Fall 2016

Language Courses R&C Courses | Courses in English | Graduate Courses

LANGUAGE COURSES

DANISH 1A: Beginning Danish

TuTh 2-3:30, B33B Dwinelle. Instructor: Karen Møller

Units: 4

No auditing is permitted in Scandinavian language courses.

Berkeley faculty and staff members interested in participating in Scandinavian language classes must first consult the Scandinavian languages coordinator, Karen Moller at: kmoller@berkeley.edu.

To enroll in a Scandinavian language course via UC Extension:
http://extension.berkeley.edu/static/studentservices/concurrent/

(Fall only. Danish 1B is offered in Spring.) Classes meet for three hours of Danish instruction per week. Students will acquire basic communicative competence in all four foreign language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) within a cultural context.

Workload:  About five hours of work outside of class per week (included is the one hour mandatory computer work), an oral and written midterm and final.

Text:  to be determined.

Prerequisites:  Elementary Danish is open to students without prior knowledge of Danish. The course is not open to native, near-native, or heritage speakers of any Nordic language. Course cannot be repeated without prior consent from the language coordinator.

FINNISH 1A: Beginning Finnish

TuTh 11-12:30, B33B Dwinelle. Instructor: TBA

Units: 4

THIS COURSE IS OFFERED AS A DISTANCE LEARNING CLASS FOR STUDENTS AT OTHER UC CAMPUSES.

PLEASE CONTACT THE INSTRUCTOR FOR INFORMATION.

Three hours of language instruction per week. The course covers the basic elements of communicative competence in both receptive and productive skills. Information on Finnish culture, history etc. is integrated into the course. Homework utilizes new media, such as watching film clips and songs in addition to more traditional work. Expect to spend about three hours of work outside of class per week. There will be a comprehensive midterm and final exam. Additional practice is provided in the weekly Finnish Café, in Finnish film nights, etc.

Texts:

Sun suomi – Finnish for Beginners (Kristiina Kuparinen, Terhi Tapaninen, Karoliina Kuisma)

Otava, 2013. ISBN, 9511273515, 9789511273516

Prerequisites:  None.

ICELANDIC 1A: Beginning Modern Icelandic

MWF 9-10, 6415 Dwinelle. Instructor: Jackson Crawford

Units: 4

No auditing is permitted in Scandinavian language courses.

To enroll in a Scandinavian language course via UC Extension:  http://extension.berkeley.edu/static/studentservices/concurrent/

(Fall only.  Icelandic 1B is offered in Spring.) Icelandic is the language of the land of fire and ice set in the middle of the North Atlantic amid towering mountain crags and the aurora borealis. It is also a very conservative language, preserving much of the character of Old Norse, while remaining very much the tongue of a unique nation participating fully in the modern world. The literature, both medieval and modern, is unbeatable.

The goal of this course is for the student to comprehend spoken and written Icelandic relating to familiar, everyday topics, and to speak Icelandic well enough to satisfy immediate needs.

Texts:  to be announced.

 Prerequisites:  None.  Icelandic 1A presumes no familiarity with the language.

NORWEGIAN 1A: Beginning Norwegian

MWF 9-10, 175 Dwinelle. Instructor: Ida Moen Johnson

Units: 4

No auditing is permitted in Scandinavian language courses.

Berkeley faculty and staff members interested in participating in Scandinavian language classes must first consult the Scandinavian languages coordinator, Karen Moller at:  kmoller@berkeley.edu.

To enroll in a Scandinavian language course via UC Extension:  http://extension.berkeley.edu/static/studentservices/concurrent/

(Fall only.  Norwegian 1B is offered in Spring.) Classes meet for three hours of instruction per week.  Students will acquire basic communicative competence in all four foreign language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) within a cultural context.

Workload: About five hours of work outside of class per week.

An oral and written midterm and final.

Text: Sett i gang 1 (Aarsvold and Lie) to be ordered online!

Instructions will be given by the instructor at the beginning of the semester.

Prerequisites:  Elementary Norwegian is open to students without prior knowledge of Norwegian. The course is not open to native, near-native, or heritage speakers of any Nordic language. Course cannot be repeated without prior consent from the language coordinator.

SWEDISH 1A: Beginning Swedish

MWF 9-10, 206 Dwinelle. Instructor: TBA

Units: 4

ENTRANCE POLICY FOR SWEDISH LANGUAGE COURSES

No auditing is permitted in Scandinavian language courses.

Berkeley faculty and staff members interested in participating in Scandinavian language classes must first consult the Scandinavian languages coordinator, Karen Moller at:  kmoller@berkeley.edu.

