Spring 2015

MWF 9-10, . Instructor: Christian Gullette

Units: 4

Language Coordinator: Karen Møller
kmoller@berkeley.edu

Three hours of language instruction per week. Students continue to develop the basic elements of communicative competence in both spoken and written language within a cultural context. Scandinavian 1B is the second half of the elementary Swedish course, Scandinavian 1A.

Workload: About three hours of work outside of class per week and optional individual work in the Berkeley Language Media Center. An oral and written midterm and final exam.

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

Prerequisite: Scandinavian 1A. 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.

TT 11-12:30, 33 Dwinelle. Instructor: Sirpa Tuomainen

Units: 4

THIS COURSE IS OFFERED AS A DISTANCE LEARNING CLASS FOR STUDENTS AT OTHER UC CAMPUSES. PLEASE CONTACT THE INSTRUCTOR FOR INFORMATION.

Instructor’s email: sirpa@berkeley.edu

A continuation of Scandinavian 2A offered in the fall semester. Three hours of language instruction per week. Students continue to develop the basic elements of communicative competence in both spoken and written language within a cultural context. Workload: about three hours of homework and preparation outside of class per week. Oral and written midterm. Final exam, including a short oral presentation.

Texts:

Sun suomi – Finnish for Beginners (2013)

Kristiina Kuparinen, Terhi Tapaninen, Karoliina Kuismam, 9789511261513, Otava

Prerequisite: Scandinavian 2A or permission by instructor.

TT 9:30-11, . Instructor: Jenna Coughlin

Units: 4

Language Coordinator: Karen Møller

kmoller@berkeley.edu
Three hours of language instruction per week. Students continue to develop the basic elements of communicative competence in both spoken and written language within a cultural context. Scandinavian 3B is the second half of the elementary Norwegian course, Scandinavian 3A.

Workload: About three hours of work outside of class per week and optional individual work in the Berkeley Language Media Center. An oral and written midterm and final exam.

Text:Sett i gang 1(Text and exercise book) and later in the semesterSett i gang 2to be ordered online. Instructions will be given by the instructor at the beginning of the semester.

Prerequisites: Scandinavian 3A. 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.

MWF 9-10, . Instructor: Ian Thompson

Units: 4

Language Coordinator: Karen Møller

kmoller@berkeley.edu

Classes meet for three hours of Danish instruction a week, plus one hour of mandatory computer assisted work. Students will acquire basic communicative competence in all four foreign language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) within a cultural context. Scandinavian 4B is the second half of the elementary Danish course, Scandinavian 4A.

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: Aktivt Dansk by Lise Bostrup

Prerequisites: Scandinavian 4A. 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.

W 11-12, 6415 Dwinelle. Instructor: Karen Moller

Units: 4

ALL STUDENTS ENROLL IN THE COMMON LECTURE WEDNESDAYS 11-12 + A DISCUSSION SECTION FOR THEIR TARGET LANGUAGE AS FOLLOWS:

Section 101: Swedish, M&F 11-12, 6415 Dwinelle, Christian Gullette

Section 102: Norwegian, M&F 12-1, 6307 Dwinelle, Jenna Coughlin

Section 103: Danish, TT 11-12, 6415 Dwinelle, Karen Moller

L&S Breadth: International Studies OR Arts & Literature

Continuing students of Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish enrolling in Scandinavian 100B 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 = Swedish; Section 102 = Norwegian; Section 103 = Danish. Students should register in the 100B 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 (Swedish, Norwegian, or Danish). 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 100B is open to students who have taken Scandinavian 1A-1B, 3A-3B, or 4A-4B 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 SCAND 100B):
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 SCAND 100B): 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

Prerequisite: Scandinavian 100A. The course is not open to native, near-native, or fluent heritage speakers of any Nordic language. Course cannot be repeated without prior consent from the language coordinator.

