONE of the following compulsory modules:
| Code | Title | Credits | Semester | Pass for Progression |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ENGL3041 | Final Year Project | 40 | Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun) | |
| PECI3700 | Independent Research Project | 40 | Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun) | |
| PECI3703 | Performance Project 3: Public Performance | 40 | Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun) |
IF students choose either PECI3700 or PECI3703, they will be required to choose 40 credits from Baskets 3 or 4. In addition, they will choose 40 credits from Baskets 2, 3 and 4, in any combination, up to a limit of 60 credits per semester.
Please note that the list below is indicative and subject to change year by year depending on staff availability:
Basket 2:
| Code | Title | Credits | Semester | Pass for Progression |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PECI3701 | Contemporary Issues in Arts and Culture | 20 | Not running in 202425 | |
| PECI3705 | Arts and Cultural Management | 20 | Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) | |
| PECI3707 | Performance Design and Space | 20 | Not running in 202425 | |
| PECI3708 | Contemporary Theatre Makers | 20 | Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) | |
| PECI3711 | Inter-cultural Shakespeare | 20 | Not running in 202425 |
Basket 3:
- Text is a Technology (20 Credits)
| Code | Title | Credits | Semester | Pass for Progression |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ENGL3031 | Sex and Suffering in the Eighteenth-Century Novel | 20 | Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) | |
| ENGL3033 | Writing and Gender in Seventeenth-Century England | 20 | Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) | |
| ENGL3034 | Romantic Lyric Poetry | 20 | Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) | |
| ENGL3059 | South African Writing: Apartheid and After | 20 | Not running in 202425 | |
| ENGL3062 | Charles Dickens Then & Now | 20 | Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) | |
| ENGL3063 | Haunted Hinterlands: Wyrd Works and Folk Horror Fictions | 20 | Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) | |
| ENGL3163 | Milton | 20 | Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) | |
| ENGL32114 | Forming Victorian Fiction | 20 | Not running in 202425 | |
| ENGL3321 | Angry Young Men and Women: Literature of the Mid-Twentieth Century | 20 | Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) | |
| ENGL3365 | Theatricalities: Beckett, Pinter, Kane | 20 | Not running in 202425 | |
| ENGL3386 | Telling Lives: Reading and Writing Family Memoir | 20 | Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) | |
| ENGL3407 | Shakespeare and Global Cinema | 20 | Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) | |
| ENGL3579 | Law and Literature: Transgression, Justice, and Interpretation | 20 | Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) | |
| ENGL3680 | Postcolonial London | 20 | Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) |
Basket 4:
- Writing America (20 Credits)
| Code | Title | Credits | Semester | Pass for Progression |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ENGL3006 | Remixing the Renaissance | 20 | Not running in 202425 | |
| ENGL3027 | Shakespeare | 20 | Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) | |
| ENGL3061 | Heart Disease in Contemporary Literature | 20 | Not running in 202425 | |
| ENGL3066 | The Public Poet (Creative Writing) | 20 | Not running in 202425 | |
| ENGL3153 | Refugee Narratives | 20 | Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) | |
| ENGL3314 | Imagining Posthuman Futures | 20 | Not running in 202425 | |
| ENGL3391 | September 11 in Fact and Fiction | 20 | Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) | |
| ENGL3396 | Fictions of the End: Apocalypse and After | 20 | Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) | |
| ENGL3402 | Home Bodies: Domestic Animals in Contemporary Literature | 20 | Not running in 202425 | |
| ENGL3408 | Digital Discourse: language and social media | 20 | Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) | |
| ENGL3410 | Modernist Sexualities | 20 | Not running in 202425 |
Last updated: 22/08/2024 15:14:50
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