English Literature and Drama with a Placement Year

English literature and drama share a concern with how human experience is given shape through language and performance. Literature asks how writers across centuries have used fiction, poetry, and non-fiction to explore the full range of what it is to be human; drama extends that question into the live encounter between performers and audiences, where text becomes embodied action and meaning is made in the moment of shared presence. Studying them together gives you an unusually rich set of analytical and creative tools.

At the University of East Anglia, this four-year programme includes a placement year, giving you professional experience alongside your academic studies. UEA has a distinguished literary heritage through its Creative Writing programme, and the English department brings that culture of close attention to language into its literary studies. The drama strand engages with both the theory and practice of theatre, and you will develop both critical and practical skills.

You will read widely across genres and periods, analyse dramatic texts and performances, and write with increasing analytical precision and creative ambition. The placement year opens a wide range of possible professional contexts, from arts organisations and publishers to theatre companies, schools, and media bodies.

Graduates of English literature and drama programmes are well prepared for careers in the arts, education, media, publishing, journalism, and the cultural industries. Teaching, either in schools or in drama education contexts, is a well-established path. Many graduates work in arts administration, producing, dramaturgy, or literary management.

The critical, communicative, and analytical skills developed throughout the degree are valued across almost any professional setting. Postgraduate study in literature, creative writing, drama, or education is a natural continuation for those who wish to deepen their expertise or move into research.