Scandinavian Studies Courses Spring 2025

(4 credits)

• Lecture 1: MTWRF 2:25 – 3:15 pm
• Lecture 2: MTWRF 8:50 – 9:40 am

Instructor: Ida Moen Johnson

Course Description: This course continues to build basic skills in Norwegian language through speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Instruction will emphasize communication and understanding as well as cultural knowledge and awareness. 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: First semester Norwegian or placement test with instructor

(4 credits)

• MTWRF 12:05 – 12:55 pm

Instructor: Helen Durst

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

Prerequisites: Scand St 121 (or approval) 

(4 credits)

• MTWR 1:20 – 2:10 pm

Instructor: Liina-Ly Roos

Course Description: Spoken and written Finnish for students without previous knowledge. Continuation of Scand St. 131.

Prerequisites: SCAND ST 131 or appropriate score on the placement exam. Open to first year students.

(4 credits)

• MTWR 3:30 – 4:20 pm

Instructor: Ida Moen Johnson

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. We will also study advanced vocabulary and grammar.

Prerequisites: Three semesters of Norwegian or placement test with instructor

(4 credits)

• MTWR 8:50 – 9:40 am

Instructor: Benjamin Mier-Cruz

Course Description: Continuation of SCAND ST 111.

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

(4 credits)

• MTWR 1:20 – 2:10 pm

Instructor: Helen Durst

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)

• 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 1:00 – 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 1:20 – 2:10 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 20^th 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: None

(Frequent writing assignments and/or projects outside of class.)

(3 credits)

• MWF 12:05 – 12:55 pm

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)

• MTWRF 8:50 – 9:40 am
• MTWRF 2:25 – 3:15 pm

Instructor: Ida Moen Johnson

Course Description: This course continues to build basic skills in Norwegian language through speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Instruction will emphasize communication and understanding as well as cultural knowledge and awareness. 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: First semester Norwegian or placement test with instructor

(4 credits)

• MTWR 1:20 – 2:10 pm

Prerequisites: Sophomore standing

(3 credits)

• TR 11:00 am – 12:15 pm

Instructor: 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 Old Norse I. Whereas the focus in 407 Old Norse I is nominal inflections, the focus in 408 Old Norse II 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.

Prerequisites: Medieval/SCAND ST 407.

(1 credit)

• T 4:00 – 5:00 pm

Instructor: Scott Mellor 

Course Description: Concentrated study of topics within Scandinavian literature.

Prerequisites: 5 semesters or equivalent of Scandinavian language.

(3 credits)

• TR 2:30 – 3:45 pm

Instructor: Dean Krouk

Course Description: This course offers a survey of the modern history of Scandinavia and the Nordic region, from 1815 to the present. Our focus will be on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. Important issues and concepts will include political and cultural nationalism; modernization and modernity; war experiences and neutrality; social democracy and the Nordic model; gender equality; the European Union; multiculturalism, immigration, and globalization. 

(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

(Counts as LAS credit (L&S))

(3 credits)

• TR 2:30 – 3:45 pm

Instructor: Helen Durst

Course Description: A comparative literary analysis grounded in history and culture of two prominent Scandinavian authors of the 20th century and their works: Tove Ditlevsen (Danish) best known in U.S. for the Copenhagen Trilogy and Tove Jansson (Finnish/Swedish) best known in U.S. for the Moomins. 

Prerequisites: Sophomore Standing 

(Meets-with LitTrans 324-001. Combined sections: 872 436-001 LEC (35231), Topics-Scandinavian Literature, 551 324-001 LEC (35232), Topics-Scandinavian Literature.)

(3-4 credits)

• TR 4:00 – 5:15 pm

Instructor: Susan Brantly

Course Description: As the 19th Century reached its end, there was a feeling among some literary figures that the world was in a state of decay. Mercantile barbarism was taking over and destroying the fragile and sensitive old aristocratic world. Women, who had gained some small advances in society were seen as dangerous, even fatal. How does one respond to a world in collapse? With indulgences, apathy, criminality, hypersensitivity, aestheticism…and some fairly strange hobbies.  We will explore the odd world of the Nordic decadents and compare them to their European counterparts. Be prepared to be amazed and amused.

Prerequisites: None

(An extra project is required for the 4th credit.)

(3 credits)

• W 2:25 – 5:25 pm

Instructor: Scott Mellor

Course Description: 

What are epics?  What is Orally composed story? Scholars over the past one hundred years have looked at why we like to listen to story and how these stories were put together and how narratives like Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are often viewed as oral epics that have been transposed into writing. The mode of transmission may change but some components of storytelling remain remarkable the same. The American scholars Milman Parry and Albert B Lord recorded epics in Yugoslavia performed by guslari, and described them as having certain features, like formulaic expressions and mythic patterns that influence the way in which we tell story to this day. In this class we will look at epic through the ages, including Gilgamesh, the Odyssey, Beowulf, The Song of Roland, Daredevils of Sassoun, The Ballads of Marko Kraljević, and Star Wars to name a few. This course approaches the Folk Epics along theoretical lines, with a look at the oral nature, structure, performance traditions, and epic ideology, from various world areas and what may have taken the place of the oral epic in our own society.

(Meets-with Folklore 460.)