W 6:30-9, 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

L&S Breadth: International Studies OR Arts & Literature

Three hours of language instruction per week. This course will further develop the students’ oral communicative competence, their reading and writing ability and cultural understanding. Emphasis in Spring semester 2015 will be on aural/oral language skills, strategic reading comprehension skills and essay writing. Reading in different registers with vocabulary development will be studied and discussed. The class is multi-level, and class material, homework and assessment will be adjusted according to each student’s skill level. Workload: About three hours of work outside the class per week, including independent work with DVD’s and websites. Midterm exam and a final project. This is a multiple level course; can be repeated for credit.

Texts:

Kuulostaa hyvältä – Sounds good (2005), Ahonen, Lili, SKS

A Grammar Book in Finnish (2006) White, Leila

Texts and other study materials provided by the instructor

Prerequisites: Scandinavian 102A or consent of instructor.

• Berkeley faculty and staff members interested in participating in the Finnish language classes must first consult the Finnish language coordinator

To enroll in a Finnish language course via UC Extension go to: http://www.unex.berkeley.edu

MWF 8-9, . Instructor: Ben Bigelow

Units: 4

Course Supervisor: Prof. Linda Rugg

GSI: Benjamin Bigelow, benja.bigelow@berkeley.edu

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.

Decadence was a literary style that flourished in Europe around the end of the nineteenth century. Taking a cue from a number of influential histories of the late Roman Empire, decadent writers perceived an important correlation between the Roman Empire on the verge of extinction and aristocratic European culture at the fin de siècle, and fashioned themselves in the mold of the perverse, pleasure-seeking, doomed citizens of the late Empire. This kind of literature fixated on the aristocratic, sensitive, highly educated individual’s pursuit of pleasure in the midst of social and cultural decay. Though the decadent literary fashion gained the most traction in France (Baudelaire, Huysmans, Verlaine, Bourget), influential decadent novels were also written in the UK (Stoker, Wilde), Italy (D’Annunzio), and Germany (Mann). Less well-known are the Scandinavian forays into decadent literature, by the likes of Johannes Jørgensen and Herman Bang (Denmark), Henrik Ibsen and Arne Garborg (Norway), August Strindberg, Gustaf af Geijerstam, and Hjalmar Söderberg (Sweden). In this class, we will study several of the seminal Continental specimens of decadent literature and investigate how this literary style was imported to the north—what adaptations and adjustments were necessitated by this importation, and how did the Scandinavian authors frame their own efforts to write under an “adopted” literary style?

This course is designed to help students develop proficiencies in literary analysis, close reading, critical thinking, scholarly research, and composition through class discussions, active reading, and a series of challenging writing assignments of varying lengths.

Texts:

Arne Garborg, Weary Men (Northwestern UP, ISBN: 978-0810116009)

Thomas Mann, Death in Venice and Other Stories (Signet Classics, ISBN: 978-0451530325)

Hjalmar Söderberg, Doctor Glas (Anchor, ISBN: 978-0385722674)

Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray and Three Stories (Penguin Classics, ISBN: 978-0143106142)

Other course readings are available on the course bCourses site

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.

TT 8-9:30, . Instructor: Molly Jacobs-Bauer

Units: 4

Instructor’s email: mollyjacobs@berkeley.edu

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.

Tales of outlaws are some of the most well-known and best loved stories from medieval literature. Stories of Robin Hood’s generosity, or Gísli Sursson’s daring, have captivated generations of audiences. In this course, we will examine the concepts of society and social boundaries, as well as the reasons that compel people to remove themselves or others from it. We will discuss individual principles versus social convention, as well as the riveting stories of Gisli, Grettir, Robin Hood and others as a framework for learning the basics of writing college-level research papers.

This class is designed to fulfill the university’s Reading and Composition (R&C) requirement. Emphasis will be placed on argumentation, source evaluation, and research strategies. Students will sharpen their critical reading and writing skills through a series of short writing assignments, secondary source analysis, and a final research project.

Texts:

The Saga of Grettir the Strong – trans. Scudder, ISBN 0140447733

Medieval Outlaws: Twelve Tales in Modern English Translation – ed. Ohlgren, ISBN 1932559620 (Revised and expanded edition)

Course Reader

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

TT 3:30-5, . Instructor: Molly Jacobs-Bauer

Units: 4

Instructor’s email: mollyjacobs@berkeley.edu

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.

