Reading and discussion of the great Scandinavian novels; the development of the novel. Readings and discussion in English.

This course offers an introduction to representative authors and texts from the Scandinavian short story tradition of the nineteenth and twentieth century. You will get acquainted with canonical texts, examine the developments of the genre in Scandinavian literary history, and understand its highlights and variations in time and space. The significance of short fiction in the critical context will be illustrated by drawing on central theoretical concerns (problems of definition, terminology), and by discussing and analyzing textual structures and narrative techniques. The chronological approach will serve to understand how the historical, cultural and literary contexts of the authors encountered inform the texts. The theoretical texts will help develop skills for discussing writing forms and styles, performing close readings, and structuring personal and critical responses to the selected short stories. ”It is not a bad thing in a tale that you understand only half of it”, wrote the Danish author Isak Dinesen in her ‘gothic’ tale The Dreamers of 1934. The critical reasoning on Scandinavian short fiction offered in this class will provide the tools for an understanding of what this literary genre in its various expressions can accomplish.

Taught in English, no prerequisites.

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Requirements class fulfills