Drama and Literature

Drama and literature are disciplines that converge on the fundamental question of how human experience finds form in language, whether on the stage or the page. Literature in its many forms, from lyric poetry to the novel, uses words to create worlds, characters, and situations that invite readers to inhabit perspectives beyond their own. Drama adds the further dimension of embodiment and performance, asking not just what a text means when read but what it becomes when interpreted, staged, and brought to life by actors in front of an audience.

Studying them together deepens your understanding of both.

At Essex, this three-year programme takes you through a wide range of dramatic texts, from ancient Greek tragedy and comedy through the Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre to twentieth-century and contemporary drama, examining the principal developments in European theatre alongside literary forms from different periods and traditions. You will develop skills in close reading, textual analysis, critical argument, and the evaluation of performance, drawing on theoretical frameworks from both literary criticism and theatre studies. The programme develops your capacity to engage with dramatic and literary texts as aesthetic, historical, and social phenomena simultaneously.

Graduates from drama and literature programmes go on to work in theatre, arts administration, publishing, education, journalism, community arts, and cultural organisations. The analytical and communication skills the degree develops, including the ability to construct clear arguments from complex material and to communicate about culture and ideas with precision, are valued across many professional contexts. Many graduates continue to postgraduate study in drama, English, or cultural studies, and some pursue careers as writers, directors, or practitioners in theatre and the performing arts.