English and Theatre Studies BA (UCAS QW34)
Explore our English and Theatre Studies degree at Warwick
Theatre is the most public and political literary form. Our English and Theatre Studies (BA) degree emphasises the relationship between writing and performance, asking how theatre intervenes in history to foster social and political change.
General entry requirements
A level typical offer
AAB to include grade A in English Literature or English Language and Literature (combined). You also have to meet the additional requirements listed below.
A level contextual offer
We welcome applications from candidates who meet the contextual eligibility criteria and whose predicted grades are close to, or slightly below, the contextual offer level. The typical contextual offer is ABB including an A in English Literature or English Language and Literature (combined). See if you're eligible.
General GCSE requirements
Unless specified differently above, you will also need a minimum of GCSE grade 4 or C (or an equivalent qualification) in English Language and either Mathematics or a Science subject. Find out more about our entry requirements and the qualifications we accept.
We advise that you also check the English Language requirements for your course which may specify a higher GCSE English requirement. Please find the information about this below.
IB typical offer
34 to include 6 at Higher Level in English Literature or English Language and Literature (combined). You also have to meet the additional requirements listed below.
IB contextual offer
We welcome applications from candidates who meet the contextual eligibility criteria and whose predicted grades are close to, or slightly below, the contextual offer level. The typical contextual offer is 32 including 6 at Higher Level in English Literature or English Language and Literature (combined). See if you're eligible.
General GCSE requirements
Unless specified differently above, you will also need a minimum of GCSE grade 4 or C (or an equivalent qualification) in English Language and either Mathematics or a Science subject. Find out more about our entry requirements and the qualifications we accept.
We advise that you also check the English Language requirements for your course which may specify a higher GCSE English requirement. Please find the information about this below.
We welcome applications from students taking BTECs alongside A level English Literature or English Language and Literature (combined).
You also have to meet the additional requirements listed below.
General GCSE requirements
Unless specified differently above, you will also need a minimum of GCSE grade 4 or C (or an equivalent qualification) in English Language and either Mathematics or a Science subject. Find out more about our entry requirements and the qualifications we accept.
We advise that you also check the English Language requirements for your course which may specify a higher GCSE English requirement. Please find the information about this below.
International qualifications
English Language requirements
All applicants have to meet our English Language requirements. If you cannot demonstrate that you meet these, you may be invited to take part in our Pre-sessional English course at WarwickLink opens in a new window.
This course requires: Band B
Learn more about our English Language requirementsLink opens in a new window
Additional requirements
We prefer to interview candidates before making an offer. Interviews are tailor-made to each individual and designed to explore your suitability for study at Warwick, so they do not follow a set pattern.
There is nothing specific you need to do to prepare, but expect to be asked about the literary works you have studied or have read beyond the syllabus, and the other interests you mention in your personal statement. The interview day typically includes an opportunity to meet with staff and students. Separate arrangements will be made for international students to complete an online interview.
Frequently asked questions
Warwick may make differential offers to students in a number of circumstances. These include students participating in a Widening Participation programme or who meet the contextual data criteria.
Differential offers will usually be one or two grades below Warwick’s standard offer.
All students who successfully complete the Warwick IFP and apply to Warwick through UCAS will receive a guaranteed conditional offer for a related undergraduate programme (selected courses only).
Find out more about standard offers and conditions for the IFP.
We welcome applications for deferred entry.
Additional requirements
We prefer to interview candidates before making an offer. Interviews are tailor-made to each individual and designed to explore your suitability for study at Warwick, so they do not follow a set pattern.
There is nothing specific you need to do to prepare, but expect to be asked about the literary works you have studied or have read beyond the syllabus, and the other interests you mention in your personal statement. The interview day typically includes an opportunity to meet with staff and students. Separate arrangements will be made for international students to complete an online interview.
Course overview
Taught by expert staff from the English and Comparative Literary Studies and Theatre and Performance Studies departments, this course emphasises the relationship between writer, text, performer, critic, playing place and society within a historical, political and cultural context. You will have many opportunities to see a diverse range of productions at the world-renowned theatres at nearby Stratford-upon-Avon and on-campus at Warwick Arts Centre.
