Fall 2007: Exciting Scandinavian courses!
SCAN 225 Vikings & Volvos: Scandinavian Culture — New Gen Ed Course!!! [Link to PDF flier] The very northern region of Europe, Scandinavia, offers a fascinating and often unexpected aggregate of history, culture, and literary and artistic production. This course presents the land of Northern Lights and Midnight Sun from new perspectives, while tracing its cultural development from the Viking culture to contemporary mass-production of Volvos. With an emphasis on showing Scandinavia’s culture in its distinct forms, the course offers a broad but thorough understanding of what shaped its distinctiveness then and now. Course material will address the history, geography, languages, literature, arts, cinema, indigenous cultures, and contemporary popular culture of the region. A component on the European Union and Scandinavia from international perspectives will be included. Instruction will be discussion-based with occasional lectures. All readings are in English. The course is open to all undergraduates, with an emphasis on Freshmen and Sophomore. This course counts toward the NEW MINOR and MAJOR in Scandinavian Studies! For more info, contact aws@uiuc.edu. SCAN/CINE 492 Contemporary Scandinavian Cinema [Link to PDF flier] MW 1-3 PM During the last fifteen years, Scandinavian cinema has undergone a remarkable transition. Once conceived as a regional and obscure film tradition – with the exception perhaps of such giants as Carl Dreyer, Ingmar Bergman, and the Scandinavian porn industry, contemporary film in the Nordic countries is now alive and well, sparkling with cinematic diversity in both form and content. This class spans a wide range of cinematic genres and themes, including the Danish Dogme 95 group, Swedish multiculturalism, Sami indigenous cultures, the Finnish Kaurismäki brothers, Icelandic storytelling, and Norwegian comedies . It also offers a broad introduction to contemporary Scandinavian culture and society, while exploring particular cinematic strategies that both build on and challenge earlier film traditions in Scandinavia and beyond. Themes and aspects to be investigated include transnational currents in contemporary Scandinavia, multi-ethnicity, gender issues, the deconstruction of the welfare state, the impact of European Union resources for the film development, international distribution, etc. Instruction will be discussion-based with occasional lectures. Screenings are usually on Mondays with discussion on Wednesdays. All material in English translation! Films: Gabriel Axel’s Babette’s Feast, Liv Ullman, Faithless, Thomas Vinterberg, The Celebration, Susanne Bier, Open Hearts, Lone Sherfig, Italian for Beginners, Susanne Osten, Speak Up! It’s so Dark, Lars von Trier, Dogville, Ulf Malmros, Slim Susie, Bent Hamer, Kitchen Stories Lukas Moodysson, Together, Ari Kaurismäki The Man Without A Past, Nils Gaup The Pathfinder, Roy Andersson Songs from the Second Floor. Readings: Transnational Cinemas in a Global North: Nordic Cinema in Transition, ed. Andrew Nestingen and Trevor G. Elkington, Wayne State UP, 2005 (selected articles), web-material, and journal articles on contemporary Scandinavian culture and cinema practices. This course counts toward the NEW MINOR and MAJOR in Scandinavian Studies! For more info, contact aws@uiuc.edu. SCAN 252 Viking Sagas in Translation, Gen Ed (Lit and Arts, Western Cultures) [Link to PDF flier] This course is an introduction to the medieval Icelandic sagas which record the oral traditions of the Viking Age. The sagas transmit accounts of the lives of powerful chieftains, strong-willed women, extraordinary poets, fierce outlaws, and marauding Vikings. Events take us to Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark; to England, Sicily, Greece, Russia, and even North America. We meet not only Icelandic farmers but also Norwegian kings, Irish princesses, female shape shifters, and fear-inspiring ghosts. The course introduces students to one of the great medieval literatures, unique by virtue of subject matter, prose form, and narrative technique. Course meetings will be largely based on discussions, group work, and some student presentations. This course counts toward the NEW MINOR and MAJOR in Scandinavian Studies! For more info, contact aws@uiuc.edu. SCAN 101, First-year Swedish [Link to PDF flier] Welcome to the introductory Swedish language course! You have embarked on an exciting journey to learn Swedish, one of the world’s most melodic languages, spoken by more than 10 million people and understood by another 10+ million (speakers of Danish and Norwegian also understand Swedish). The aim of this course is to provide you with practical, communicative language skills that you can use in a variety of every-day situations. By the end of the semester, you will be able to use Swedish to talk about family, interests and hobbies, chat about the weather, tell time and communicate in public places such as the post office, department stores, grocery stores and the bank (just to name a few things!). In addition to learning how to read, write and speak Swedish, you also will get a taste of the unique flavor of Swedish society and culture. SCAN 103, Second-year Swedish [Link to PDF flier] Welcome to the intermediate Swedish language course! This course will broaden and deepen your Swedish language skills in speaking, writing, listening and comprehension, as well as develop your cultural knowledge of contemporary Sweden. There will be some review of skills and topics covered in SCAN 101-102. We will be using these main texts: På svenska! 2, an anthology of texts about Swedish culture and history (which comes with a language-use workbook), a required reference grammar, and Barnen i Bullerbyn, written by the Swedish author Astrid Lindgren. These books are available at the bookstore (the grammar is also readily available from on-line vendors). Class time will be spent in part discussing what we have read in these two books, and partly engaging in other speaking, listening and reading activities that will expand your Swedish vocabulary and enhance your facility with Swedish grammar and your ability to communicate, both orally (muntligt) and in writing (skriftligt), in Swedish. For example, if scheduling permits, we may watch a few Swedish films and use those as a basis for discussion. SCAN 496-S Advanced Swedish [Link to PDF flier] This course, equivalent to fifth-semester Swedish, continues to develop the oral, verbal, aural, and written communication skills emphasized in SCAN 101-104. The course is geared specifically to learning about contemporary Swedish society, culture, and language from a wide range of sources, including literature, film, visual arts, news, media, social science, guest lectures, etc. Different registers of speech and written communication will be practiced, including translation exercises, essay composition, journaling, and creative writing. The course includes grammar review and exercises. Students enrolled in the course should plan on attending the Scandinavian Conversation Group regularly, which usually meets Wednesday afternoons.
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August 9, 2007
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