SCANDINAVIAN STUDIES COURSES FALL 2023

(4 credits)

• Section 1: MTWRF 9:55 – 10:45 am
• Section 2: MTWRF 12:05 – 12:55 pm

Instructor: Ida Moen Johnson

Course Description: This course introduces students to the Norwegian language through the skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. The course covers fundamental grammar concepts and topics including language and identity, education, food, and daily life. Instruction will emphasize communication and understanding as well as the intersections between language and culture.

Prerequisites: None.

(4 credits)

• MTWRF 9:55 – 10:45 am

Course Description: For beginning learners of Swedish; emphasis on proficiency through speaking, listening, reading, and writing, and on communication in cultural context.

Prerequisites: None.

(4 credits)

• MTWRF 12:05 – 12:55 pm

Instructor: Helen Durst

Course Description: This is an introductory course in basic Danish, so we will be working with the foundational skills of language acquisition, i.e. speaking, listening, reading, and writing. The most important aspect of learning a new language is using it, and we will base our strategy on the communicative language approach.

Prerequisites: None.

(4 credits)

• MTWR 12:05 – 12:55 pm         

Instructor: Ida Moen Johnson

Course Description: In this intermediate Norwegian language course, students will complete the Sett i gang curriculum and read a novel. This course continues the language sequence’s focus on the core skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Topics covered include work and economy, health and welfare, and advanced grammar skills. Instruction will emphasize communication and understanding as well as the intersections between language and culture.

Prerequisites: SCAND ST 102.

(4 credits)

• MTWRF 11:00-11:50 am         

Instructor: Liina-Ly Roos 

Course Description: Reading of selections from Swedish writers, grammar review, and conversation.

Prerequisites: SCAND ST 112.

(4 credits)

• MTWRF 1:20 – 2:10 pm

Instructor: Helen Durst

Course Description: Description to come!

Prerequisites: None.

(3 credits)

• TR 2:30 – 3:45 pm

Instructor: Helen Durst

Course Description: Description to come!

Prerequisites: None.

(3 credits)

• MWF 1:00 – 2:15 pm       

Instructor: Dean Krouk

Course Description: Scand St 251 er en historisk innføring i norsk litteratur fra det moderne gjennombrudd (1870-1890) til etterkrigstiden (1945-1965). Vi leser et skuespill av Henrik Ibsen (Et dukkehjem, 1879) og en samling av kortere tekster (noveller og dikt), samt noen tekster av norske samtidsforfattere. Kurset inkluderer mye diskusjon og forutsetter aktiv deltakelse og kontinuerlig lesning av pensum gjennom hele semesteret.

Prerequisites: Scand St 202 or cons. inst.

(Taught in Norwegian)

(3 credits)

• TR 1:20 – 2:10 pm MWF

Instructor: Susan Brantly

Course Description: “Readings in Swedish Literature” is both a language course and a literature course. Students should have the equivalent of two years of Swedish language and the course counts as a fifth-semester language course. We will be reading and discussing short literary texts from the 19th and 20th Centuries. All instruction is conducted in Swedish and students will improve their speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills. Required assignments include papers, translations, and presentations. Course readings will be provided.

Prerequisites: SCAND ST 212 or consent of instructor.

(3 credits)

• TR 11:00 am – 12:15 pm         

Instructor: Claus Elholm Andersen

Course Description: This class will help you to become even better at speaking, writing, reading, and listening to Danish.We will read authentic Danish texts and discuss current issues to help expand your knowledge and understanding of Danish.

Prerequisites: SCAND ST 222.

(3 credits)

• TR 1:00-2:15 pm         

Instructor: Scott Mellor

Course Description: Nordic Mythology, Scandinavian/Folklore/Medieval/Religious Studies/Literature in Translation 342 will give students an introduction to Medieval Nordic Mythology and put it in a European context. The course will use literary works written by Christians; the Kalevala, the mythological and heroic poetry of the Edda and a few of the Icelandic legendary sagas, as well as a few early Christian texts; and look at the material culture that help us understand this volatile time.

Prerequisites: Sophomore standing.