To enroll in a Scandinavian language course via UC Extension:  http://extension.berkeley.edu/static/studentservices/concurrent/

(Fall only.  Swedish 1B is offered in Spring.) Classes meet for three hours of instruction per week.  Students will acquire basic communicative competence in all four foreign language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) within a cultural context.

Workload: About five hours of work outside of class per week.

An oral and written midterm and final.

Text:  Rivstart A1 + A2 (textbook and exercise book)

Prerequisites:  Elementary Swedish is open to students without prior knowledge of Swedish. The course is not open to native, near-native, or heritage speakers of any Nordic language. Course cannot be repeated without prior consent from the language coordinator.

SCANDINAVIAN 100A: Intermediate Scandinavian Languages (Danish, Norwegian, Swedish)

W 11-12, B33B Dwinelle. Instructor: Karen Møller

Units: 4

L&S Breadth: Arts & Literature

Enrollment: Students enroll in a common lecture on Wednesdays 11-12 and a discussion section for their target language as follows:

SECTION 101: Danish (TT 11-12)
SECTION 102: Norwegian (M & F 11-12)
SECTION 103: Swedish (M & F 11-12)

Option: Scandinavian 100A is a Distance Learning Course transmitted simultaneously to specific UC campuses. UCB is the home campus with live class instruction; other UC students will participate through a live video feed. Contact instructor for more information:  kmoller@berkeley.edu

Continuing students of Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish enrolling in Scandinavian 100A will meet together for one hour of lecture per week (W 11-12) to read and interpret literary and nonliterary texts about inter-Scandinavian communication, linguistics, and language history.  In addition to this one-hour combined lecture, students will meet two additional hours per week (in discussion sections with a language instructor) to be instructed in their particular target languages.

Students should enroll in the relevant target language section as follows:  Section 101 = Danish; Section 102 = Norwegian; Section 103 = Swedish. Students should register in the 100A lecture in addition to the relevant section they will attend. The course is complete with the language and the lecture sections – you must enroll in both parts in order to fully enroll in the course. If you experience a scheduling problem it is essential that you consult the language coordinator.

Students will further develop their basic communicative competence in all four foreign language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) within a cultural context in their own target language (Danish, Norwegian, or Swedish).  Through the weekly lecture they will gain a deeper understanding of the other Scandinavian languages through tasks and readings. Students will NOT be asked to learn to speak the other two Scandinavian languages, but to learn about them.

Placement:  Scandinavian 100A is open to students who have taken Danish, Norwegian, or Swedish 1A-1B with a passing grade. A placement test is mandatory for other students who have had 90 hours of in-class instruction (reached the Novice High/Intermediate Low proficiency level) in any Scandinavian language and with a passing grade. The placement test must be taken prior to or within the first week of instruction. Contact the language coordinator to schedule a placement test. 

 Native, Near-Native, Heritage Speakers:  The specific language sections are only open to learners of the specific Scandinavian language of instruction in the section.  The course is not open to native, near-native, or heritage speakers of any Nordic language without prior consent from the language coordinator. The course cannot be repeated without prior consent from the language coordinator.

Workload for the combined lecture (e.g. 1/3 of the total grade for Scandinavian 100A):
Two hours of work outside class a week.  Weekly task based homework.  A take-home written midterm and a 3-page final project are required.

Workload for the discussion section (e.g. 2/3 of the total grade for Scandinavian 100A): An average of four hours of work outside class per week. The structure of supplemental language sections depends on the language instructor, but usually includes weekly written assignments, oral presentations, an oral and written midterm and final exam.

Section Times:  Meeting times for discussion sections might on occasion be changed according to the schedules of the students enrolled, and can therefore vary from the times listed in the online Schedule of Classes. Students should attend the first day of class for more information on possible rescheduling.

Texts:
Language sections:  textbooks to be announced – most often as readers

Lecture/Culture section:  Reader

Prerequisites:  Completion of Danish, Norwegian, or Swedish 1A-1B with a passing grade; consent of instructor.

SCANDINAVIAN 101A: Introduction to Old Norse I

TuTh 3:30-5, 6415 Dwinelle. Instructor: Jonas Wellendorf

Units: 4

L&S Breadth:  Arts & Literature

(Fall only.  Old Norse 101B is offered in the Spring.)

