Scandinavian Studies Courses Spring 2023

(4 credits)

MTWRF 9:55 – 10:45 am

Course Description: This course continues to build basic skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing Norwegian. We offer a thematic, communicative approach to language teaching that strives to put language in the context of culture. Classroom time focuses on communication and listening, as well as introducing basic grammatical concepts. Homework centers on reinforcing vocabulary, reading, grammar exercises and writing. Thematic units covered in Norwegian 102 include climate and weather, family and celebrations, and hometowns and housing. We end the semester with a project on travel in Norway.

Prerequisites: SCAND ST 101 or language placement test through the department

(This course is also offered to graduate students for 4 credits as SCAND ST 404 – Languages of Northern Europe.)

(4 credits)

MTWRF 12:05 – 12:55

Course Description: Continuation of SCAND ST 111.

Prerequisites: SCAND ST 111 or appropriate score on placement exam. Open to first-year students.

(4 credits)

MTWRF 9:55 – 10:45 am

Course Description: Continuation of SCAND ST 121.

Prerequisites: SCAND ST 121 or appropriate score on placement exam. Open to first-year students.

(4 credits)

MTWRF 9:55 – 10:45 am

Course Description: Description to come.

(4 credits)

MTWRF 1:20 – 2:10 pm

Course Description: SCAND ST 202 is an intermediate fourth semester language course that requires the completion of Norwegian 201 or equivalent. The course explores various aspects of Norwegian culture through texts, video, internet sources, and classroom discussion. Topics include Norwegian history, Norwegian language and dialects, the modern welfare state, and diversity in contemporary Norwegian society. An important component of fourth semester Norwegian is an oral presentation in Norwegian on a topic of interest.

Prerequisite: SCAND ST 101, 102, and 201 or language placement test through the department

(This course is also offered to graduate students for 4 credits as SCAND ST 404 – Languages of Northern Europe.)

(4 credits)

MTWR 11:00 – 11:50 am

Course Description: The goal of this course is to continue improving your Swedish as it is used in everyday contexts, such as talking and writing about yourself and topics familiar to you. We will also read short texts and watch media in Swedish. Our in-class activities and homework will focus on speaking, reading, writing, and listening skills. To succeed in this course, you must actively participate. Class will be conducted primarily, but not exclusively in Swedish. You will be expected to attend class regularly, to prepare for class daily, and speak as much Swedish as possible.

Prerequisites: SCAND ST 211 or instructor’s permission

(4 credits)

MTWR 11:00 – 11:50 am

Course Description: The goal of this course is to continue improving your Swedish as it is used in everyday contexts, such as talking and writing about yourself and topics familiar to you. We will also read short texts and watch media in Swedish. Our in-class activities and homework will focus on speaking, reading, writing, and listening skills. To succeed in this course, you must actively participate. Class will be conducted primarily, but not exclusively in Swedish. You will be expected to attend class regularly, to prepare for class daily, and speak as much Swedish as possible.

Prerequisites: SCAND ST 211 or instructor’s permission

(Intermediate level. Humanities Breadth.)

(3 credits)

TR 2:30 – 3:45pm          Instructor: Helen Durst

Course Description: Modern Scandinavia or the Nordic region encompasses Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands. There have only been people living in this region for about the last 15,000 years. The first people came to the region following the reindeer herds which migrated north as the ice melted and temperatures increased. How did an area infamous for violence and conquest become as famous for tolerance and the Welfare State and what happens when this is tested by modern immigration of the past 30 years and focus on past colonialism? This course is an introduction to Scandinavia and the greater Nordic-Baltic region. We will explore the overarching history, cultures, languages, monarchies, and politics of this region and the individual modern countries through various print and film media, literature, and scholarly articles.

(3 credits)

TR 1:00 – 2:15 pm          Instructor: Scott Mellor

Course Description: Telling stories is as old as time. Folk storytelling, which originate in the distant past, has often been scorned by the literary establishment, but the fact that they survived through centuries of oral transmission until they were finally recorded in the fairly recent past testifies to their lasting existential appeal. The stories these texts tell are dashingly entertaining and often deeply disturbing: they may offer a profoundly fatalistic view of existence, but they may also voice an angry and, at the same time, humorous protest against oppression. When this narrative type was discovered by scholars and the societal elite about 1800, it inspired many first-rank Nordic authors, e.g., Hans Christian Andersen, Henrik Ibsen, Selma Lagerlöf; and in the 20th century it has cast its spell over Isak Dinesen, Villy Sørensen, and Pär Lagerkvist and its influence has moved from literary to other media today. The course examines both the original folktales, its modern “imitations” and literature as well as gives an introduction to the critical methodologies that have recently been developed to deal with this seemingly simple, but in reality, highly sophisticated, narrative.

Prerequisites: Sophomore or higher

(3 credits)

TR 2:30 – 3:45 pm          Instructor: Dean Krouk

Course Description: How have the wartime issues of occupation, resistance, collaboration, neutrality, and the Holocaust been addressed in Nordic culture? During the Second World War, Norway and Denmark were invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany, while Sweden remained neutral and Finland fought against the Soviet Union. Resistance movements developed in the occupied countries, but some Norwegians and Danes collaborated with the occupying power and were tried for treason after the war. Become familiar with the basic history of the period by reading texts of various sorts (essays, novels, diaries, poetry, memoir) that were written during the war years and since. Through analyzing films and works of fiction, in addition to historical writing, learn how the Second World War and the Holocaust have been represented and remembered in the Nordic countries.

