Philosophy in an English PhD

[test12341234]

Is it possible to focus primarily on philosophy in an English Department? I.e. research continental and perhaps analytic philosophy in the service of literary and cultural theory?

[merry night wanderer]

The Comp Lit department here is extremely philosophy focused, specifically in Continental. I suspect (though a phil graduate student might know better) that English and Comp Lit departments are where Continentals hide out in America these days!

I don't know about "primarily" (since you will still have to take literature coursework and be familiar with literature texts), but I plan on incorporating plenty of philosophy into my work and numerous people here are of a similar bent. It seems to be quite possible. 

[Glasperlenspieler]

Depends on what you mean. Certainly you can deeply engage with philosophy in a literature PhD program, take courses focusing on philosophy, discuss philosophers in your dissertation, etc. However, I expect most English and Comparative Literature programs are going to expect you to take significant coursework in literary studies and produce a dissertation that deals significantly with literature or another form of cultural/aesthetic production.

You can look at the titles of recent dissertations on many departmental websites, and I think it's pretty rare for most programs to find a dissertation that is "primarily" dealing with philosophical texts. 

It's pretty unlikely you'll find much support for pursuing analytic philosophy in a literature department. You will certainly find support in many departments to pursue studies in continental philosophy (I hate that distinction, but that's a different can of worms). But if you want to "primarily" focus on philosophy, why would you want to be in a literature department?

[The Maritime Scholar]

I mean, that would make sense. I expect philosophy to be part of a lit PhD program; however, most of the work you produce will be literary with philosophy as support for your research (I'm not in a lit PhD program yet, so I can't really say). I'm sure every program is different.

[onerepublic96]

As the above posters have said, philosophy can be/often is a major component as you work on literary studies, but it is almost always a tool rather than an object of study in itself. Otherwise, you would be in the Philosophy Department. 

[EM51413]

If you plan on working on continental philosophy, chances are that it's the philosophy departments that won't take you, at least in the U.S. where most departments are overwhelmingly analytic. Comp lit is indeed where a lot of continental philosophy gets done nowadays, and there are comp lit departments that barely have a literary component at all (UC Irvine, Emory, and Duke come to mind). A lot of continental philosophy people also work in media studies and interdisciplinary departments. Properly English departments, however, have been making an anti-theory shift over the last decade or two and don't seem to be stopping anytime soon. There you will likely be expected to write a thesis primarily on literary/textual studies, even if the department is known to be more "theoretical." As @Glasperlenspieler writes, taking a look at recent dissertations can help you get a better idea of what each program does, as comp lit programs tend to be very different from each other.

You will have a hard time finding programs that combine analytic philosophy and literary studies, but it can be done. Emory's comp lit is very close to its philosophy department, which has top-notch continental AND analytic philosophers. Stanford also has an excellent tradition of mixing literary studies with analytic philosophy.