This is an undergraduate-level class which will introduce students to the vernacular written language of Iceland and Norway in the Middle Ages. Class time will focus on grammatical lectures, translations, and close-reading exercises of Old Norse texts. By the end of the semester students should be able to read saga-style Old Norse prose texts in normalized orthography with the help of a dictionary. Assignments will include weekly translations, grammatical exercises, quizzes, a midterm, and a final exam. Regular participation is required.

Texts:
Zöega’s Old Icelandic Dictionary (any edition) and additional texts to be announced by the instructor.

Prerequisites: none

FINNISH 102A: Intermediate Finnish

TuTh 2-3:30, B37 Dwinelle. Instructor: TBA

Units: 4

THIS COURSE IS OFFERED AS A DISTANCE LEARNING CLASS FOR STUDENTS AT OTHER UC CAMPUSES.

PLEASE CONTACT THE INSTRUCTOR FOR INFORMATION.

This is the second year course for Finnish. Three hours of language instruction per week. The course will further develop the students’ oral communicative competence, reading and writing ability and cultural understanding.  Emphasis is on listening comprehension and speaking skills development with colloquial language, as well as reading and writing in different registers with vocabulary development.  Homework will utilize new media in addition to more traditional work. This is a multilevel course, repeatable for credit. As such, the course will be tailored according to students’ skill levels and needs.

Workload:  About three hours of work outside of class per week, a midterm and a portfolio.

Texts: The main text/s will be decided after the first class meeting, based on the students’ language level/s, needs and interests.

Finnish Grammar; White, Leila (2006) Recommended

Prerequisites:  Finnish 1B (formerly Scandinavian 2B) or consent of instructor.

READING AND COMPOSITION COURSES

SCANDINAVIAN R5A, Section 1: Desolate Visions: Nordic Narratives of the (Post-) Apocalypse

TuTh 8-9:30, 251 Dwinelle. Instructor: Zachary Blinkinsop

Units: 4

All Reading & Composition courses must be taken for a letter grade in order to fulfill this requirement for the Bachelor’s Degree. This course satisfies the first half or the “A” portion of the Reading and Composition requirement. 

Nuclear war. Climate change. Interplanetary collision. There are many horrific ways that our species could become extinct. Stories about the apocalypse may seem far-fetched but they explore the consequences of real world threats such as geopolitical brinkmanship and the melting ice caps. Although we will briefly discuss the history of apocalyptic narratives in medieval and early modern Europe, the course will focus on texts and films produced after 1945. Questions that undergird the course include: how does apocalyptic literature manifest utopian desires? Do such stories exhort us to action or placate us with their pessimism? What does ‘the end of the world’ mean and, for that matter, what is the ‘world’? We will work chronologically through course materials and familiarize ourselves with Nordic and to a lesser degree American and Soviet history, politics, and culture. All readings are available in English.

Texts:

Aniara , Harry Martinson, 1956, Sweden
A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr., 1959, USA
After the Flood, P.C. Jersild, 1982, Sweden
Memory of Water, Emmi Itäranta, 2013, Finland

Films:
Dr. Strangelove, Dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1964, USA
Melancholia, Dir. Lars von Trier, 2011, Denmark/Sweden

Prerequisite:  Successful completion of the UC Entry Level Writing Requirement.  Students may not enroll in nor attend R1A/R5A courses without completing this prerequisite.

SCANDINAVIAN R5A, Section 2: Norse Gods and Heroes

MWF 8-9, 235 Dwinelle. Instructor: Jackson Crawford

Units: 4

All Reading & Composition courses must be taken for a letter grade in order to fulfill this requirement for the Bachelor’s Degree. This course satisfies the first half or the “A” portion of the Reading and Composition requirement. 

This class includes readings in a wide range of Old Norse mythological and saga literature, introducing students not only to the basics of Scandinavian, or Norse, mythology, but also to the best-known sagas of Viking heroes. These narratives have often been sources of inspiration for modern fantasy literature, and have a great deal of interest in their own right as the unique literary monuments of an unusual and vibrant medieval culture. Students will compose essays that address and analyze major themes in this literature, both for information about another culture and in order to develop skills in serious critical reading of literature.

Texts:
Crawford (translator), The Poetic Edda: Stories of the Norse Gods and Heroes. ISBN 978-1624663567
Faulkes (translator), Edda. ISBN 978-0460876162
Hermann Pálsson and Edwards (translators), Seven Viking Romances ISBN 978-0140444742
(Various Translators.) The Sagas of Icelanders. ISBN 978-0141000039

Prerequisite:  Successful completion of the UC Entry Level Writing Requirement.  Students may not enroll in nor attend R1A/R5A courses without completing this prerequisite.