(3 credits)

• TR 9:30 – 10:45 am

Instructor: Kirsten Wolf 

Course Description: The course is intended to give students an overview of the development of the Scandinavian languages (Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic, and Faroese) from Proto-Germanic to modern times, focussing on phonological and morphological changes. The emphasis will be on Proto-Scandinavian (ca. 200-ca. 600), Common Scandinavian (ca. 600-ca. 1050), and Old Scandinavian (ca. 1050-1350).

The course is a combination of lecture and seminar. Following a general introduction and a brief survey of the various methods of study, the development from Indo-European to Proto-Germanic will be considered. Proto-Scandinavian, Common Scandinavian, and Old Scandinavian will be treated in detail with emphasis on phonological and morphological changes. The characteristics of the five individual Scandinavian languages will be examined.

By the end of the semester, students will have a good overview of the development of the Scandinavian languages and understand the main differences between East Norse (Danish and Swedish) and West Norse (Faroese, Norwegian, and Icelandic).

Prerequisites: None.

(1 credit)

• Section 1: T 4:00 – 5:15 pm          Instructor: Scott Mellor
• Section 2: TR 2:30 – 3:45 pm           Instructor: Holly McArthur

Course Description: Description to come!

Prerequisites: None.

(This is a modular section that meets October 2, 2023 thru November 5, 2023)

(4 credits)

• TR 2:30 – 3:45 pm

Instructor: Ida Moen Johnson

Course Description: Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking or Tove Jansson’s Moomin books are well-known examples among many widely read and popular Nordic children’s books. Pippi has symbolized the ideal Nordic child as independent and competent. In this class we will read and discuss a selection of diverse children’s books and films that exemplify both the common ideas of the Nordic Child as well as bring out other kinds of experiences of childhood in the
Nordic countries. You will get to learn about some of the prevalent forms and themes in Nordic children’s culture, such as nature, play, school, fantasy, food, death, loss, and storytelling.

Prerequisites: Sophomore standing

(This class counts toward 50% graduate coursework requirement. Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req. Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S. Intermediate. Cross-listed as TRANS LIT 319)

(3-4 credits)

Instructor: Susan Brantly

Course Description: The 19th-Century generated some of Scandinavia’s best-known writers. The course begins with Romanticism and looks at Norwegian folktales, Esaias Tegner’s popular Viking tale (Frithiof’s Saga), and Hans Christian Andersen’s world-famous stories, to name but a few highlights. From there, we move to the Modern Breakthrough, perhaps the most important period in Scandinavian literary history, during which writers were urged to take up current issues for public debate and let science be their inspiration. Internationally famous Nordic writers did just that in classics such as Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Strindberg’s The Father. We will trace how these influential social debates about class and gender took literary form. As the century comes to a close, some writers, such as Nobel laureates Knut Hamsun and Selma Lagerlôf, react against the rationality of the Modern Breakthrough by turning to literary Decadence and Neo-Romanticism. This course on 19th-Century Scandinavian Literature is being taught entirely online.

Prerequisites: Junior status or higher and 2 years of Scandinavian language.

(3 credits)

Instructor: Liina-Ly Roos

Course Description: The Nordic countries are known for being some of the most egalitarian and sexually open countries in the world. In this course we will explore how they have achieved this reputation, focusing on a variety of sources since the Moral Debates of the 1880s. We will discuss literary works, films, art, television, and critical articles to explore the ways in which Nordic societies and cultures perceive and understand gender and sexuality. We will also complicate some of myths regarding sexuality in the Nordic countries and explore how gender and sexuality are intersected with race, ethnicity, social class, and the rhetoric of the welfare state.

Prerequisites: Sophomore status or higher.

(3 credits)

Instructor: Dean Krouk

Course Description: This graduate seminar introduces participants to contemporary research in Scandinavian Studies. Our aim is to become better researchers by carefully reading and critiquing examples of recent work by international scholars with varying disciplinary backgrounds and methods. We will read these examples with an eye toward their use of theory, methods of analysis and interpretation, forms of argumentation and evidence, and value assumptions. Topics will be chosen by the instructor in collaboration with the seminar participants. Potential topics may include, but are not limited to, contemporary literary studies; migration and cultural pluralism; race discourse and Nordic whiteness; memory and trauma studies; gender and LGBTQ+ issues; and translation and reception studies. Participants will also workshop their own research projects, such as a dissertation prospectus draft or a bibliographic essay on a new research topic.

Prerequisites: Graduate standing