Theatre modules examine developments in theatrical theory and practice: they focus on plays related to theatrical and political history to emphasise how past movements have shaped the theatre of the present. English Literature modules focus on the close study of literary texts from the classical period to the present, exploring politics, form, and meaning. You will learn to understand and critically analyse texts, and to present persuasive and coherent written and oral arguments while developing independent thought, judgment, and creativity.
Study abroad
As a student of our English degrees, you will have the opportunity to spend your third year at one of our partner institutions in the USA, Europe, China, Australia, or Japan. You will then return to Warwick to complete the fourth and final year of your degree.
You will be able to apply to transfer to the four-year course when you are in your second year at Warwick, subject to the availability of places from the University's International Office.
Core modules
In your first year, you will gain an understanding of literature from the classical past to the here and now. On British Theatre Since 1939, you will look at post-war British theatre from the ‘angry young men’ to the women of the ‘awkward brigade’; and on ‘Theatre and Performance in Context’ you will study what theatre and performance tell us about our histories, cultures, societies and identities.
In your second year, you will think about theatre as an intervention in public space on Drama and Democracy. You will study English-language plays that have shaped democratic institutions around the world, and have the opportunity to explore plays from the Greeks to the present that constitute the European tradition of theatre. But you will also start selecting from a fascinating array of modules from Arthurian literature to post-9/11 fiction, Romantic and Victorian Poetry to postcolonial writing and science fiction.
In your final year, Shakespeare: Text and Performance, Now and Then allows you to study Shakespeare as a jobbing playwright. You will think about his writing for the early modern stage, but also about his afterlife in subsequent performances on stage and film. And you will choose modules that extend your horizons, including the option to propose your own research project as a Dissertation.
Year One
British Theatre since 1939
You will be engaged in an in-depth appreciation of significant and controversial British plays of the post-war period, examining the theatre’s response to social and historical trends and becoming familiar with the landmark institutions of new writing. Topics include theatrical architecture and design, performance styles, and the political and philosophical ideas of leading playwrights. You will develop analytical skills, knowledge of specific productions, and the ability to present coherent arguments.
Read more about the British Theatre since 1939 moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2021/22 year of study).
Medieval and Early Modern Literature
Taking you from the mythical court of King Arthur to the real world of ambition, intrigue, and danger in the courts of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, this module introduces you to early literature written in a range of genres (romance, epic, fabliau) and poetic forms. You will study texts like Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Thomas More’s Utopia, Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, and Shakespeare’s sonnets to explore some of the period’s highest ideals—‘trawthe’ or integrity—as well as some of humanity’s darkest impulses: greed, deception, revenge, and desire.
Read more about the Medieval and Early Modern Literature moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2022/23 year of study).
Theatre and Performance in Context
This module considers what theatre and performance can tell us about our histories, cultures, societies and identities. You’ll watch, read and study a range of theatre and performance from across historical, cultural and geographical borders, in order to see how it not only reflects society, but also seeks to change and shape it. The module is split into four blocks, considering theatre and gender, race, sexuality and class. This module will help you to hone your academic writing, research and presentation skills, which will serve you throughout your degree.
Read more about the Theatre and Performance in Context moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2022/23 year of study).
Plus one of the following options:
Epic into Novel
Tracking the transition from the epics of the ancient world to their incarnation as texts of modernity, this module introduces you to some of the most influential and formative works of world literature. You will study central texts of the classical world, such as Gilgamesh, Homer’s Iliad, Virgil’s Aeneid, and Catullus; ancient epics from India and Africa; Milton’s Paradise Lost; as well as responses to ancient epic by Tennyson, Margaret Atwood, Seamus Heaney, and Maria Dahvana Headley. Reading across history and cultures, between languages and genres, you will develop the skills to analyse narrative, character, and style.
Read more about the Epic into Novel moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2022/23 year of study).
Modes of Reading
What is a reader? How is our understanding and perception of a text formed? What does it mean to think critically when we read? This module allows you to explore these questions by putting a spotlight on the question of critical thinking in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. By studying a series of literary texts in relation to some of the most influential literary and cultural theorists of the last hundred years, you will take your own position on everything from Marxism, queer and feminist theory to ecocriticism and postcolonial critique.
Read more about the Modes of Reading moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2022/23 year of study).