SCANDINAVIAN R5B, Section 1: Vampires and the Supernatural in Scandinavian Literature

TuTh 8-9:30, 189 Dwinelle. Instructor: Rosie Taylor

Units: 4

All Reading & Composition courses must be taken for a letter grade in order to fulfill this requirement for the Bachelor’s Degree. This course satisfies the second half or the “B” portion of the Reading and Composition requirement.

While the vampire is not a traditionally Scandinavian monster, its presence has been felt in Nordic literature since the early 19th century, thanks to translations of major Gothic works from Britain and continental Europe. We will begin this course by getting a feel for the development of the vampire in Western literature by way of landmark British texts, including John Polidori’s “The Vampyre,” Sheridan La Fanu’s “Carmilla” and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The second part of the course will shift to Scandinavia and its own form of the Gothic genre to explore the changes undergone by the vampire upon crossing cultural and temporal boundaries, and how the creature can be employed to better understand social anxieties and issues in the Nordic countries up to the modern day.

The aim of this course is to help students further their skills in reading, analysis and composition, and to feel more confident participating in existing academic debates. The semester will culminate in a research project designed for students to learn how to find, analyze and engage with secondary sources at the university level.

Texts:
Bram Stoker, Dracula (Vintage Classics, ISBN: 978-0099582595)
Course Reader

Prerequisite:  Successful completion of the “A” portion of the Reading & Composition requirement or its equivalent.  Students may not enroll in nor attend R1B/R5B courses without completing this prerequisite.

SCANDINAVIAN R5B, Section 2: The Machiavellian Narrative

MWF 8-9, 183 Dwinelle. Instructor: Monica Hidalgo

Units: 4

All Reading & Composition courses must be taken for a letter grade in order to fulfill this requirement for the Bachelor’s Degree. This course satisfies the second half or the “B” portion of the Reading and Composition requirement. 

The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with the forms and mechanics of academic writing. As a guiding theme, we will read, analyze, and respond to short stories and novels that toy with our desire to understand characters’ true motivations—these are known as Machiavellian narratives, named after the Italian political theorist notorious for advocating trickery, subterfuge, and fear-mongering as effective methods of rule.

The power of Machiavellian narratives will be explored through Scandinavian texts, including Victoria Benedictsson’s “From the Darkness,” St. St. Blicher’s “Tardy Awakening,” Knut Hamsun’s Hunger, Hjalmar Söderberg’s Doctor Glas, and Pär Lagerkvist’s The Dwarf. While we may not be accustomed to thinking too much about a story’s narrator as a character, Machiavellian narratives raise the question of how much we can trust a story’s narrator. How do we know what the narrator tells us is true? Does the narrator have an interest in telling us certain things but not others about the characters in the novel? What does the narrator think of the reader listening to his or her tale? By raising these questions, students will become more adept at identifying manipulative narratorial moves, discerning and analyzing the power constellations governing fiction, and, most importantly, developing the analytic skills necessary to becoming successful academic writers.

Texts:

Hamsun, Knut. Hunger. Trans. Robert Bly. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998. ISBN-13: 978-0374525286
Lagerkvist, Pär. The Dwarf. Trans. Alexandra Dick. Hill and Wang, 1958. ISBN-13: 978-0374521356
Söderberg, Hjalmar. Doctor Glas. Trans. Paul Bitten Austin. Anchor, 2002. ISBN-13: 978-0385722674

*Additional readings will be made available in a course reader or bCourses.

Prerequisites:  Successful completion of the first half or “A” portion of the Reading and Composition requirement.  Students may not enroll nor attend R1B/R5B courses without completing this prerequisite.

SCANDINAVIAN R5B, Section 3: Vikings and Varying Genders: Researching Old Norse Literature

MWF 8-9, 134 Dwinelle. Instructor: Adam Carl

Units: 4

All Reading & Composition courses must be taken for a letter grade in order to fulfill this requirement for the Bachelor’s Degree. This course satisfies the second half or the “B” portion of the Reading and Composition requirement. 

Don’t look for princesses in tall towers here; the Old Norse sagas prefer depictions of intelligent, foreseeing, weapon-wielding women. Not all depictions are endorsements (unfortunately), and this R5B course will attempt to examine the nuances of gendered interactions in the texts using the large body of saga scholarship. The pagan-intoned literature features extreme homophobia, but with an underlying gender spectrum that feels more familiar to modern Queer Theorists.  As the closest Medieval genre to a modern novel, the saga style captured the imaginations of Romantic poets up to modern day Hollywood screenwriters. If we hope to understand these adaptations, we must first understand the source material.

