B.A. (Hons) English / Philosophy

Teaching is organised in units that typically involve lectures, seminars and practical/tutorial work. Most units are assessed by a mixture of coursework and formal examination, although there are a number of units that are assessed by coursework only.

In each year of full-time study, you will take 120 credits, made up of a number of units which are worth 30 credits each.

In Year 1 you will take 60 credits of core units from each of your two subjects.

The purpose of this degree is to teach you how to develop your analytical abilities and to apply them to any topic or problem that faces you.

In Year 1 you will study both of your combined honours subjects equally. In the Philosphy unit you will be introduced to the basic methods of philosophical analysis and to some of the key problems that have perplexed humanity from the beginnings of rational thoughts. You will study the core units of ethics and social philosophy and an introduction to the problems of philosophy.

The core English units will help you develop your analytical skills and develop a grounding in English literature, its history, contexts and critics, by looking at key texts from medieval through to contemporary writing.

In Year 2 you can choose the balance of your two subjects:

Equal study 60 credits from each of your subjects

Major/minor study 90 credits from the major subject and 30 credits from the minor subject.

In Year 2 you may choose to continue with equal study or choose a major/minor route. In english, your core unit is Literature of the Long Nineteenth Century. You may also choose to take one or both of the option units: Shakespeare and Contemporaries and/or English Literatures of the World.

In your final year you can continue with the equal or major/minor route you have chosen in Year 2 or you can choose from the following options:

If you have chosen equal study in Year 2 you can choose major/minor study in Year 3.

If you have chosen major/minor study in Year 2, in most subject areas you can choose units completely in your major subject in Year 3. This option is called named route study and leads to a single subject degree. See below for a list of available named route degrees.

All final year Combined Honours students must complete a directed project, dissertation or independent study unit. If you take equal study you can choose this unit in any of the two subject areas; if you take major/minor study, you will take this unit as part of your major subject.

In English you will develop a more sophisticated analytical approach through considering texts from a range of theoretical and historical perspectives. Central to your studies this year is The Novel, which traces the development of the novel from its origins through to the most recent Man Booker Prize winner. Optional units include Creating Childhood, which is a survey of British writing for children, and an individually-designed dissertation.

Depending if you continue with an equal study or major/minor route or choose a named route study, you may take all of your final year units in Philosophy.