Medieval Icelandic sagas are dominated by stories of feud & revenge. But beyond being thrilling stories of action and suspense, they engage important ethical questions: what offenses require revenge? What is appropriate revenge? How is a balance achieved between maintaining social standing and preserving social stability? Most importantly, what happens when your family gets involved? In this course, we will study the dynamics of feud and family in some of the classic stories of the Icelandic Middle Ages as a framework for learning the basics of writing college-level research papers.

This class is designed to fulfill the university’s Reading and Composition (R&C) requirement. Emphasis will be placed on argumentation, source evaluation, and research strategies. Students will sharpen their critical reading and writing skills through a series of short writing assignments, secondary source analysis, and a final research project.

Texts:

Njal’s saga – trans. Cook, ISBN 9780140447699

Course Reader

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

MWF 8-9, . Instructor: Verena Hoefig

Units: 4

Instructor’s email: verena@berkeley.edu

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.

In the Global Gender Gap Report 2013, Sweden is named as a world leader in gender equality. The report, drawn up at the initiative of the World Economic Forum, measures equality in the areas of economics, politics, education and health (Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden occupy the first four ranks, while the US is listed on rank 23). This reading and composition class will explore the cultural foundations of strong and influential women in Scandinavia, with a special focus on Swedish literature and women characters who are shown to be either inside or outside the mainstream, and the sphere of economic and political influence. Strong women are found in many works of art in Sweden, most visibly in recent years in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series (think The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo).

In this class, we will trace the presence of strong female characters from contemporary novels and movies to classics of female authorship in Sweden, for instance Astrid Lindgren or Selma Lagerlöf, to August Strindberg’s groundbreaking and famous deliberations on women and equality. We will explore the first novel promoting the idea of egalitarian marriage in Sweden from 1839 and learn about a seventeenth century Swedish queen, Christina, who abdicated her throne, converted to Catholicism, moved to Rome, and became a cultural leader. We will read a short text by Sweden’s patron saint, Saint Bridget, who wrote critically about the pope, bishops, and other clergy in the late fourteenth century.  Finally, we will look at strong and influential women in the earliest preserved textual artifacts from the North, such as the sagas, mythological poems, and runic inscriptions.

Texts:

Course Reader

Larsson, Stieg. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Mass Market Paperback, 2011. ISBN-13: 978-0307949486

Lindgren, Astrid. Pippi Longstocking. Puffin Modern Classics, 2005. ISBN-13: 978-0142402498

Martinson, Moa. Women and Appletrees. The Feminist Press at CUNY, 1993. ISBN-13: 978-0935312386

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.

MWF 3-4, . Instructor: Verena Hoefig

Units: 4

Instructor’s email: verena@berkeley.edu

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.

In the Global Gender Gap Report 2013, Sweden is named as a world leader in gender equality. The report, drawn up at the initiative of the World Economic Forum, measures equality in the areas of economics, politics, education and health (Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden occupy the first four ranks, while the US is listed on rank 23). This reading and composition class will explore the cultural foundations of strong and influential women in Scandinavia, with a special focus on Swedish literature and women characters who are shown to be either inside or outside the mainstream, and the sphere of economic and political influence. Strong women are found in many works of art in Sweden, most visibly in recent years in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series (think The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo).

In this class, we will trace the presence of strong female characters from contemporary novels and movies to classics of female authorship in Sweden, for instance Astrid Lindgren or Selma Lagerlöf, to August Strindberg’s groundbreaking and famous deliberations on women and equality. We will explore the first novel promoting the idea of egalitarian marriage in Sweden from 1839 and learn about a seventeenth century Swedish queen, Christina, who abdicated her throne, converted to Catholicism, moved to Rome, and became a cultural leader. We will read a short text by Sweden’s patron saint, Saint Bridget, who wrote critically about the pope, bishops, and other clergy in the late fourteenth century.  Finally, we will look at strong and influential women in the earliest preserved textual artifacts from the North, such as the sagas, mythological poems, and runic inscriptions.

