SCANDINAVIAN R5A, Section 1: In Between Spaces – Literary Borders, Fictional Wastelands

TuTh 8-9:30 , Dwinelle 134. Instructor: Anna Tomi

Units: 4

“I long for the land that is not.”
Edith Södergran

Across different times and genres, fiction has provided a powerful tool for exploring the boundary between us and the other. This course is about borders in literature as well as literature as a border between the actual and the unimaginable. During the semester, we will look at texts that draw and erase borders that lie between human and non-human, outsiderness and citizenship, as well as life and matter as we seek to understand how such demarcations are constituted. How are nation states predicated on the opposition between us and them? Does science fiction problematize or rather reinforce the primacy of human beings? Can we imagine what it feels like to be a thing?

In order to approach these questions, we will examine texts from Scandinavian Modernist poetry to contemporary literature. Possible readers/directors include: Edith Södergran, Henry Parland, Gunnar Björling, Paavo Haavikko, Solveig von Schoultz, Leena Krohn, Aino Kallas, Aki Kaurismäki, among others.

With these texts as a common terrain, students will gain understanding of relevant literary concepts as well as develop skills in critical reading. Class discussions and exercises will help students in expressing and structuring their thinking in writing. The emphasis will be placed in the process of editing a first draft into an argument.

All texts will be made available in translation. R1A satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement. Due to the high demand for R&C courses we monitor attendance very carefully. Attendance is mandatory the first two weeks of classes, this includes all enrolled and waitlisted students. If you do not attend all classes the first two weeks you may be dropped. If you are attempting to add into this class during weeks 1 and 2 and did not attend the first day, you will be expected to attend all class meetings thereafter and, if space permits, you may be enrolled from the waitlist.

Due to the high demand for R&C courses we monitor attendance very carefully. Attendance is mandatory the first two weeks of classes, this includes all enrolled and wait listed students. If you do not attend all classes the first two weeks you may be dropped. If you are attempting to add into this class during weeks 1 and 2 and did not attend the first day, you will be expected to attend all class meetings thereafter and, if space permits, you may be enrolled from the wait list.