English and Drama Joint Honours BA (Hons) at University of Northampton

This Joint Honours course will develop your literary and Dramatic ways of thinking. It will introduce you to a fascinating range of literary texts and periods allowing you to develop your skills as a thinker, reader, writer and critic. By studying English alongside Drama you will explore a variety of practical and theoretical approaches and performance styles from a range of historical and cultural perspectives. The combined courses will develop transferable skills that will boost your employability.

Whatever your ambitions, we’re here to help you to achieve them. We’ll support you to identify the skills you’re learning during your course, find your strengths and secure practical experience so that when it comes to applying for jobs or further study you’ll feel confident in standing out from the crowd. We’ve created the Northampton Employment Promise because we are so confident that if you focus on your studies and complete one of our awards you’ll be highly employable by the time you graduate. Putting you in a great position to secure employment or continue your studies.

Course Details

This joint honours course aims to provide students with a comprehensive and thorough understanding of English from the Renaissance to the present day. Drama is an experiential practice-led discipline in which students practically explore key aspects of theatre and performance practice styles, conventions and theories across a wide range of historical and cultural backgrounds.

You will enjoy our excellent studio facilities and access to productions at Northampton’s nationally recognised regional theatre, Royal and Derngate. There are opportunities for visits, researching educational settings and activities in schools and other educational contexts.

You will develop and increase your repertoire of physical and performance skills. You will develop physical and vocal techniques for work in different styles of performance, for improvisation and for devising. You will also acquire skills relevant for textual interpretation and critical analysis, which is also developed by the other component on this joint course. These skills will be developed through a combination of teaching strategies including theatre visits, lectures or seminars and workshops with visiting professionals.

Assessments

There are a variety of assessment formats including, essays, practical reports, presentations, time-constrained essays, multiple-choice tests, group project work, analysis and reflection.

Year one

You will be introduced to the core disciplines that underpin the academic analysis of both subjects. Year one will explore the introduction of English and Drama foundations providing an excellent platform of knowledge for you to advance on to year two.

Drama at year one concentrates on developing key skills, both practical and academic, through four compulsory modules consisting of workshop-based, practice-led investigations of selected performance theories and lecture or seminar courses. English offers three modules in which the foundations of your degree are laid. They are:

• Contemporary Shakespeare, where you will encounter the Bard in a variety of modern genres including the graphic novel and screen adaptations
• Identity Under Construction: Late Twentieth Century Literature. Here you will explore the development of English Literature from Orwell and the end of the Second World War to the present
• Language and Creativity which examines the English Language in its everyday and creative functions and provides a comprehensive understanding of variation in language across different social and professional contexts

Year two

There are two core modules for English: Experimental Literature, in which you will read and discuss a broad variety of literature from the first half of the twentieth century; and Victorian Visions where you will encounter important genres such as poetry, drama and fiction, and writers from Charles Dickens and the Brontes to Oscar Wilde. There are also a wide range of optional modules in which you can read and discuss a diverse range of literature according to your interest.

In Drama you will build on the ensemble work of the foundation year through increased speculation in chosen areas of interest whilst extending the depth of study and scope of practical work. You will be exposed to work of greater complexity and challenges requiring more creativity and imagination most especially in the compulsory modules, Specialist Study and Theories and Movements of Performance.

Year three

You will have the opportunity to develop specialised and intensive study on areas and aspects of English and Drama that you find particularly interesting.

For your final year you can choose from optional modules but you will be required to take the following core modules:

• Early Modern Literature: Page, Stage and Screen which provides new perspectives on that period, from Renaissance Sexualities to Visions of the New World
• Satire and Revolution: Re-Reading Eighteenth Century Literature which focuses on the long eighteenth century, a period of intellectual and cultural progress, but also of wick wit and violence

In Drama, you will take the compulsory module, Adaptations, and participate in a compulsory intensive tutor led investigative course, Theatre and Performance in Context. You will form creative relationships with professionals in the performance and creative industries.

You will need to prepare, by supervised research, a dissertation that permits them to investigate an area of personal/career interest.