Texts:

Course Reader

Larsson, Stieg. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Mass Market Paperback, 2011. ISBN-13: 978-0307949486

Lindgren, Astrid. Pippi Longstocking. Puffin Modern Classics, 2005. ISBN-13: 978-0142402498

Martinson, Moa. Women and Appletrees. The Feminist Press at CUNY, 1993. ISBN-13: 978-0935312386

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.

TT 3:30-5, Instructor: Karin Sanders

Units: 4

Students will develop the basic elements of communicative competence in both spoken and written language within a cultural context.

Instructor’s email: ksanders@berkeley.edu

L&S Breadth: Arts & Literature

Hans Christian Andersen’s (1805-75) international fame is primarily built on his reputation as a writer of children’s fairy tales. Yet his authorship is multifaceted and complex both in terms of genres and intended reading audience. It reflects the historical and cultural concerns of his time. His written production includes poems, short stories, novels, plays, travel descriptions, autobiographies and diaries and offers a unique perspective on psychological and social questions of identity in the ninetieth century. We will investigate authorship and death, writing and sexuality, religion and philosophy, politics and ideology, and pay attention to Andersen as a “visual” writer. We will look into his distinctive way of using the material reality he encountered, examine how everyday ‘things’ are anthropomorphicized to reflect the workings of human agency, and study how his seismographic sensibility to the physical world resonated far beyond the period in which he lived (Romanticism/Realism) and extended backwards to the Enlightenment and forward to Surrealism. Andersen was an enthusiastic believer in various modern technologies and frequently imagined future modes of transport and communication. He also produced a number of sketches and paper-cuts, and he posed for numerous portraits (sculptures, paintings, photographs etc.) The course will include examinations of these visual materials. We will also investigate the reception of Andersen in popular culture: film versions, for example, of his life and his works.

Texts:

Hans Christian Andersen’s Complete Fairy Tales and Stories.

All other required materials will be available in the form of a reader.

Prerequisites: None. All readings in English.

TT 4:30-6, 188 Dwinelle. Instructor: Linda Rugg

Students will develop the basic elements of communicative competence in both spoken and written language within a cultural context.

Instructor’s email: rugg@berkeley.edu

Cross-listed with Film 151, Section 3.

Lab: Tu 6-9, 188 Dwinelle

L&S Breadth: Arts & Literature

What is a “Bergman film”? Can films be authored in the same way as books? This course will examine the work of Sweden’s premier filmmaker, Ingmar Bergman, the phenomenon of his success in the U.S. and worldwide, his contribution to the notions of auteurism and art cinema, his role within Swedish culture, and the problems he poses by linking film and autobiography.

We will read theoretical articles on such topics as the auteur movement, feminism in Bergman’s work, and self-reflexivity and narrative in films, as well as Bergman’s autobiographical and fictional writing, and essays on Bergman’s work by Bergman and others. The class will view a sampling of Bergman’s films from various periods, using close reading techniques to assess the nature of “Bergman films.”

Films to be screened and discussed include: Summer Interlude, Smiles of a Summer Night, Sawdust and Tinsel, Wild Strawberries, The Seventh Seal, The Magician, Winter Light, The Silence, Persona, Cries and Whispers, Fanny and Alexander, and others.

Texts: to be announced.

Prerequisites: None

TT 12:30-2, . Instructor: Ulf Olsson

Units: 4

Students will develop the basic elements of communicative competence in both spoken and written language within a cultural context.

Instructor’s email: ulf.olsson@littvet.su.se

Cross-listed with Comparative Literature 170, Section 1.

L&S Breadth: Arts & Literature

Violence, understood as verbal, psychological and physical acts, has always been a central part of theatre, and forms a strong current in European theatre in the last hundred years. Reaching from verbal insults to systematic terror and torture, theatrical violence can also be directed towards the audience. The course will discuss different aspects of violence, how it can be understood and what its effects as well as its dramaturgical potential can be. An important dimension will be the ethical problems that violence confronts us with. Against a backdrop of European drama from the 20th century, we will look at different aspects of violence in Scandinavian drama, from Ibsen and Strindberg to contemporary playwrights Norén and Fosse.

