Summer 2018

R&C Courses | Courses in English

READING AND COMPOSITION COURSES

SCANDINAVIAN R5B, Section 1: Session A (May 21-June 29): Animals, Androids, and Aliens: Non-Human Others in Nordic Literature

TWTh 1-3:30, Dwinelle 134. Instructor: Zachary Blinkinsop

Units: 4

Have you ever thought that your cell-phone was taking on a life of its own? Maybe you’ve suspected that your dog could understand your every word? Through creative media we can realize such fantasies and imagine the inner-lives of things and animals. In this course we will delve into modern Nordic novels and television but we will also watch two American movies to draw cultural, generic, and aesthetic comparisons. We will familiarize ourselves with concepts from ecocriticism, animal studies, and thing theory to help frame our discussions of the primary texts. Some overarching course questions include: how and why do we portray non-human beings in literature? What does it mean to empathize with them? Why are there so many talking animals in children’s literature? How and why has Nordic folklore about trolls been adapted for modern audiences? To what degree, if at all, should we interpret stories about non-human characters as allegories for contemporary human concerns? Is there a specifically Nordic way of depicting the non-human subject or are these depictions inherently anational? Throughout this course students will hone their interpretative faculties by writing a number of essays. Occasional workshops will introduce students to the standards of academic composition and will encourage students to develop their own voices. All texts and course materials are in English.

Course Texts

  • Johanna Sinisalo’s Troll: A Love Story
  • Aarto Paasilinna’s The Year of the Hare
  • Tove Jansson’s Tales from Moomin Valley
  • Peter Høeg’s Smilla’s Sense of Snow
  • Selections from Kerstin Ekman’s Forest of Hours
  • Two episodes from SVT’s Äkta Människor
  • Spike Jonze’s Her
  • Disney’s Bambi

All Reading and 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.

 Prerequisites:  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.

Instructor pending appointment.

SCANDINAVIAN R5B, Section 2: Session A (May 21-June 29): Girls, Boys, and Beasts: Children and Animals in Scandinavian Literature

TWTh 1-3:30, Dwinelle 206. Instructor: Ida Moen Johnson

Units: 4

We often think of children and animals as going hand-in-hand: children cling to teddy bears, love their pets, and read countless books about wolves, bears, and ducklings. Why do we think the relationship between children and animals is so natural? Why do we expect children to outgrow their special connection to animals? And, what is a child or an animal anyway? Are they one in the same? In this course, we will examine these questions through the literature of Scandinavia, looking at how child-animal encounters are often a space for complicating or defying the child’s imperative to “grow up.” Authors we will study include Hans Christian Andersen, Henrik Ibsen, and Astrid Lindgren.

All Reading and 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.

 Prerequisites:  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.

Instructor pending appointment.

SCANDINAVIAN R5B, Section 101: Session D (July 2 – August 10): Migration and Mobility in the Viking Age: Global Perspectives

TWTh 10-12:30, Evans 55. Instructor: TBA

Units: 4

Migration and travel have fundamentally shaped human history from its very beginnings. Whether forced or voluntary, human mobility across the globe has led to some definitive, transformative ruptures in history, from the Indo-Aryan migration from the Indus Valley, the expansion of the Mongols, invasions of the Roman Empire, the displacement of Africans in the Atlantic slave trade, and the recent forced relocation of thousands of Syrian refugees. The age of the Vikings, perhaps the most popularized moment of migration from Scandinavia, shares this long history of human mobility and cross-cultural exchanges.

This course will introduce students to the ways in which scholars ask questions, read and evaluate sources, and construct arguments. Acquiring training in textual analysis and argumentative writing, students will study the movement of people during the Viking Age, from trading and pilgrimage, to raiding and settlement. The course will explore a range of interdisciplinary approaches to history, including historical and literary sources, archaeological evidence, and scientific techniques, and will demonstrate how such evidence can be applied in academic papers. Through discussion of the motivations for travel and migration, our aim is to develop persuasive writing and to think critically about historical studies and their practical applications in our world today.

Required Textbook: 

Somerville, A. and R.A. McDonald (eds.) The Viking Age: A Reader, 2nd Ed, Toronto: University of Toronto, 2010. ISBN: 1442608676 (paperback, if available)

All Reading and 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.

 Prerequisites:  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.

Instructor pending appointment.

UNDERGRADUATE COURSES TAUGHT IN ENGLISH

SCANDINAVIAN 75: Literature and Culture of the Nordic World

TWTh 1-3:30, Dwinelle 255. Instructor: TBA

Units: 4

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

What are Nordic values? The countries of the northern Europe (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) have been caricatured in recent American political discourse as either utopian or dystopian alternatives to American culture (in that we do/don’t want to be “like Sweden” or “like Denmark”). But what are the complex cultural and historical realities that have made the contemporary Nordic region what it is today? Proceeding from three main areas of investigation (sustainable relationships to nature; values of social solidarity; and a progressive view of gender equality), the course traces the ways in which literature, drama, film, folklore, and other forms of humanistic expression have both revealed the pressure points implicit in Nordic values and in some cases contributed to their formation. Beginning its historical arc around 1650, this course traces the historical development of contemporary Nordic discussions in four main phases. We begin with the Nordic Enlightenment, which saw the decline of Danish and Swedish state power and colonization but also was an age of scientific advancement, social satire, and the growth of vernacular cultures. Next we study the nineteenth-century, where the familiar features of Scandinavian culture begin to take shape: the emergence of folk culture, the existential individual, and the new woman. These currents move forward into the early twentieth century formation of the Nordic welfare state and its design of modern political and urban environments. Finally the course will focus on the contemporary multicultural life of the North as seen through its crime fiction, popular culture, film, and television.

Course description subject to change.
Readings and textbooks TBA.

Prerequisites:  none.

Instructor pending appointment.

SCANDINAVIAN 106: Hans Christian Andersen

Cancelled, 5/21/2018. Instructor: TBA

L&S Breadth: Arts & Literature

In this course, we will read works by the famous Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen (1805-75), focusing primarily on his exciting experiments with the genre of the literary fairy tale. He is best known for fairy tales such as “The Little Mermaid,” “The Ugly Duckling,” and “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” Although fairy tales are often seen as children’s literature, Andersen’s fairy tales contain themes appropriate for adults as well. Accordingly, his fairy tales can be read in multifaceted ways that help uncover key psychological, social, and sexual themes at play.

To better understand Andersen in his historical and cultural context, we will also read excerpts from some of his other works, including poems, short stories, novels, plays, travel descriptions, autobiographies, and diaries. Additionally, we will view film adaptations and look at illustrated versions of his fairy tales while discussing his works in the context of both Scandinavian perceptions of childhood and the evolving market for children’s literature. Seeing Andersen from such a holistic perspective reveals the underlying tensions at work in his writing and casts him as an innovative and daring writer.

Texts:

Hans Christian Andersen’s Complete Fairy Tales and Stories. ISBN-13: 978-0385189514

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

Prerequisites: None. All readings in English

Instructor pending appointment.