SchoolOfEnglish.

BA in English & Theatre

What our students say“I’ve made great friends, studied something I love in the way I want to study it, in a department which supports me, and had a pretty good time along the way.”

“Overall, I would say my studies have completely changed me. When I started here, I was shy and lacking confidence in my abilities. I feel I have blossomed into a more vocal and competent communicator. If I were to recommend this course and University to anybody, I’d do it with honesty and passion, as I feel it has nurtured me as an individual.”

“Lecturers are fantastic: passionate, eloquent and inspiring.”

“Innovative teaching, excellent resources and varied assessment methods make the course extremely diverse. The support networks that are in place, such as the personal tutor scheme and office hours, help you to reflect upon your learning and progress.”

Wide-ranging, flexible and rewarding, English Literature degrees at Sheffield foster your love of literature, film, theatre and beyond, developing your critical and ethical thinking, and inspiring your creative imagination.

We are incredibly proud of the students we have educated, and of our internationally esteemed, civic-minded university.

Our English & Theatre DegreeOur Single Honours Degree in English & Theatre is aimed at those who are passionate about both subjects. While students taking only English can still choose to take an individual theatre module or two, those on the English & Theatre course take a dedicated series of studio-based and co-ordinated practical modules (not available to other students) in which you will encounter an extremely rich and challenging range of texts, practitioners, forms of theatre and approaches to theatre-making which will allow you to develop your creative, imaginative and intellectual skills.

On this programme, in each semester, you will take one core (compulsory) module in English, and one in Theatre, and then choose a third module in either discipline (or, indeed, from elsewhere in the University). This means that you could opt to balance your overall degree equally between English and Theatre, or alternatively, do two thirds of your work in one subject, and one third in the other.

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Who we areThere are currently five full-time academic staff who spend all or most of our time teaching theatre courses at Sheffield, and all of us are experienced practitioners who teach studio-based courses as well as seminars. We also bring in professional theatre companies and practitioners to run workshops or to talk about their work, sometimes as part of a module, and sometimes as extra-curricular and open events. (Quite often, the people we bring in are former students of ours who are now established in theatre-related careers).

We are supported by two full-time technicians, who run our well-equipped studios and rehearsal spaces, and we also have a large cohort of postgraduate students studying for MAs and PhDs, who sometimes add their expertise to teaching, or run projects which offer exciting opportunities for undergraduates who want to get involved.

Who you areBy choice, we are a small programme, typically taking around 18 students per year. Of course, you will also work with other students on the core Literature modules, and within your optional modules; however, for continuity, cohesion and strong creative relationships throughout the core studio-based theatre modules, we know that a group of this size is ideal.

We do not audition for entry to the programme, because although you will do a lot of practical work this is an academic degree, and the practice is primarily a means of learning, and then of demonstrating what you have learnt.

We do assess practice – and have clear and specific criteria for doing so – but we use many other forms of written and oral assessment (including essays but not exams!) and no modules are assessed entirely on practice.

Some of our students choose to do as much performance related work as possible (it can be through stage-management or design or lighting, as well as through acting and extra-curricular productions); but others - equally successful - see written analysis as their primary strength. In any case, the quality of your ideas, your ability to articulate these and your level of commitment to exploring through practice, are just as important as your technical skills.

We ask that you are prepared to work hard, that you remain attentive to your reading and viewing, and to the wider world around you, that you think deeply and with patience, and that you maintain an open mind: be curious; ask questions; think critically and creatively.

Degree Structure Autumn Semester

L1 Theatre Practice: Interpreting Texts Studying Prose Unrestricted*

L2 Performance in HistoryRenaissance Literature OR Criticism and Literary Theory

Optional

L3 Theatre Research Project

Romantic & Victorian Poetry OR Romantic & Victorian Prose

Optional

Spring Semester

L1 Theatre Practice: Making Texts Studying Prose Unrestricted*

L2 Contemporary Performance Practices

Restoration and Eighteenth Century Literature OR Genre

Optional

L3 Performance Essay Modern Literature OR Contemporary Literature

Optional

Theatre Optional ModulesOur range of optional Theatre modules allows you to focus much of your degree study around specific areas of practice which interest you, or, should you prefer this, to explore as wide and diverse a range of experiences as possible. The modules we offer also reflect staff interests and research expertise, and in particular the equal emphasis our course gives to the historical and the contemporary, the traditional and the experimental, the spoken and the visual, the creative and the theoretical.

