DPT: Philosophy and English Literature (MA Hons) (UTPHIET)

Jump to: Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4

Year 1 Academic year: 2026/27, Starting in: September

You will be automatically enrolled on your five compulsory courses.

You are expected to pass all three of your compulsory Year 1 Philosophy courses. Students who fail any of these three courses may be permitted to progress; however, the failed course(s) will need to be retaken (and passed) in Year 2.

You must also pass both Literary Studies 1A and Literary Studies 1B to progress to Year 2 of the Philosophy and English Literature programme.

Compulsory courses

Morality and Value

Logic 1

Introduction to the History of Philosophy A

Literary Studies 1A

Must be passed

Literary Studies 1B

Must be passed

Course options

You have the option to take Philosophy of Science 1 in Year 1 or Year 2, but it is not required.

Philosophy of Science 1

You are permitted a maximum of 40 credits at Level 7 across Years 1 and 2.

Challenge Courses are designed to bring together students from different degree programmes to explore the complex issues facing the world today through interdisciplinary collaboration and creative thinking. Working with each other and expert academics, students will gain new perspectives and develop important life skills highly valued by employers, such as teamwork, problem-solving and adaptability.

Our Changing World

Sustainability and Social Responsibility (UG)

Wicked problems: Reason and Rhetoric

Understanding decolonisation in a globalised world

Sustainable Development Goals: History, Progress and Beyond 2030

Living in the Anthropocene

Understanding Society with Big Data: Computational Social Science

Health in a Changing Climate

Understanding Gender in the Contemporary World

Navigating Energy Transitions

Healthy Eating for People and Planet

Year 2 Academic year: 2026/27, Starting in: August

You will be automatically enrolled on your four compulsory courses. In order to progress into Year 3 of the Philosophy and English Literature programme, you must:

- Pass both Mind, Matter and Language (MML) and Knowledge and Reality (K&R) with a mark of 40% or above,
- Achieve an average of 50% across both MML and K&R, and
- Pass Literary Studies 2A and Literary Studies 2B.

Compulsory courses

Mind, Matter and Language

Must be passed

Knowledge and Reality

Must be passed

Literary Studies 2A: English Literature in the World, 1380-1788

Must be passed

Literary Studies 2B: English Literature in the World, post-1789

Must be passed

Course options

If you have not taken Introduction to the History of Philosophy A or Philosophy of Science 1, you have the option to take these courses in Year 2.

Philosophy of Science 1

Introduction to the History of Philosophy A

AND

You are permitted a maximum of 40 credits at Level 7 across Years 1 and 2.

AND

Our Changing World

Sustainability and Social Responsibility (UG)

Wicked problems: Reason and Rhetoric

Understanding decolonisation in a globalised world

Sustainable Development Goals: History, Progress and Beyond 2030

Living in the Anthropocene

Understanding Society with Big Data: Computational Social Science

Health in a Changing Climate

Understanding Gender in the Contemporary World

Navigating Energy Transitions

Healthy Eating for People and Planet

Year 3 Academic year: 2026/27, Starting in: August

You will need to take 120 credits, including:

- 40-80 credits (2-4 courses) of Philosophy Year 3 courses,
- 40 credits (2 courses) of English Literature Year 3 Option courses, one of which must be taken in each semester, and
- 0-40 credits (0-2 courses) of English Literature Reading Theory courses.

There are no compulsory courses in this year of this programme.

Course options

Philosophy of Religion

Metaphysics

Logic 2: Modal Logics

Topics in Mind and Cognition

Late Modern Philosophy

Ancient Philosophy

Early Modern Philosophy

Philosophy of Time

Philosophy of Technology

AND

Applied Ethics

Normative theory

Political Philosophy

Aesthetics

Social Philosophy

Moral Philosophy

Feminist Philosophy

Philosophy of Technology

AND

Political Philosophy

Late Modern Philosophy

Ancient Philosophy

Early Modern Philosophy

Japanese Philosophy

AND

Selected courses must be taken during Semester 1

Body in Literature

Novel and the Collapse of Humanism

Decolonization and the Novel

Mystery and Horror

Creative Writing Part I: Poetry

Working Class Representations

Shakespeare's Comedies: Identity and Illusion

Fiction and the Gothic, 1840-1940

Haunted Imaginations: Scotland and the Supernatural'

Digital Humanities for Literary Studies

Literature, Revolution and Rebellion in the Long Nineteenth Century

AND

Selected courses must be taken during Semester 2

Cities of Words: 20th Century Urban America

Shakespeare: Modes and Genres

Poetry, Politics and Place

Contemporary British Drama

'We are [not] Amused': Victorian Comic Literature

American Innocence

Death and Dying in Late Medieval Literature

21st Century Black American Fiction

Representing Race on the British Stage, 1600-1850

AND

If you would like to take more than 40 credits in English Literature this year, you must select from these options. It is not possible to take more than two English Literature Option courses.

Reading Theory 1

Reading Theory 2

Year 4 Academic year: 2026/27, Starting in: August

You will need to take:

- Dissertation in Philosophy, English Literature Dissertation, or two Philosophy coursework dissertations (two 20-credit courses - one in each semester) (Group A),
- Two Philosophy Year 4 courses (Group B), and
- Two English Literature Year 4 Option courses, one of which must be taken in each semester (Group B).

There are no compulsory courses in this year of this programme.

Course options

You must select a dissertation in Philosophy or English Literature.

There are two options in Philosophy - either an independent dissertation or two coursework dissertations:

- An independent dissertation is a single 8,000-word dissertation. You should select Dissertation in Philosophy (PHIL10026) for this option.

- The coursework dissertation option involves enrolling in two additional Philosophy Year 4 courses and submitting a 4,000-word essay in place of the standard assessment for each of these two courses. To complete the coursework dissertation option, you must select two courses from the Coursework Dissertation Options listed below. You must complete one coursework dissertation in Semester 1 and one in Semester 2. These courses are attended as normal. With this option, you will be enrolling in a total of four Philosophy Year 4 courses.

English Literature Dissertation

Dissertation in Philosophy