Spring 2019

TuTh 2-3:30, Dwinelle B33. Instructor: Karen Møller

Units: 4

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

Workload: About five hours of work outside of class per week, an oral and written midterm and final.

Prerequisites: Danish1A or an equivalent course with a passing grade, plus consent by instructor.

If you are not a currently registered student, you may be able to enroll via Concurrent Enrollment, UC Berkeley Extension. Please note that the Concurrent Enrollment application must be approved by the department. Approval is based on availability of space in the class; enrolled UC students on a waitlist have priority.

THIS COURSE IS OFFERED AS A DISTANCE LEARNING CLASS FOR STUDENTS AT OTHER UC CAMPUSES. This is a UC cross-campus listed course and is open to students from other UC campuses.

MWF 9-10, Dwinelle 7. Instructor: Lotta Weckström

Units: 4

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

A continuation of Finnish 1A 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; a final exam, including a short oral presentation.

Prerequisite: Finnish 1A or permission of the instructor.

MWF 9-10, Dwinelle B-34. Instructor: Aino Rinhaug

Units: 4

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

Students on average state their outside class workload to be 3 hours.

Textbook: Sett i gang

Prerequisites: Norwegian 1A or an equivalent course with a passing grade, plus consent by instructor.

MWF 9-10, Dwinelle 104. Instructor: Zachary Blinkinsop

Units: 4

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

Workload: About five hours of work outside of class per week, an oral and written midterm and final.

Prerequisites: Swedish 1A or an equivalent course with a passing grade, plus consent by instructor.

If you are not a currently registered student, you may be able to enroll via Concurrent Enrollment, UC Berkeley Extension. Please note that the Concurrent Enrollment application must be approved by the department. Approval is based on availability of space in the class; enrolled UC students on a waitlist have priority.

MWF 9-10, Dwinelle 6415. Instructor: Tiffany White

Units: 4

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

Units: 4

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 = Danish; Section 102 = Norwegian; Section 103 = Swedish. 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. Should 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 100B is open to students who have taken either one of the Scandinavian language sequences 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 SCAND 100A):
 Two hours of work outside class a week. Weekly task based homework. A take-home written mid-term.

Workload for the discussion section (e.g. 2/3 of the total grade for SCAND 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.

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

SECTION 101 = Danish (Tu 4-5, Th 10:30-11:30)

SECTION 102 = Norwegian

SECTION 103 = Swedish (M&F 11-12)

Texts: 
Language sections: textbooks TBA– most often as readers

Lecture/Culture section: Reader

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

TuTh 9:30-11, Dwinelle 6415. Instructor: Isobel Boles

Units: 4

In this, the second part of the Old Norse language course, we practice and extend the language skills learned in Old Norse 101A. Grammar topics from 101A will be repeated and deepened as needed. Students will both prepare translations out of class and work cooperatively on translating Old Norse texts during class time.

We will read a broad range of texts, intended to give a taste of the genres and styles of Old Norse prose and poetry, supplemented by secondary literature illuminating the historical context in which the primary texts were written, transmitted and read. Students will also learn how to work critically with modern editions and reference tools.

By the end of the course, students will have a solid basis for literary and philological work in the Old Norse field. They should be able to read Old Norse prose fluently and decode Old Norse poetry. They should also be capable of analyzing and situating Old Norse literary works in their literary, cultural and historical contexts.

Texts to be announced.

Prerequisite: Scandinavian 101A

MWF 11-12, Dwinelle B7. Instructor: Lotta Weckström

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. This course will further develop the students’ oral communicative competence, their reading and writing ability and cultural understanding. Emphasis in 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 DVDs and websites. Midterm exam and a final project. This is a multiple level course, repeatable for credit.

Texts: TBA

Texts and other study materials provided by the instructor

Prerequisites: Finnish 102A or consent of instructor.

MWF 8-9, Dwinelle 187. Instructor: TBA

Units: 4

Although he was celebrated across Europe as a novelist and, later, as an author of fairy tales, Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) received a less-than-warm reception in his native Denmark. The philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (the other figure responsible for bringing the Danish Golden Age to the attention of a global audience), began his authorship with a blistering critique of Andersen’s novels, as he compared them unfavorably to those Steen Steensen Blicher and Thomasine Gyllembourg. Furthermore, Johan Ludvig Heiberg, the leading arbiter of taste in Copenhagen, failed to appreciate Andersen’s work as a playwright. In this course, we will first read Andersen’s Italian novel The Improvisator, and then his Caribbean drama Horatio, whose protagonist is the son of a plantation owner and a slave. For the second half of the semester, we will undertake an extensive study of the fairy tales (e.g., “The Little Mermaid,” “The Ugly Duckling,” and “The Snow Queen”), which Andersen wrote over the course of his long life. In order to contextualize our reading of Andersen throughout the course, we will also consult texts by Kierkegaard, Heiberg, Gyllembourg, and Blicher, among others.

