Philosophy and English Literature-BA

Bachelor's degree

In Durham

£ 9,250 + VAT

Description

  • Type

    Bachelor's degree

  • Location

    Durham

Joint Honours in English and Philosophy is a cross-disciplinary course, which develops and assesses skills, knowledge, and understanding across English and Philosophy, typically including a range of major philosophical and literary texts, important concepts, questions, arguments and methods. The course also fosters understanding of the relationships between English and Philosophy (through, for example, the compulsory Theory and Practice of Literary Criticism module, as well as optional modules offered by both Departments) and to develop detailed knowledge in either English or Philosophy through the preparation of a Dissertation on a chosen topic. The syllabus is equally weighted between the two subjects, although you may take one module more in one of the subjects (and therefore one less in the other) in year three.

Facilities

Location

Start date

Durham
See map
Stockton Road, DH1

Start date

On request

About this course

Admissions Process Subject requirements, level and grade In addition to satisfying the University’s general entry requirements, please note: We welcome applications from those with other qualifications equivalent to our standard entry requirements and from mature students with non-standard qualifications or from those who may have had a break in their study. We require Grade A in English Literature (or the combined English Literature and Language A Level) We require a Grade A* in any subject We do not include General Studies or Critical...

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Subjects

  • Philosophy
  • English
  • University
  • Poetry
  • Ethics
  • Writing
  • Logic

Course programme

Year 1

You will take three modules in English literature and three modules in Philosophy. The three first-year compulsory English modules introduce you to representative works in the major literary genres (novel, drama, and poetry), including knowledge of a range of writing before . In the three first-year compulsory Philosophy modules, you will encounter the ideas and arguments of some of the major philosophers in the history of the subject, in their own writings; some central theories and arguments in the fields of Logic, Metaphysics, Epistemology, or Philosophy of Mind, broadly understood; some central theories and arguments in the fields of Moral, Political, or Social Philosophy, broadly understood.

Compulsory modules:

In the first year, you will take the following English Literature and Philosophy modules:

  • Introduction to Drama
  • Introduction to the Novel
  • Introduction to Poetry
  • Ethics and Values
  • Knowledge and Reality
  • Reading Philosophy.
Year 2

Subject to your choices of modules within the course, you will acquire and be able to demonstrate broad and detailed knowledge within the disciplines of Philosophy and English, together with an awareness of an increased variety of the ideas, concepts, and contexts relating to these disciplines.

Compulsory modules:
  • Theory and Practice of Literary Criticism
  • Moral Theory
  • One of: Philosophy of Mind
  • Language, Logic, and Reality
  • Modern Philosophy I.
Optional modules :

Another two optional modules from English Literature and one optional module from Philosophy.

Optional lecture modules in English (taught by weekly lectures and four one-hour tutorials) have previously included:
  • Medieval Literature
  • Old English
  • Old Norse
  • Old French
  • Renaissance Literature
  • Victorian Literature
  • Literature of the Modern Period
  • American Poetry.
Optional seminar modules in English (taught by fortnightly two-hour seminars) have previously included:
  • Modern Poetry
  • Germanic Myth and Legend
  • The Australian Legend
  • Toni Morrison: Texts and Contexts
  • John Milton
  • Evelyn Waugh (a maximum of one may be selected).
Optional modules in Philosophy previously included:
  • Biomedical Ethics Past and Present
  • Victorian Science and Religion
  • Political Philosophy
  • Philosophy of Religion
  • Theory, Literature and Society
  • Philosophy of Science
  • The Philosophy of Economics and Politics: Theory, Methods and Values
Year 3

Subject to their choices of modules within the course, students will acquire and be able to demonstrate comprehensive and accurately detailed knowledge within the disciplines of Philosophy and English, exploring particular areas of specialisation in depth, as well as developing an awareness of the limitations of knowledge in each subject

The final year includes a compulsory ,-word Dissertation. In English this will be on a subject of your choice related to English literature. In Philosophy it will be an extensive study or survey of a philosophical problem or author.

Compulsory modules:

One from:

  • Dissertation in English
  • Dissertation in Philosophy ( credits).
Optional lecture modules in English (taught by weekly lectures and four one-hour tutorials) have previously included:
  • Old English
  • Old Norse
  • Old French
  • Restoration and th Century Literature
  • Literature of the Romantic Period
  • Post-War Fiction and Poetry
  • American Poetry.
Optional Special Topics in English (taught by fortnightly two-hour seminars) have previously included:
  • Literature, Cinema and Neuroscience
  • Shakespeare on Film
  • Shakespeare’s Problem Plays
  • US Cold War Literature and Culture
  • Writing Prose Fiction
  • Fictions of Terrorism
  • W. B. Yeats
  • Elizabeth Bishop and Twentieth Century Verse
  • A Society of Equals? Literature, Culture and Equality
  • Creative Writing Poetry
  • Contemporary Mountain Writing
  • Seamus Heaney.
Optional modules in Philosophy previously included:
  • Modern Philosophy II
  • Philosophical Issues in Contemporary Science
  • Aesthetics
  • Twentieth Century European Philosophy
  • Applied Ethics
  • Issues in Contemporary Ethics
  • Gender, Film and Society
  • Metaphysics
  • History and Philosophy of Psychiatry
  • History of the Body
  • Ethics in Business Practice
  • Formal and Philosophical Logic.
Study Abroad English Studies

The Department is part of the ERASMUS programme which encourages students to study for part of their course in a university of another EU country. Currently, we are exchanging students with the University of Reykjavik (Iceland), Charles University (Prague, Czech Republic) and Heidelberg University (Germany) in their second year of study.

The University of Reykjavik has special strengths in Old Norse and houses the world’s most important collection of Old Norse manuscripts. Charles University is one of the oldest universities in Central Europe and Heidelberg is the oldest university in Germany. Both have exceptionally beautiful settings in cities renowned for their artistic and cultural heritage. Teaching is in English at all three universities.

Philosophy

We participate in exchange schemes through which you may spend a year of your studies abroad, either with universities in Europe – through the SOCRATES/ERASMUS programme – or with the University of California.

Philosophy and English Literature-BA

£ 9,250 + VAT