Norwegian literary and cultural history from the Vikings to the present. Authors read include Bjørnson, Ibsen, Hamsun, and Rølvaag.

This course offers the opportunity to study the life and work of Hans Christian Andersen. Andersen’s stories revolutionized the fairy tale of 19th century European literature. In this course the tales will be explored as windows into the 19th century, an important age of social and political reforms, scientific discoveries, technological innovations, as well as literary developments. The legacy of Andersen and the afterlife of the fairy tale will be studied in relation to 20th century film adaptations.

Icelandic sagas and poetry about Vikings in the context of thirteenth-century society.

I dette kursus vil du arbejde med et udvalg af danske eventyr, fortællinger, og noveller. Du vil stifte bekendtskab med store danske fortællere som Steen Steensen Blicher, Herman Bang, Karen Blixen, Villy Sørensen og især H.C. Andersen. Du vil få mulighed for at læse og studere danske mesterværker. Kurset vil også omhandle genrebegreber! Hvad er et eventyr? en fortælling? en novelle? Undervejs vil vi selvfølgelig tale om dansk litteraturhistorie, kultur og historie som afspejles i teksterne.

This course offers the opportunity to study great novels, dramas, and literary tales by influential 19 th and 20 th -century Scandinavian writers. The reading consists of literary masterpieces by Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish writers in English translation.

This course studies the folklore traditions maintained by immigrant and ethnic communities in the Nordic and Baltic States. How are their ethnic culture and identity related to cultural unity and diversity in their countries, and in the world? Theories of ethnic folklore research and interpretations of traditions, particularly ideas proposed by Nordic and Baltic scholars, will be evaluated and applied to the study of living folklore traditions. Some comparative examples will be found in communities of European immigrants in North America.

The history, forms, and themes of Scandinavian children's literature from H. C. Andersen to the present. Exploration of the dominant concerns of authors, adult and non-adult audiences, and the uses to which juvenile and adolescent literature are put. Film adaptations and Scandinavian-American materials included.

An interdisciplinary approach to the Finnish national epic Kalevala, Estonian Kalevipoeg, and Saami Peivebarnen suongah jehtanasan maajisn. Discussion of traditional worldview, cultural revitalization, and emergent nationalism in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Finland, Estonia, and Saamiland.

Cultures and peoples of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Baltic literature, music, art, and film in social and historical context. Traditional contacts with Scandinavia and Central and East Europe.

History of climate change, the role of Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius in defining greenhouse effects, Scandinavian policy response, and the role of the European Union in global climate change.

Following a largely chronological sequence, but not rigidly bound by it, the class will examine the history of Scandinavia during the “Viking Age,” approximately A.D. 750 – A.D. 1100, through the written and archeological records. The first half of the course will focus on the Vikings at home in Scandinavia. This will include an examination of the origins of Viking society in the pre-historical period, including aspects of the great migrations and subsequent settlement patterns, the establishment of family farms, and the development of Viking material culture (such as the Viking ship). We will also examine the political, social, and cultural expressions of Viking society, such as commercial expansion, military conflict, and religious expression. The structure and signficance of the pre-Christian pagan religion of the Scandinavian North will also be discussed. The second half of the course will focus on the expansion of Viking society and the international contacts of the Vikings through exploration, settlement, trading and raiding. Included in this overview will be Viking activity in Russia, Byzantium, Germany, France, England, Ireland, and Scotland, as well as the North Sea islands, Iceland, Greenland and Vinland (in North America).

During World War II much of the Nordic and Baltic region was occupied by foreign military powers: Norway and Denmark by Nazi Germany and the Baltic States alternately by the Soviet Union and Germany. In alliance with Germany, Finland waged war against the Soviet Union in order to defend Finnish sovereignty. Sweden alone escaped war and occupation by claiming political neutrality. With a focus on Finland, Norway, Denmark, and Lithuania as “case studies,” the course curriculum for winter 2007 explores the wartime fates of these nations and investigates the texts and testimonies of ordinary citizens, war victims, intellectuals, and writers. In studying historical scholarship alongside literary texts, memoirs, and documentary films, students will discover the ideological, national, and personal perspectives in narratives describing experiences of war and occupation. The class will also consider the role of historical scholarship, literary fiction, and memoir in shaping the postwar identities of particular Nordic and Baltic nations.

Intensive interdisciplinary survey of social, political and economic developments in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania since 1991.

How are Western representations of Africa constructed? How are colonial and postcolonial Africa represented in literature and film? Where are the borders between conventional ‘imperialist’ literary representations, such as Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and later texts, such as those by Danish writer Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen), Out of Africa (1938) and Shadows on the Grass (1962)? A central focus of the course will be representations of race and gender and reflections on colonialism in Out of Africa and in related literary tales, essays, letters, and paintings by Karen Blixen. This course also includes essays by Edward Said and selected critics, in addition to films by Sydney Pollack and Leni Riefenstahl.

Reading and discussion of core texts by Søren Kierkegaard, as well as a consideration of the relationship between Kierkegaardian thought and the literary practice of various writers of Scandinavian and European decadence.

Topics in Scandinavian Prose focuses on a selection of narratives representing various prose genres: novels, novellas, tales and stories.