Scandinavian Literature 3
A.Y. 2024/2025
Learning objectives
This course aims at developing interpretive and analytic skills in the evaluation of a specific thematic strand in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish literary works from the 19th and 20th centuries. In addition, it will put the tools of text analysis to the test with a view to practice critical discussion and writing about relevant themes, texts and authors.
Expected learning outcomes
Knowledge and understanding: students will approach Scandinavian 19th and 20th century literature by focusing on a chosen theme present in works by Danish, Norwegian and Swedish writers, they will acquire knowledge of the critical discussion and the tools of analysis regarding the chosen topic. Applying knowledge and understanding: students will learn how to examine a chosen theme by working knowledgeably with secondary literature, practice critical reading of texts written in all three Scandinavian languages, examine the primary literature with a critical eye.
Lesson period: First semester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course cannot be attended as a single course. Please check our list of single courses to find the ones available for enrolment.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
First semester
Course syllabus
By drawing on Scandinavian travel narratives from a period spanning three centuries, this course (9 cfu) offers an insight into travel writing as a literary genre and reflects on its history, forms, and problems of definition. Unit B looks at the representation of Italy in travelogues from three different eras adopting various narrative strategies: (1) the eighteenth-century tradition of the Grand Tour in C.A. Ehrensvärd's Resa til Italien 1780, 1781, 1782 (1786); (2) the romantic, subjective, and sentimental travel in H.C. Andersen's En Digters Bazar (1842);
(3) the parodic reversal in A. Strindberg's two travel reportages, Rom på en dag (1885) and Mitt Venedig (1889). Unit C focusses on encounters between Scandinavian travellers and other territories. Knut Hamsun's journey to Caucasus in I Æventyrland (1903), Karen Blixen's African years in Den afrikanske Farm (1937), and post-war Germany in Stig Dagerman's Tysk höst (1947) will offer food for thought as to variations in form, the presence of genre-characteristic elements, the relationship between 'home' and 'away', 'self' and 'other'..
Unit A: TO BE DETERMINED
(3) the parodic reversal in A. Strindberg's two travel reportages, Rom på en dag (1885) and Mitt Venedig (1889). Unit C focusses on encounters between Scandinavian travellers and other territories. Knut Hamsun's journey to Caucasus in I Æventyrland (1903), Karen Blixen's African years in Den afrikanske Farm (1937), and post-war Germany in Stig Dagerman's Tysk höst (1947) will offer food for thought as to variations in form, the presence of genre-characteristic elements, the relationship between 'home' and 'away', 'self' and 'other'..
Unit A: TO BE DETERMINED
Prerequisites for admission
Students are required to have passed Scandinavian languages 2 and Scandinavian literature 2 to be admitted. Units B and C are taught in Italian, however, the original works written in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish will be used in class. Unit A is taught in Scandinavian languages. The reading list, which will be discussed during the lessons, includes critical works written both in the Scandinavian languages and in English.
Teaching methods
The teaching methodology combines lectures and class discussions of excerpts selected from the reading list.
Teaching Resources
Unit A: TO BE DETERMINED
Units B and C / GENERAL: A. Brilli: cap. I: "Storia artistica e letteraria del Grand Tour" in Quando viaggiare era un'arte. Il romanzo del Grand Tour, Il Mulino, 1995, pp. 11-53; Chard, Chloe. 1999. "Opposition and Intensification" in Pleasure and Guilt on the Grand Tour. Travel Writing and Imaginative Geography 1600-1830. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 40-83; G.B. Parks: "The Turn to the Romantic in the Travel Literature of the Eighteenth Century", in Modern Language Quarterly Review, 1, 1964, pp. 22-33, E. Carbone, "Representing Italy in Nordic Literature: Theory, Methodology and History" in Nordic Italies. Representations of Italy in Nordic Literature from the 1830s to the 1910s, Nuova Cultura, 2016, pp. 29-74.
Unit B: C.A. Ehrensvärd, Resa til Italien 1780, 1781, 1782 (1786; Viaggio in Italia 1780, 1781, 1782 ed. bilingue Italica, 1969) / R. Pavese, "Il viaggio in Italia di Carl August Ehrensvärd", in Terre scandinave in Terre d'Asti, Scritturapura, 2009, pp. 131-141; H.C Andersen, cap. "Italien" in En Digters Bazar (1842; "Italia" in Il bazar di un poeta) / C. Storskog, "'Denne Deilighed og dette Griseri - !'. Om H. C. Andersens italienska resa i En Digters Bazar (1842) och den romantiska reseskildringen" in Studi Nordici, 15, 2008, pp. 19-35; A. Strindberg, Rom på en dag (1885; Roma in un giorno in A. Strindberg, Dall'Italia, trad. it. B. Berni, Biblioteca del vascello) e Mitt Venedig (1889; La mia Venezia in A. Strindberg, Dall'Italia, trad. it. B. Berni, Biblioteca del vascello) testo originale in Samlade verk 18, Norsteds, 2007, or online:
https://litteraturbanken.se/forfattare/StrindbergA/titlar/Kvarstadsresan/sida/172/etext / e
https://litteraturbanken.se/forfattare/StrindbergA/titlar/Kvarstadsresan/sida/296/etext / /
/ Storskog, C. (2019): Resa, snabbt och långsamt. August Strindberg och parodins praktik. In Strindbergiana, 34, 38-56
Unit C: K. Hamsun, I Æventyrland (1903; Terra favolosa, trad. it. C. Giannini in K. Hamsun, I capolavori, Casini) / C. Storskog, "The Play with Genre. Knut Hamsun's I Æventyrland (1903)", in Folia Scandinavica Posnaniensia, 13, 2011, pp. 19-31; K. Blixen, Den afrikanske Farm (1937; La mia Africa) / Ngūgĩ, wa Thiong'o. 1993. "Her Cook, Her Dog. Karen Blixen's Africa", in: Moving the Centre. The Struggle for Cultural Freedoms. London/Portsmouth: James Currey/Heinemann, 132-135; S. Dagerman, Tysk höst (1947; Autunno tedesco) / K. Palmkvist, "Diktarens text" in Diktaren och verkligheten. Journalisten Stig Dagerman, Federativ, 1989, pp. 119-151 oppure A. Bourguignon, "Automne allemand" in Le Reportage d'écrivain, P. Lang, 2004, pp. 185-195.