Students enrolled in this course will write two research papers on Andersen and/or the Danish Golden Age. After writing a first draft, each student will receive extensive feedback from their instructor, which the student will then incorporate into their final draft.  In addition to submitting a final draft, each student will be required to give a brief presentation of their findings to their peers and the instructor.

This course satisfies the second half or the “B” portion of the Reading and Composition requirement.

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.

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.

TuTh 8-9:30, Dwinelle 211. Instructor: TBA

Units: 4

What is play? That simple definition is innately shared beyond human culture, as any dog with a stick, any dolphin with a wave, or any raven with a pinecone will demonstrate. This course will chart a path through instinct towards mutually understood contract to describe different aspects of play for humans and non-humans. The syllabus includes biological papers, social science findings, literary figurations of games, and some (video) games, all of which serve the purpose to clarify our writing and analytic skills. With new media consumption turning towards the digital and the virtual, we will spend more time at the end of the semester in the still experimental field of video game studies. Though we’ll talk about fun and have fun, the course will expect and train students in “reading” (broadly construed) texts analytically instead of passively.

In this course, we will distinguish primary sources from secondary, scholarly from popular, and define relevant research; these are transferrable skills to any environment, whether academic, corporate, or personal. 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 purchases and/or downloads:

• Minecraft by Mojang Studios (video game)
• Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
• Nattfåk or The Darkest Room by Johan Theorin

Provided on bCourses

• 1001 Arabian Nights
• The Saga of Gisli Sursson
• Hyndluljóð in translation
• Johan Huizinga’s Nature and Significance of Play as a Cultural Phenomenon

This course satisfies the second half or the “B” portion of the Reading and Composition requirement.
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.

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.

TuTh 9:30-11, Dwinelle 225. Instructor: TBA

Units: 4

In this course we’ll focus on life in modern Scandinavia through the eyes and voices of teenagers and young adults. This will give us the opportunity to analyze, discuss, and write about contemporary issues from a unique perspective as they affect not only young people, but Scandinavian society as a whole. From a boy’s complicated relationship with his Norwegian resistance-fighter father (Out Stealing Horses), to growing up in an isolated Swedish town (Popular Music from Vittula), these stories follow teenagers and young women and men wrestling with identity and their place in the world. Other texts may include novels and poetry by Jonas Hassen Khemiri, Evin Ahmad, Sjón, Athena Farrokhzad, Mikael Niemi, and John Ajvide Lindqvist. This course will pay particular attention to the ways these poignant texts problematize race, gender, sexuality, and identity in contemporary Scandinavian society.

No prior knowledge of contemporary Scandinavian fiction is required, only a desire to become stronger writers. The primary objective is to fulfill the requirements of Reading and Composition R5A, and through reading, discussing, and writing about these texts, students will practice and develop the skills necessary for successful college-level writing and essays. Through varied formal and informal assignments, students will utilize effective annotation, note-taking, and analysis skills while proceeding through the process of developing original arguments and critical commentary in an articulate and concise style. We’ll also focus on editing and revising writing to achieve these goals.

Required Texts:

(additional texts TBD)

Per Petterson, Out Stealing Horses (Picador; 1st edition April 29, 2008; ISBN-10: 0312427085;

ISBN-13: 978-0312427085)

Films: Among the films that may be shown in class are Patrik Age 1.5 (Dir. Ella Lemhagen, 2008) and Show Me Love (Dir. Lukas Moodysson, 1999).

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.

TuTh 8-9:30, Dwinelle 251. Instructor: Liam Waters

Units: 4

A world of dragons, of wizards and dwarves, of bloodied warriors and strange shape shifters compelled to great feats of courage: this is the world of Norse mythology. From Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen to Marvel’s Thor, the myths and legends of medieval Scandinavia have excited and inspired imaginations for centuries. What were these myths? Where did they come from and who told them? These are but a few of the questions we will address in this class. From analyzing the context and form of original medieval texts to exploring mythic re-tellings in our own age, this course explores the mediums through which myths and legends are told. In so doing, we will develop critical and analytic thinking skills, hone thesis-writing techniques, and analyze the forms and strategies of compelling writing. In this class, we move away from questions of how retellings are different and towards why they are different.

