Scandinavian Literature - 19th Century - Scandinavian Area Studies

The course offers an introduction to Scandinavian 19th century literature and culture. It will provide a literary-historical survey along with discussions of works by central writers, for example H. C. Andersen, Henrik Ibsen, J. P. Jacobsen, Amalie Skram, Knut Hamsun and/or August Strindberg.

The course normally addresses one or more of the following three phases of 19th century Scandinavian literature and culture: 1) The strong national romantic currents that emerged in Scandinavia after the end of the Napoleonic wars. 2) The emergence of literary realism and naturalism during the so-called "modern breakthrough" of the 1870s and 1880s. 3) The experimental literary tendencies of the 1890s, which are often described as the initial emergence of literary modernism in Scandinavia.

The course addresses important intellectual influences on the authors we read - for example Charles Darwin, Georg Brandes and Friedrich Nietzsche - and also situates the works on the syllabus in light of the major technological and social changes the Scandinavian countries were going through at the time. In addition, we will also look at the most important issues the different authors typically addressed in their writings.

On completion of the programme the candidate should have the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The candidate will have a thorough knowledge of 19th-century

Scandinavian cultural and intellectual trends, of Scandinavian literary history, as well as an understanding of important authorships and representative literary works.

Skills

The candidate will be able to discuss central literary developments and be able to analyze and to write about central works in 19th-century Scandinavian literature.

General competence

The candidate will have a broad knowledge of 19th-century Scandinavian cultural and literary history and of important writers and individual works.