Prerequisites: Sophomore standing

(Breadth: Humanities. Counts as LAS credit (L&S). 50% Graduate Coursework Requirement.)

(3 credits)

MW 12:05 – 12:55 pm          Instructor: Susan Brantly

Course Description: Can thrillers, science fiction novels, or films be literary masterpieces? Yes they can! Explore the changing fashions in literature throughout the 20th Century, while you learn important survival skills for the media age. Everybody wants something, so how do you assess what different writers want from you, and what tricks do they use to go about getting it? Through a selection of short texts, novels, and plays, we’ll be learning from some of the best: Nobel Laureates (Knut Hamsun, Pär Lagerkvist), medical doctors (P.C. Jersild), and other provocateurs (August Strindberg, Isak Dinesen, Ingmar Berman, Peter Hoeg, and the rest).

Prerequisites: Knowledge of a Nordic language or consent of instructor

(This course is also offered to majors as Lit Trans 274)

(3 credits)

MWF 12:05 – 12:55 pm          Instructors: Claus Andersen & Ida Moen Johnson

Course Description: Intensive work in spoken and written Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish, based on contemporary readings, for undergraduate and graduate students with a basic command of a Scandinavian language. Required of graduate students.

Prerequisites: 3 years of Norwegian, Danish or Swedish or consent of instructor.

(3 credits)

TR 9:30 – 10:45 am          Instructors: Kirsten Wolf

Course Description: The course is a direct continuation of 407 Old Norse I. Its primary purpose is a linguistic one: to obtain a reading knowledge of Old Norse-Icelandic through the study of Old Icelandic grammar and selections of Old Norse-Icelandic texts. The course builds on the aspects of grammar studied in 407 Introductory Old Norse. Whereas the focus in 407 Introductory Old Norse is nominal inflections, the focus in 408 Intermediate Old Norse is verbal inflections and syntax. Moreover, students will translate a variety of Old Norse-Icelandic texts, both prose and poetry, in order to enhance their vocabulary. Grammars and texts used are Michael Barnes’ A New Introduction to Old Norse. Part I: Grammer and Anthony Faulkes’ A New Introduction to Old Norse. Part II. By the end of the course, students will have sufficient knowledge of grammar and sufficient vocabulary to be able to read and understand Old Norse-Icelandic texts in normalized editions and access more challenging texts with the help of a dictionary.

(3 credits)

TR 9:30 – 10:45 am          Instructor: Claus Andersen

Course Description: This course is about the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard and existentialism in Scandinavian literature. The course will introduce you to Kierkegaard’s work by reading some of his most influential works, including Either/Or and Fear and Trembling. We will also examine his influence on a number of writers from the 19th century to the 21st and discuss how these writers offer a critique of Kierkegaard’s work through a gender, race, and socio-economic lens.

(4 credits)

MW 2:30 – 3:45 pm          Instructor: Susan Brantly

Course Description: Isak Dinesen, alias the Baroness Karen Blixen, is a Danish writer, who lived in British East Africa, and made her international publishing debut in America. Her life inspired the Oscar-winning film Out of Africa and her tale “Babette’s Feast  inspired yet another Oscar-winning film by the same name…the Pope’s favorite film, in fact. This course studies the intricate and fantastic tales that Dinesen wrote, and also looks at her autobiographical novel, Out of Africa, and considers it as both fiction and a piece of colonial literature.

Prerequisites: Knowledge of a Nordic language and at least Junior standing or consent of instructor

(This course is also offered as Lit Trans 334)

(3 credits)

TR 11:00 am – 12:15 pm          Instructor: Ida Moen Johnson

Course Description: In Henrik Ibsen’s famous play, The Wild Duck (1884), the animal is often understood as a symbol for the drama’s damaged characters. But is the duck just a metaphor, or is the duck a duck, too? As for the humans in the story: are they people, animals, or both? In this course, we will study Nordic texts that center the animal, from ugly ducklings and charismatic reindeer to Moomintrolls and hobbyhorses. We will also learn from the fields of animal studies and posthumanism, whose lessons are critical at a time when human-made climate change threatens all forms of life on Earth. Through fiction, film, and theory, this course tackles questions such as: Can art created by humans ever be “true to the animal?” How might literature and film help us challenge humanist hierarchies? And, what can Nordic texts teach us about the possibilities and limits of being an animal—including the human kind?

Prerequisites: Sophomore standing

(Meets with LitTrans 324)

(3 credits)

TR 1:00 – 2:15 pm         Instructor: Liina-Ly Roos

Course Description: In this course you will get to watch and discuss a variety of films from the Nordic region. We will explore how films like The Worst Person in the World (Joachim Trier), Amateurs (Gabriela Pichler) or Persona (Ingmar Bergman) that have been appreciated by audiences and critics both locally and internationally, engage with universal topics, such as love, intimacy, privilege, and authenticity; and what they tell us about the cultures and societies of Northern Europe. After this course you will be able to (1) describe and think critically about the work, styles, and approaches of some of the key filmmakers in Nordic cinema, their impact on world cinema, and engagement with the changing meaning of film authorship; and (2) incorporate relevant terms of film analysis and theoretical frameworks to talk and write about films.

Prerequisites: Sophomore standing