From Text to Performance
Through practical exploration of a number of selected plays and texts, in this module you’ll investigate the process of taking material from page to stage or performance, and the relationship between theory and practice. You’ll have the opportunity to experiment practically with realising multiple texts in performance, considering aspects such as staging, genre, narrative structure, performance strategies, dramaturgical thinking and directorial conceptualization, as well as the changing role and function of the audience.
Read more about the From Text to Performance moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2022/23 year of study).
Year Two
Drama and Democracy
You will study major plays written since the beginning of the twentieth century in Ireland, South Africa and the USA to investigate how writers have dramatised political, racial, class and gender issues. You will study developments in theatrical form and the work of designers, directors and actors to demonstrate your understanding of the shifting relationship between theatre and its impact on political and social change.
Read more about the Drama and Democracy moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2021/22 year of study).
Year Three
Shakespeare: Text and Performance, Now and Then
You will consider the work of Shakespeare and his contemporaries such as Marlowe and Middleton, both as text and performance. Through your experience of performance, and understanding of historical context, you will consolidate your analytical skills in reading narrative, poetry and drama. You will gain an awareness of the traditions of criticism, and an appreciation of how the plays’ themes continue to challenge readers and audiences today.
Read more about the Shakespeare: Text and Performance, Now and Then moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2021/22 year of study).
Optional modules
Optional modules can vary from year to year. Example optional modules may include:
- European Theatre
- Remaking Shakespeare
- Early Modern Drama
- Restoration Drama
- American Poetry
- Queering the Literary Landscape
- American Horror Story
- The English Nineteenth-Century Novel
- Literature, Environment, Ecology
- US Writing and Culture, 1780-1920
- Romantic and Victorian Poetry
- Jane Austen
- Women and Writing
- The Classical Tradition
Assessment
Many modules allow you to choose your preferred form of assessment from traditional essays and written examinations to creative projects, portfolios, films, and video-essays.
For example, in our Shakespeare: Text and Performance, Now and Then module, student work recently included film and radio adaptations, musical compositions, painting, sculpture, photography inspired by Shakespeare's texts, as well as essays and close readings.
Teaching
Teaching and assessment is also distinctive. You will write essays, deliver presentations, and take exams, but you also might make a short film, publish a wiki page, or compose a sonata.
Most core modules in your first year are taught by means of one lecture and one seminar per week in terms one and two. In your second and third years, optional modules are normally taught by means of one seminar per week.
Workshops on academic writing, employability, and personal development are also available throughout your degree.
Class sizes
Targeted teaching with class sizes of 10 to 15 students (on average).
Typical contact hours
Guided learning of typically eight contact hours per week, plus extra-curricular workshops and reading groups. Seminars are usually 1, 1.5 or 2 hours each; lectures are an hour.
Tuition fees
Scholarships and bursaries
Your career
Graduates from these courses have gone on to work for employers including:
- Archant
- Barclays
- Bloomsbury
- British Council
- Civil Service
- Maidstone Borough Council
- Newsquest Media Group
- Pan Macmillan
- Royal Opera House
- The Sunday Times
- Teach First
- Tesco
- Weber Shandwick
They have pursued roles such as:
- Journalists
- Newspaper and periodical editors
- Publishers
- Creative directors
- Arts officers, producers and directors
- Authors, writers and translators
- Musicians and composers
- Teachers
- Advertising accounts managers
- Business sales executives
- Solicitors and legal associate professionals
- Management consultants and business analysts
- Marketing associate professionals
- Academics and researchers
Helping you find the right career
In addition to a dedicated professionally qualified Senior Careers Consultant to support students studying English Literature, students also take an Academic Enrichment Programme in their first year focused on career skills, academic writing, and how to prepare for a future career while studying. Our Careers consultant also offers impartial advice and guidance, together with workshops and events throughout the year. Previous examples of workshops and events include:
- Careers following your English and Comparative Literary Studies Degree
- Discovering Careers in the Creative Industries
- Careers in Publishing and Journalism
- Freelancing
- Careers in the Public Sector
- Warwick careers fairs throughout the year
English and Comparative Literary Studies at Warwick
Have the freedom to follow your own path
We’re fond of freedom at Warwick. Freedom to learn, through an enormous array of modules to suit your interests, and through a range of innovative assessment techniques. You’re also free to explore the award-winning Warwick Arts Centre on campus or you can travel further afield and visit the home of Shakespeare in Stratford or immerse yourself in the poetry scene in Leamington Spa and Birmingham.