The practical work within these modules encompasses performance forms of very different kinds, sometimes taking you beyond the University and outside ordinary theatre spaces. You might find yourself working in a gallery or a museum in the city; or in the Botanical Gardens, or in the amphitheatre

behind the railway station; or in a primary school (where instead of performing you might just as easily be running a workshop to introduce Year Six children to Macbeth!)

• A History of Dramatic Texts in Performance• The Reception and Analysis of Theatre• Theatre in Education and

Community Theatre • Women Playwrights on the

International stage• Performing Shakespeares• Adaptation: Theory & Practice• Contemporary British Theatre• Shakespeare on Film• Radical Texts• Live Art• Site-Specific Performance

*unrestricted modules are those from other subject areas such as History or Languages.

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Our range of optional English modules includes:

1st Year Optional Modules• Celtic Languages & Literature• Creative Writing• Critical contexts• Early American Literature• Early Englishes• Foundations in Literary Study: Biblical and

Classical Sources in English• History of dramatic texts in performance • History of English

• Hollywood Cinema• Introduction to cinema• Introduction to the reception and analysis

of theatre• Introduction to Theatre• Marx, Darwin, Freud,• Practical Stylistics• Studying Theatre• Techniques of performance

Why take this Degree?Because you’re passionate about pursuing both English Literature and Theatre to a higher level and want to spend three years researching and learning about them in the company of others who share your interest. But taking this degree also open ups a striking range of career opportunities - as we know from watching what our students have gone

on to do afterwards. Some go into careers in different areas of theatre or performance practice, or in film and television, but others go into arts administration, writing, journalism, teaching - and beyond. And many stay in touch with us, because they recognise that the opportunities they had here played a major part in setting them on their way.

Our Recognition“1st for Research Environment” REF 2014

We’re one of the largest and most successful English departments in the UK. We conduct ground-breaking research, maintain strong links with our local community, and work with students who love being here.

In the Research Excellence Framework 2014, 82% of the School’s research activities and outputs were judged world leading (4*) and internationally excellent (3*). In terms of the research quality for our size (our research power), this result ranks us 12th out of 89 departments in the UK.

The School of English’s research environment has been judged to be the best for English in the country (1st out of 89 departments; with a combined score of 4* in 90% and 3* in 10% of our activities). This result means that our School offers outstanding support for academic staff and students at all levels to work closely and successfully to pursue research and scholarship across the field of English studies.

The impact outside the academy of the research conducted in the School has been judged to be valuable and strong: 100% of our impact activities scored 4* and 3*. This combined result places the School 1st out of 89 departments in the UK.

Please note: The content of our courses is reviewed annually to make sure it is current and relevant. Individual modules may be updated or withdrawn in response to discoveries through our world-leading research, funding changes, professional accreditation requirements, student or employer feedback, curriculum review, staff availability, and variations in student numbers. In the event of a material change the University will inform students in good time and will take reasonable steps to minimise disruption.

Our 2nd & 3rd Year English Optional Modules• Afro-American Literature to 1940• Afro-American Literature 2: 1940 to the

Present• Women’s Autobiography• Literary Mad Scientists: From Frankenstein

to Einstein• War on Screen• Theory/Contingency• Literature & Nonsense• No Animals Were Harmed in the Making of

this Module• Irish Fiction• The Graphic Novel• Creative Writing Poetry• Writing Fiction• The Idea of America• Introduction to Modern Irish• Writing the Real• America & the Avant-Garde• The Elegy• Radical Texts• Introduction to Old English• Creating Poetry• Christopher Marlowe• America in the 1960s