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 “B” portion of the Reading and Composition requirement.

Required texts:

The Hobbit. J.R.R. Tolkien. ISBN: 0618002219

Edda. trans. Anthony Faulkes. ISBN: 9780460876162

The Poetic Edda (2014). trans. Carolyne Larrington. ISBN: 9780199675340

and others TBD

This course satisfies the second half or the “B” portion of the Reading and Composition requirement.

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.

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.

MWF 8-9, Dwinelle 228. Instructor: TBA

Units: 4

Academic studies of the past have long been entrenched in the nation-state model ever since the development of nineteenth-century nationalism. In this course, we will examine moments in world history, from the Middle Ages to the present day, without relying on demarcated national spaces. Instead, we will work from a hemispheric perspective to study cross-cultural interactions between Scandinavians and the world beyond Northern Europe. In doing so, students will develop a greater awareness of global connections that have left visible material traces over the past 1000 years. We will explore how Scandinavian people negotiated issues and tensions of race, ethnicity, colonialism, and diasporic migration as well as what it meant to be “Scandinavian” at any given point in history.

These discussions will introduce students to the ways in which scholars ask questions, read and evaluate sources, and develop arguments. While acquiring training in argumentative writing, students will reflect on the cultural impacts of human networks that have transformed societies around the world and continue to do so in our “globalizing” world today. By examining primary sources on Scandinavian travel and cross-cultural interactions on each of the seven continents, this course seeks to challenge students to question what the “global” looks like, not just on a transnational level but also how global connections influence individual lives and local spaces. Our aim is to ultimately develop and improve persuasive writing skills and to think critically about historical studies and their practical applications to our world today.

Textbooks and Course Materials

This course will require a course-reader (TBD).

This course satisfies the second half or the “B” portion of the Reading and Composition requirement.

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.

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.

MWF 8-9, Dwinelle 246. Instructor: Sarah Eriksen

Units: 4

An ancient prophetess recounts visions for Odin from creation to Ragnarok. A humorless merchant forces an old sailor’s legend to “come true.” A heartless seducer traps his young prey with paper and pen. Neighbors swap anecdotes of elves, trolls, and things that go bump in the night. What happens when a storyteller becomes visible in a tale, why does it affect meaning in literature, and how do we experience it as readers? This course explores how exchanges between “tellers” and their audiences unfold across the page and in the mind. Students will be encouraged to think about story as a performance between a text and a reader.

This course will cover Nordic texts of diverse styles and genres from medieval to modern, folding in relevant concepts from literary, cognitive, cultural, and anthropological studies to build a toolbox of reading and analytical strategies. Class discussions and exercises will guide students on improving their argumentation, structure, analysis, and editing practices, and students will further hone these skills through writing assignments. Weekly workshops, including a class trip to the library, will introduce standards of composition and research.

All texts and course materials are in English. No prior knowledge of the Nordic world is necessary for this class.

Texts:

Course reader (available at Copy Central)

This course satisfies the second half or the “B” portion of the Reading and Composition requirement.

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.

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.

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.

MWF 1-2, Dwinelle 182. Instructor: Kate Heslop

Units: 4

L&S Breadth: Arts & Literature

Scandinavian 60 is a requirement for the five major concentrations in Scandinavian.

A hamstrung goldsmith. A cross-dressing god. A teenage dragonslayer. A warrior who fights in the form of a bear. A deceived queen who takes a terrible revenge on her closest family. The most beautiful and intelligent woman in Iceland, who buries three husbands. These are just a few of the remarkable characters whose stories have survived almost a thousand years from when they were first composed by anonymous Scandinavian poets and authors. What gave these narratives their contemporary relevance, and why have they survived so long?

The time these stories come from (c. 800-1300 CE) was a period of radical change in Scandinavia, from the pagan warrior societies of the Viking Age, to the Christian, literate, centralized world of the Middle Ages. In this course, you will learn about the literature and other media of Viking Age and medieval Scandinavia, and explore what these stories of gods, kings, warriors, shield-maidens and tragic lovers meant to their medieval audiences. You will acquire tools for reading and interpreting texts and artifacts from distant times and places, and explore some of the recent resonances of these narratives in various media (e.g. music, film, TV, graphic novels, games).

Texts

The Poetic Edda, trans. by Carolyne Larrington, revised edition (OUP: 2014). ISBN 978-0199675340.