In this course, we will distinguish primary sources from secondary, scholarly from popular, and define relevant research. With the critical writing background from R5A or R1A (the prerequisite for this course), we can focus on making innovative arguments in two main research papers.

Required reading:
The Sagas of the Icelanders: A Selection. Penguin Press, 2001. 978-0141-000039
The Tale of Audun from the West Fjords (pp 717-722) – 5 pages
or The Tale of Sarcastic-Halli
Gisli Sursson’s Saga
 (pp 496-557) — 61 pages
The Saga of the People of Laxardal (pp270-422). –152 pages
Egil’s Saga (pp3-184) — 181 pages
The Saga of the Volsungs. trans. Jesse Byock. 979-0520-232852 — 109 pages
Excerpts from Hervarar Saga, trans. Christopher Tolkien. Found digitally.

A Pocket Style Manual, 7th Edition by Diana Hacker & Nancy Sommers (no earlier than 5th edition, please). 978-0205309023

Other readings will be made available through bCourses, largely secondary material and a short introduction to Old Norse literature by Jesse Byock.

Prerequisite:  Successful completion of the “A” portion of the Reading & Composition requirement or its equivalent.  Students may not enroll in nor attend R1B/R5B courses without completing this prerequisite.

UNDERGRADUATE COURSES TAUGHT IN ENGLISH

SCANDINAVIAN 24: Freshman Seminar: Occupied: A Suspenseful Norwegian Television Series on the Politics of Global Warming, the Global Economy, and Violence

W 10-11, 6415 Dwinelle. Instructor: Linda Rugg

Units: 1

Set in the near future, Occupied depicts a Norway stricken with a killer storm reminiscent of Hurricane Sandy… only much worse. The storm is assumed to be the outcome of global warming, and Norway, which is one of the wealthiest countries in the world due to its production of oil, decides to abandon fossil fuels and develop green energy. But the European Union and Russia, who depend on Norwegian oil, object.  Russia mounts an invasion with the support of the EU, and Norway finds itself torn apart into groups of collaborators and resistors. We will begin the class with some information about Norway and its economic and political culture, including its rejection of EU membership. We will discuss the guilty environmental conscience that seems to have motivated the telling of this story and examine Norwegian culture for signs of guilty conscience, not only about the environment, but about some of the collaboration that took place during the real historical occupation of Norway by Germany during the Second World War. Students will then watch one episode per week before coming to class, where we will discuss the episode and think about the serial narrative form.  Requirements: Access to Netflix streaming, some short readings on bCourse website, attendance and participation. This course will be graded P/NP. To pass, students must participate in discussion and have no more than three unexcused absences.

Prerequisite: freshman standing.

SCANDINAVIAN 75: Literature and Culture of the Nordic World: Northern Light, Northern Darkness

TuTh 3:30-5, 234 Dwinelle. Instructor: Linda Rugg

Units: 4

L&S Breadth:  Historical Studies OR Social and Behavioral Sciences

This course is a prerequisite for the Scandinavian major.

This course will explore the most important cultural contributions of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden during the modern age, from 1650 to the present day.  We will open with the Swedish Age of Great Power, when Sweden rampaged through Europe and attempted to found a New Sweden in the Delaware River Valley. Then our studies will enter the 1700s, when the biting satire of Danish author Ludwig Holberg created a new theater, the bizarre cosmologies of Swedish theologian Emanuel Swedenborg opened up new ways to think about the universe, and Swedish scientist Carl von Linnaeus created the system we still use to categorize every living being on earth.

The Danish Golden Age of the 1800s produces philosopher-theologian Søren Kierkegaard, whose writings on God, Death, and Existence still intrigue thinkers today, and Hans Christian Andersen, who was much more than a writer of fairy tales for children.  The 19th-century’s burgeoning interest in folklore and the mythology of the old Nordic world led to the creation of the great Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, as well as a new interest in the saga literature of Iceland. At the end of that century, hunger and the drive to create a new kind of life led thousands of Scandinavians to emigrate to North America; we will consider their story both from the point of view of arriving in an exciting new place and the loss experienced by those left behind.  And at home in Scandinavia, a revolutionary challenge to Europe’s old social order finds a voice in the drama of Norwegian Henrik Ibsen and the Swede August Strindberg. It should come as no surprise then that in the 20th century the Scandinavians take the world stage as the engineers of a new social and economic order. Storytellers Selma Lagerlöf and Karen Blixen (pen name: Isak Dinesen) recall the old traditions even as modernism comes sweeping in, in the form of new thoughts and designs for a new way of life.  Scandinavian filmmakers, from the silent era of the early 1900s to the current day, attract international audiences.  Finally, in the 21st century the art and architecture (and design for the people = IKEA), pop music, and crime fiction of the North constitute nothing less than a Nordic invasion.  Come learn about all this and much more: your world may be more Nordic than you think.