We were ranked first in the UK for our research in the latest Research Excellence Framework 2014, which means you’ll feel well connected and ahead of the game.
Find out more about us on our websiteLink opens in a new window
Explore our new Faculty of Arts building
The department recently moved into the brand new £57.5 million Faculty of Arts building.
This means, as an Arts student at Warwick, you’ll find your home amongst brand new teaching, learning and social spaces, including specialist facilities, all designed to support collaborative working and to enable your creativity and innovation to flourish.
The sustainably built, eight-storey building is located next to the newly refurbished Warwick Arts Centre in the heart of the University’s creative and cultural arts quarter.
Explore our new Faculty of Arts building further.
Our courses
Related degrees
- Classics and English (BA)
- English and Classical Civilisation (BA)
- English and French (BA)
- English and German (BA)
- English and Hispanic Studies (BA)
- English and Italian (BA)
- English Literature and Creative Writing (BA)
- Film and Literature (BA)
- Liberal Arts (BA)
- Philosophy, Literature and Classics (BA)
- Philosophy and Literature (BA)
Life at Warwick
Within a close-knit community of staff and students from all over the world, discover a campus alive with possibilities. A place where all the elements of your student experience come together in one place. Our supportive, energising, welcoming space creates the ideal environment for forging new connections, having fun and finding inspiration.
Find out how to apply to us, ask your questions, and find out more.
Warwick Accommodation
Finding the right accommodation is key to helping you settle in quickly.
We have 12 self-catering undergraduate halls of residence on campus.
Our student property management and lettings agency manages more than 8,000 rooms both on and off campus, and provides advice to all full-time undergraduates.
Our campus
You won't be short of ways to spend your time on campus - whether it's visiting Warwick Arts Centre, using our incredible new sports facilities, socialising in our bars, nightclub and cafés, or enjoying an open-air event. Or if you need some peace and quiet, you can explore lakes, woodland and green spaces just a few minutes’ walk from central campus.
Food and drink
We have lots of cafés, restaurants and shops on campus. You can enjoy great quality food and drink, with plenty of choice for all tastes and budgets. There is a convenience store on central campus, as well as two supermarkets and a small shopping centre in the nearby Cannon Park Retail Park. Several of them offer delivery services to help you stay stocked up.
And don't miss our regular food market day on the Piazza with tempting, fresh and delicious street food. Soak up the atmosphere and try something new, with mouth-watering food for all tastes.
Clubs and societies
We currently have more than 300 student-run societies.
So whether you’re into films, martial arts, astronomy, gaming or musical theatre, you can instantly connect with people with similar interests.
Or you could try something new, or even form your own society.
Sports and fitness
Staying active at Warwick is no sweat, thanks to our amazing new Sports and Wellness Hub, indoor and outdoor tennis centre, 60 acres of sports pitches, and more than 60 sports clubs.
Whether you want to compete, relax or just have fun, you can achieve your fitness goals.
Studying on campus
Our campus is designed to cater for all of your learning needs.
You will benefit from a variety of flexible, well-equipped study spaces and teaching facilities across the University.
- The Oculus, our outstanding learning hub, houses state-of-the-art lecture theatres and innovative social learning and network areas.
- The University Library provides access to over one million printed works and tens of thousands of electronic journals
- Three Learning Grids offering you flexible individual and group study spaces.
Travel and local area
Our campus is in Coventry, a modern city with high street shops, restaurants, nightclubs and bars sitting alongside medieval monuments. The Warwickshire towns of Leamington Spa and Kenilworth are also nearby.
The University is close to major road, rail and air links. London is just an hour by direct train from Coventry, with Birmingham a 20-minute trip. Birmingham International Airport is nearby (a 20-minute drive).
Wellbeing support and faith provision
Our continuous support network is here to help you adjust to student life and to ensure you can easily access advice on many different issues. These may include managing your finances and workload, and settling into shared accommodation. We also have specialist disability and mental health support teams.
Our Chaplaincy is home to Chaplains from the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths. We provide regular services for all Christian denominations and a Shabbat meal every Friday for our Jewish students. There is also an Islamic prayer hall, halal kitchen and ablution facilities.
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