The Saga of the Volsungs, trans. by Jesse Byock (Penguin: 2000). ISBN 978-0140447385.

The Saga of King Hrolf kraki, trans. by Jesse Byock (Penguin: 1998). ISBN 978-0140435931.

The Saga of the People of Laxardal and Bolli Bollason’s Tale, trans. by Keneva Kunz (Penguin: 2008). ISBN 978-0140447750.

Further texts will be provided on bcourses.

Prerequisites: None.

TuTh 12:30-2, Barrows 170. Instructor: Karin Sanders

Units: 4

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.

Prerequisites: None. All readings in English.

TuTh 2-3:30, Wheeler 224. Instructor: Rue Taylor

Units: 4

Recent television production in the Nordic countries has reached a new global audience outside the media circuits (such as art-house cinema) that historically have been the more typical Nordic outlets to international markets. Successful branding of some content as “Nordic Noir” and the radical reorganization of the distribution model for international television have allowed more mainstream circulation of television content abroad, reaching a wider audience than the earlier niche appeals of Dogme 95 filmmaking, the art films of Bergman, Dreyer, and von Trier, or the “Swedish New Wave” of the 1960s. How have contemporary Nordic television series (in both Nordic Noir and other modes) created these new forms of appeal? To what degree do they form an alternative to the contemporary American practices of television production, and as a consequence, what do current Nordic television series tell us about today’s cultural configurations in the global North?

To understand these questions, this course takes the idea of the “remake” as a diagnostic tool for examining for investigating the border zones between cultures. The examples range from direct, almost slavish remakes to looser forms of inspiration, but in every case a Nordic television show will be paired with a US or UK comparison piece to ask questions about cultural adaptation and translation. The course looks at this extensive “version-making” activity in order to answer questions such as: why are so many successful Nordic TV series be remade in English (and how are American and British audiences different in this regard)? What constitutes local color? What are the mechanisms of cultural and linguistic translation that allow shows to flow from a native context to a more global audience? What does one get out of watching an original that differs from watching a remake? Is one inherently better than the other?

Examples investigated will include multiple episodes of television series from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Great Britain, and the U.S., presented in these configurations: Riget/Kingdom Hospital; Henning Mankells Walllander/Wallander; Forbrydelsen/The Killing; Bron-Broen/The Bridge/The Tunnel; West Wing/Borgen; Äkta människor/Humans; Okkupert/Man in the High Castle; and Skam.

There are no prerequisite courses for this upper-division elective, and all materials will be either in English or in subtitled versions: no knowledge of any of the Nordic languages is required. Format of presentation will be a mixture of lecture and discussion.

Short readings (academic articles and journalistic discussions of various shows) will be made available on bCourses. There are no required textbooks.

Meetings TBD, Faculty Offices. Instructor: Faculty

Units: 1

For Scandinavian majors.

One hour of discussion per week. Prerequisites: Knowledge of a Scandinavian language/completion of 2 years of a Scandinavian language at UC Berkeley. Additional work, for majors in Scandinavian and other qualified students with permission of the instructor, in connection with one of the following: Scandinavian C107, C108, 115, 116, 117, 120, 165, and other upper-division courses by approval of the Faculty Major Adviser.  Students attend lectures and do all written work in the “main course and also read assignments in the Scandinavian languages and write a short paper.

To enroll, complete an Independent Study form (see Amanda Minafo, undergraduate advisor, for the form) with the faculty member. Return the completed form to Amanda, who will enroll you in the appropriate section.

MWF 10-11, Etcheverry 3106. Instructor: Jonas Wellendorf

Units: 4

L&S Breadth: Arts & Literature OR Philosophy & Values

Who were the Norse gods? How do we know? How and why did they meet their end? This course presents a survey of Scandinavian myth and religion from prehistory through the conversion to Christianity in the eleventh century, as illustrated in textual and, to a lesser extent, archaeological materials. The approach will be primarily source-critical, with some use of comparative materials from other mythologies. By the end of the course, students should know the sources well, have an understanding of the major problems involved in the study of Scandinavian myth and religion, and be aware of the more important scholarly trends in the field. Three hours of lecture and discussion per week.

Edda by Snorri Sturluson, trans. Anthony Faulkes (1987), ISBN: 9780460876162
The Poetic Edda, trans. Carolyne Larrington (2014), 2nd ed., ISBN: 9780199675340
Abram, Christopher (2011): Myths of the Pagan North: The Gods of the Norsemen. ISBN: 9781847252470

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