Texts:
Søren Kierkegaard, The Seducer’s Diary, trans. Howard and Edna Hong, Princeton University Press, ISBN 6910117379

Henrik Ibsen, Ibsen: Four Major Plays I, trans. Rolf Fjelde, Signet Classics, ISBN 0451530225

August Strindberg, Five Plays, trans. Harry Carlson, University of California Press, ISBN 0520046986

Other works will be posted to the bcourse site as pdfs.

Prerequisites:  none

SCANDINAVIAN 115: Studies in Drama and Film: The Auteur and his Double: Carl Th. Dreyer and Lars von Trier

TuTh 9:30-11, 142 Dwinelle. Instructor: Mark Sandberg

Units: 4

This Course is Cross-Listed with Film 151, Sec. 1

L&S Breadth:  Arts & Literature

Scandinavian major: Elective or Danish core course

Film major: Auteur course

Screening (Lab):  W 6-9pm, 142 Dwinelle

This course examines the notion of film authorship by juxtaposing the films of Carl Th. Dreyer, one of the most uncompromising international cinematic auteurs, and those of Lars von Trier, his self-consciously performative Danish double (and co-founder of the Dogme 95 movement).  These two directors, commonly identified as modernist and post-modernist, respectively, nevertheless share many cinematic preoccupations and common roots in the Danish film tradition. This course looks carefully at this case study of cinematic “stalking” and “identity theft” in order to test the idea of originality in film production.

Students will gain detailed knowledge of these two directors and their films, will improve their film-analytic skills, and will become aware of the issues and problems tied to the idea of film authorship. Although some emphasis will be placed on the acquisition of factual information, most of the graded assignments will assess the student’s ability to engage with the films and the ideas of the course in synthetic and analytic writing.

Films:
The Parson’s Widow (Dreyer, 1920)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer, 1928)
Vampyr (Dreyer, 1932)
Day of Wrath (Dreyer, 1943)
Ordet (Dreyer, 1955)
Zentropa (von Trier, 1991)
Breaking the Waves (von Trier, 1996)
The Idiots (von Trier, 1998)
Dancer in the Dark (von Trier, 2000)
The Perfect Human/The Five Obstructions (von Trier/Leth, 2003)
The Boss of it All (von Trier, 2006)
Melancholia (von Trier, 2011)

Prerequisites:  None

Workload:
Attendance, participation, and online viewing blog   20%
Take-home midterm exam                                          20%
Research essay (5-7 pages)                                         30%
Final exam                                                                   30%

Readings:
Badley, Linda. Contemporary Film Directors: Lars von Trier. University of Illinois Press, 2010. (also available as e-resource through UCB library)

Drum, Dale D. My Only Great Passion.  The Scarecrow Press, 2000.

Simons, Jan.  Playing the Waves: Lars von Trier’s Game Cinema. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2007.  (also available as e-resource through UCB library)

Collection of articles on bCourses

SCANDINAVIAN 123: Viking and Medieval Scandinavia

MWF 10-11, 209 Dwinelle. Instructor: Jonas Wellendorf

Units: 4

L&S Breadth: Historical Studies

Viking and Medieval Scandinavia will explore developments and trends in the areas of social structure, trade and economy, religion, political organization, culture, literature, and technology during the Viking and Medieval periods (c. 700-1500) in Scandinavia. The course will cover the main Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Faroe Islands), as well as the broader region of Scandinavian influence (Finland, North Atlantic Isles, Greenland). Developments in Scandinavia will be contextualized against broader trends in Europe and western Asia.

Texts:  Judith Jesch, The Viking Diaspora (2015); John Haywood, The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings (1995); Gareth Williams, Peter Pentz, and Matthias Wemhoff, Vikings: Life and Legend (2014) and a selection of primary sources in translation.

Prerequisites:  none

SCANDINAVIAN 125: Old Norse Literature

MWF 12-1, 105 Dwinelle. Instructor: Kate Heslop

Units: 4

This course is an introduction to the sagas, the most famous literary genre of medieval Scandinavia. While the course will emphasize reading, understanding, discussing and writing about the literature of this period, we will also learn about the roots of Scandinavian literature in the Viking Age, and about its material, historical and cultural contexts. Readings will include Egil’s saga, Hrafnkel’s saga, The Vinland sagas, The saga of the Volsungs, and selections from Heimskringla, The Book of SettlementsThe Book of the Icelanders and the Prose Edda.