• Darwin & the Nineteenth-Century Novel• Secrets & Lies: Victorian Life-Writing• Creative Writing Prose Fiction• Satire & Print in the Eighteenth Century• The History of Persuasion• Introduction to Middle English• European Gothic• Love & Death: The Films of Woody Allen• Adaptation: Theory & Practice• Sites of Performance• Performing Shakespeare• Radical Theory• Chaucer’s Comic Tales• Cold War Fiction• Shakespeare on Film• John Donne• Representing the Holocaust• Post-War British Realist Cinema• Byron & Shelley• Imagining the North• Sex & Decadence in Restoration Theatre• Fin de Siècle Gothic• Interdisciplinary Research in Practice• Dissertation

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Our FacilitiesThe School of English Theatre Workshop The Theatre Workshop can hold up to 100 people and is used for teaching, rehearsals and events in the auditorium; construction, design and fabrication in our Carpentry workshop; creative meetings, seminars and research groups across our rehearsal spaces; and production meetings, training and programme management in our Theatre and Productions offices.

The CottageThe Cottage is equipped with a wide range of facilities including Computer Aided Design (CAD) suites, advanced sound and video editing platforms. With live-streaming facilities and social media integration students are able to develop work that crosses the boundary between physical and digital to create theatre and performance for the digital age.

The Cutting Edge Studio The Hawley Building houses the Cutting Edge Studio and two break out spaces for rehearsals, meetings, video viewing and seminars. In addition to teaching that takes place here, the building can be booked by students to develop their skills and to work on their own projects. Fitted with a Harliquin dance floor, a full sound rig, LED lighting fixtures and administration facilities, the Hawley building provides all the services for an emerging practitioner.

The University of Sheffield Drama StudioConverted from a 19th century Baptist church, the Drama Studio is a venue for performances and has three rehearsal spaces for production rehearsals, classes and independent work. The space gives students the chance to work in a traditionally styled theatre space and experience the mechanics of creating traditionally structured theatre as well as developing and adapting non-traditional theatre performances to a space with its own unique characteristics.

To find out the current programme go to www.sheffield.ac.uk/drama

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About the School of EnglishWe are researchers, writing the books and articles that advance the study of literature and culture from the origins of the English language to the present day. We are deeply committed to education. We are not committed simply to teaching you, but to working collegially with and alongside you. The roots of the word research are in “seeking out”, or even “seeking out with intensity”, and we encourage you to come to university to be part of a community seeking out knowledge.

To say we are committed to education is also to emphasise our belief that when we guide your education we do not educate you alone, but that we are all participating in a larger ecology of ideas, of ethics and of commitment back out into the world.

That is one reason why as a School and as a University we are rightly famed for our engagement with the public, both locally and on the international stage.

Our centres for research demonstrate the breadth of our interests: the History of the Gothic; the Research of Film; Cold War Cultures; Archival Practice; Poetry and Poetics; Medical Humanities; and a recent development in the discipline, Animal Studies, which challenges the presumption that humans are exceptional amongst species.

The Creative ArtsWe need something to read, to watch, and to contemplate of course, so we are as interested in creativity as we are in criticism. Our tradition of fostering creative writing stretches back to the appointments of Angela Carter as a writer-in-residence, and the poet and critic Professor Sir William Empson. We’re proud to continue that tradition with a teaching team led by Professor of Poetry

Simon Armitage. We provide a forum for your work as writers and editors in the online and print journal Route57. We work hard to develop connections with poets, presses and arts organizations, including the Man Booker Prize, Bank Street Arts and Off the Shelf.

We also hold fantastic collections of rare archives and books in our libraries.

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“No matter what century created it, a play always concerns the contemporary world right now - a high-density magnifying lens through which we can see our own times, our lives, our problems, and our assumptions. Hamlet signifies what Hamlet means now.”

Anne Bogart, And Then, You Act: Making Art in An Unpredictable World (London + New York: Routledge, 2007)

Sheffield is a vibrant city of culture and has the largest theatre complex outside London.

Find out more at: www.ourfaveplaces.co.uk