Course Requirements:

Attendance and Participation  10%

short written assignments        15%

class presentations                    25%

Midterm                                      20%

Final                                             30%

Drama:

Jon Fosse, The Dead Dogs, tr. M-B Akerholt, 2014

Henrik Ibsen, When We Dead Awaken http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4782/4782-h/4782-h.htm

Peter Handke, Kaspar, in Plays: 1, 1997, p. 51-141

Elfriede Jelinek, Bambiland http://a-e-m-gmbh.com/wessely/fbambius.htm

Sarah Kane, Blasted, 1996, in Complete Plays 2001

Lars Norén, Act, tr. M. Lindholm Gochman, 2014

Harold Pinter, Mountain Language,London: Faber and Faber 1988 and later

Jean-Paul Sartre, Dirty Hands, in No Exit, and Three Other Plays, 1989

August Strindberg, Miss Julie, in Miss Julie and Other Plays, Oxford  World’s Classics 2009

August Strindberg, ‘The Stronger’, in Strindberg – Other Sides: Seven Plays, tr. Joe Martin, New York: Peter Lang 1997, p. 309-318

Peter Weiss, Marat/Sade, New York: Continuum 1998

Secondary Literature

Judith Butler, Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative, 1997, p. 1-41

Page duBois, Torture and Truth, 1991, p. 9-34

Michel Foucault, “Discipline and Punish, Panopticism”, in Discipline and Punish, 1977 and later, p. 195-228: http://foucault.info/documents/disciplineandpunish/foucault.disciplineandpunish.panopticism.html

Christopher Innes, “Modernism in Drama”, in The Cambridge Companion to Modernism, ed. M. Levenson, 2011, p. 128-154

Jean-Jacques Lecercle, The Violence of Language, London: Routledge1990, p. 224-264

Jeanette R. Malkin, Verbal Violence in Contemporary Drama: From Handke to Shepherd, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1992, p. 10-28 Lucy Nevitt, Theatre & Violence, New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2013

Elaine Scarry, The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World, New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press 1985, p. 27-59

Peter Szondi, Theory of the Modern Drama: A Critical Edition, 1987 [1965], p. 11-32

Slavoj Zizek, Violence: Six Sideways Reflections, 2008, p. 40-73: http://marksistai.lt/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/zizek-violence.pdf

MWF 12-1, . Instructor: Kate Heslop

Units: 4

Students will develop the basic elements of communicative competence in both spoken and written language within a cultural context.

Instructor’s email: hengikepta@gmail.com

L&S Breadth:  Arts & Literature

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, Eyrbyggja saga, The Vinland sagas, The saga of the Volsungs, Ynglinga saga, and selections from The Book of Settlements and The Book of the Icelanders.

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.

Eyrbyggja Saga, tr. Hermann Pálsson and Paul Edwards. Penguin Classics. ISBN 978-0140445305. 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.

MWF 10-11, . Instructor: Jonas Wellendorf

Units: 4

Students will develop the basic elements of communicative competence in both spoken and written language within a cultural context.

Instructor’s email: wellendorf@berkeley.edu

Cross-listed with Religious Studies C108

L&S Breadth: Historical Studies OR Philosophy & Values

Three hours of lecture and discussion per week. The course is intended to present a survey of the religious beliefs of Scandinavia from prehistory through the conversion to Christianity (eleventh century), as illustrated in narrative and, to a lesser extent, archaeological materials. The approach will be primarily source-critical, with some use of comparative Germanic and Indo-European data. By the end of the course, students should know the sources well, have an understanding of the major problems involved in this study, and be aware of the more important scholarly trends in the field.

Workload: A midterm exam (20% of the course grade); a draft of term paper (10% of course grade); term paper (40% of the course grade); and a final examination (30% of the course grade).

Texts:

Edda, trans. Anthony Faulkes, ISBN-13: 978-0460876162

The Poetic Edda (second edition), trans. Carolyne Larrington, ISBN-13: 978-0199675340

Norse Mythology, by John Lindow, ISBN-13: 978-0195153828

All other readings are to be found in the course reader which will be made available through bCourses.

Prerequisites: None, although some background in folklore and mythology, religious studies, medieval literature and history, or Scandinavian culture are likely to prove helpful