Texts:
Margaret Clunies Ross, The Cambridge Introduction to the Old Norse-Icelandic Saga. Cambridge. ISBN 978-0521735209. Required.

The Sagas of Icelanders with a preface by Jane Smiley. Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition. ISBN 978-0141000039. Required.

Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla Volume I: The Beginnings to Óláfr Tryggvason, tr. Alison Finlay and Anthony Faulkes. Viking Society. ISBN: 978-0-903521-86-4. Required.

Saga of the Volsungs, tr. Jesse L. Byock. Penguin Classics. ISBN 978-0140447385. Required.

Course reader. Required.

Prerequisites: None. Readings are in English.

Course load: Short in-class presentation, midterm test, term paper (5-6 pages, doublespaced), final exam.

SCANDINAVIAN 150: The Scandinavian Novel: Intrigue, Murder, and Madness

MWF 11-12, 6415 Dwinelle. Instructor: Monica Hidalgo

Units: 4

L&S Breadth:  Arts & Literature

Plotting dwarfs, crazed lovers, megalomaniacs, and femmes fatales—these are but a few of the characters we will encounter as we examine the haunting narratives of classic Scandinavian novels of the 19th and 20th centuries as well as suspenseful modern Scandinavian crime fiction.

What sets these works apart is their ability to simultaneously tell complex stories about psychologically enigmatic characters, while at the same time raising challenging and even disturbing ethical quandaries. A guiding theme of the class will be to try to understand what it is about the formal structure of the novel that enables it to so effectively draw in readers to the ethical dilemmas faced by its characters. We will explore this theme reading classics such as J. P. Jacobsen’s Niels Lyhne, Knut Hamsun’s Hunger, Hjalmar Söderberg’s Doctor Glas, Pär Lagerkvist’s The Dwarf, Tarjei Vesaas’s The Ice Palace, and Peter Høeg’s Smilla’s Sense of Snow.

Texts:

Hamsun, Knut. Hunger. Trans. Robert Bly. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998. ISBN-13: 978-0374525286

Høeg, Peter. Smilla’s Sense of Snow. Trans. Tiina Nunnally. Delta, 1995. ISBN-13: 9780385315142

Jacobsen, Jens Peter. Niels Lyhne. Trans. Tiina Nunnally. Penguin Classics, 2006. ISBN-13: 978-0143039815

Lagerkvist, Pär. The Dwarf. Trans. Alexandra Dick. Hill and Wang, 1958. ISBN-13: 978-0374521356

Söderberg, Hjalmar. Doctor Glas. Trans. Paul Bitten Austin. Anchor, 2002. ISBN-13: 978-0385722674

Vesaas, Tarjei. The Ice Palace. Trans. Elizabeth Rokkan. Peter Owen Modern Classics, 2009. ISBN-13: 978-0720613292

*Additional readings will be made available in a course reader or bCourses.

Prerequisites:  None.  The course and readings are in English.

GRADUATE COURSES

SCANDINAVIAN 220: Early Scandinavian Literature: Old Norse Poetry and Poetics

W 2-5, 6415 Dwinelle. Instructor: Kate Heslop

Units: 4

In this seminar we will survey the history of Old Norse poetry, placing it in the context of the vernacular theories of poetics contained in the Edda of Snorri Sturluson and the Old Norse grammatical literature. Participants will learn the skills needed to read and analyze Old Norse poetic texts (eddic, skaldic, rímur) and gain detailed knowledge of the Old Norse poetic corpus and the history of research into it.

Texts:
Margaret Clunies Ross, A history of Old Norse poetry and poetics (Woodbridge: Brewer, 2005). ISBN 978-1843842798.

Additional texts will be supplied on bcourses.

Prerequisites: At least one semester of Old Norse language, or consent of instructor.

Workload: each session will include a short informal presentation of class material by one or more course participants.

Final research paper (20-25 pg.), due at end of semester.

SCANDINAVIAN 235: Studies in Romanticism and Realism: Nordic Romanticism, the Individual and the Collective

M 1-4, 6415 Dwinelle. Instructor: Anna Sandberg

Units: 4

The Romantic movement arose in the context of the revolutions of France and America at a turning point between Feudal Absolutism and beginning liberal reforms and can be seen as an ambivalent response to Enlightenment and Secularization. Inspired by European literary and intellectual currents and German idealist philosophy the Scandinavian Romanticisms favored individuality, imagination and formal experimentation (e.g. genre hybridity, the fragment and romantic irony). Thus the Romantic project is characterized by tensions: some writers believed in a utopian transformation of humanity. Others reflected the radical destabilization of the individual. On the one hand we find a search for the unifying dimensions of nation, language and Nordic history and mythology. On the other hand we find sceptic, if not nihilistic, tendencies in texts questioning the autonomy of the subject.  We will examine these dual ideas in the different periods of Romanticism in Scandinavia and read texts covering the period 1800-1850 of writers from Denmark, Sweden and Norway: Jens Baggesen, Schack von Staffeldt, Adam Oehlenschläger, Ingemann, Hans Christian Andersen and Kierkegaard, Stagnelius, Atterbom, Almqvist and Wergeland. Primary readings are balanced with literary history and critical essays.

Texts: to be announced.

Prerequisites:  Graduate standing or consent of instructor.

SCANDINAVIAN 298, Section 3: Graduate Scandinavian Languages and Readings

Th 11-1, 6410 Dwinelle. Instructor: Karen Moller

Units: 2

In this course students will advance their ability to read across Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish by gaining an understanding of the linguistic interrelations between the three languages. The selected texts will give an overview of the historical development of each of the languages. Readings will further offer techniques for comparative inter-Nordic language analysis. Upon completion of the course, students should be able to read texts from different time periods, in all three Nordic languages, with ease and confidence.

SCANDINAVIAN 300B, Section 1: Teaching Practicum: Scandinavian Languages

MWF 8-9, 6410 Dwinelle. Instructor: Karen Moller

Units: 1

REQUIRED OF SCANDINAVIAN DEPARTMENT GSIs TEACHING LANGUAGE COURSES

This course is required of all Graduate Student Instructors teaching Norwegian and Swedish courses in the Scandinavian Department.  Language GSIs also enroll in Scandinavian 301, Section 1 (3 units), Teaching Methodology: Scandinavian Languages.

Prerequisite:  GSI status in the Department of Scandinavian.

SCANDINAVIAN 300B, Section 2: Teaching Practicum: Reading & Composition for Scandinavian GSIs

MWF 8-9, 6409 Dwinelle. Instructor: Jonas Wellendorf

Units: 1

REQUIRED OF SCANDINAVIAN DEPARTMENT GSIs TEACHING READING & COMPOSITION

This course is required of all Graduate Student Instructors teaching Reading & Composition courses in the Scandinavian Department.  Reading and Composition GSIs also enroll in Scandinavian 301, Section 2 (3 units), Teaching Methodology: Reading & Composition.

Prerequisite:  GSI status in the Department of Scandinavian.

SCANDINAVIAN 301, Section 1: Teaching Methodology: Scandinavian Languages

TuTh 8-9:30, 6410 Dwinelle. Instructor: Karen Moller

Units: 3

REQUIRED OF SCANDINAVIAN DEPARTMENT GSIs TEACHING LANGUAGE COURSES

This course is required of all Graduate Student Instructors teaching language courses in the Scandinavian Department.  Language GSIs also enroll in Scandinavian 300B, section 1 (1 unit), Teaching Practicum: Scandinavian Langauges.  Must be taken on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.

Prerequisite:  Employment as graduate student instructor in the Department of Scandinavian.

SCANDINAVIAN 301, Section 2: Teaching Methodology: Reading & Composition

TuTh 8-9:30, 6409 Dwinelle. Instructor: Jonas Wellendorf

Units: 3

REQUIRED OF SCANDINAVIAN DEPARTMENT GSIs TEACHING READING & COMPOSITION

This course is required of all Graduate Student Instructors teaching Reading & Composition courses in the Scandinavian Department.  Reading and Composition GSIs also enroll in Scandinavian 300B, Section 2 (1 unit), Teaching Practicum: Reading & Composition for Scandinavian GSIs.

Course to be repeated for credit each semester of employment as graduate student instructor.  The purpose of this course is to introduce new GSIs to teaching Scandinavian R5A and R5B. It will focus on preparation of teaching materials, including syllabi, and discussion of questions of pedagogy (teaching literature and writing, lecturing, leading class discussions, designing writing assignments, grading and formulating responses to student papers, working with students individually and in small groups). The course will help you prepare for a career as a college teacher of literature and for the teaching component of job applications.  Must be taken on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.

Prerequisites:  Employment as graduate student instructor in the Department of Scandinavian.