Students unable to attend classes are requested to add the following readings: Unit A: all three prose works indicated (Lagerkvist, Blixen, Vesaas). Units B e C: Brantly, Susan. 2013. Karen Blixen's Challenges to Postcolonial Criticism, in: KULT 11: Made in Denmark. Roskilde: Roskilde University, 29-44; Thompson, Carl. 2011. "Questions of Gender and Sexuality", in Travel Writing. London & New York: Routledge, 168-198.
Units B and C / GENERAL: A. Brilli: cap. I: "Storia artistica e letteraria del Grand Tour" in Quando viaggiare era un'arte. Il romanzo del Grand Tour, Il Mulino, 1995, pp. 11-53; Chard, Chloe. 1999. "Opposition and Intensification" in Pleasure and Guilt on the Grand Tour. Travel Writing and Imaginative Geography 1600-1830. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 40-83; G.B. Parks: "The Turn to the Romantic in the Travel Literature of the Eighteenth Century", in Modern Language Quarterly Review, 1, 1964, pp. 22-33, E. Carbone, "Representing Italy in Nordic Literature: Theory, Methodology and History" in Nordic Italies. Representations of Italy in Nordic Literature from the 1830s to the 1910s, Nuova Cultura, 2016, pp. 29-74.
Unit B: C.A. Ehrensvärd, Resa til Italien 1780, 1781, 1782 (1786; Viaggio in Italia 1780, 1781, 1782 ed. bilingue Italica, 1969) / R. Pavese, "Il viaggio in Italia di Carl August Ehrensvärd", in Terre scandinave in Terre d'Asti, Scritturapura, 2009, pp. 131-141; H.C Andersen, cap. "Italien" in En Digters Bazar (1842; "Italia" in Il bazar di un poeta) / C. Storskog, "'Denne Deilighed og dette Griseri - !'. Om H. C. Andersens italienska resa i En Digters Bazar (1842) och den romantiska reseskildringen" in Studi Nordici, 15, 2008, pp. 19-35; A. Strindberg, Rom på en dag (1885; Roma in un giorno in A. Strindberg, Dall'Italia, trad. it. B. Berni, Biblioteca del vascello) e Mitt Venedig (1889; La mia Venezia in A. Strindberg, Dall'Italia, trad. it. B. Berni, Biblioteca del vascello) testo originale in Samlade verk 18, Norsteds, 2007, or online:
https://litteraturbanken.se/forfattare/StrindbergA/titlar/Kvarstadsresan/sida/172/etext / e
https://litteraturbanken.se/forfattare/StrindbergA/titlar/Kvarstadsresan/sida/296/etext / /
/ Storskog, C. (2019): Resa, snabbt och långsamt. August Strindberg och parodins praktik. In Strindbergiana, 34, 38-56
Unit C: K. Hamsun, I Æventyrland (1903; Terra favolosa, trad. it. C. Giannini in K. Hamsun, I capolavori, Casini) / C. Storskog, "The Play with Genre. Knut Hamsun's I Æventyrland (1903)", in Folia Scandinavica Posnaniensia, 13, 2011, pp. 19-31; K. Blixen, Den afrikanske Farm (1937; La mia Africa) / Ngūgĩ, wa Thiong'o. 1993. "Her Cook, Her Dog. Karen Blixen's Africa", in: Moving the Centre. The Struggle for Cultural Freedoms. London/Portsmouth: James Currey/Heinemann, 132-135; S. Dagerman, Tysk höst (1947; Autunno tedesco) / K. Palmkvist, "Diktarens text" in Diktaren och verkligheten. Journalisten Stig Dagerman, Federativ, 1989, pp. 119-151 oppure A. Bourguignon, "Automne allemand" in Le Reportage d'écrivain, P. Lang, 2004, pp. 185-195.
Students unable to attend classes are requested to add the following readings: Unit A: all three prose works indicated (Lagerkvist, Blixen, Vesaas). Units B e C: Brantly, Susan. 2013. Karen Blixen's Challenges to Postcolonial Criticism, in: KULT 11: Made in Denmark. Roskilde: Roskilde University, 29-44; Thompson, Carl. 2011. "Questions of Gender and Sexuality", in Travel Writing. London & New York: Routledge, 168-198.
Assessment methods and Criteria
Students will be assessed through an oral examination conducted by the instructor. Students are expected to be able to to answer questions concerning topics discussed in class; to provide analyses and comments to passages from texts on the reading list; to demonstrate the capacity to contextualize the literary works and analyze structural elements also with the help of the methodological tools provided in the theoretical texts present in the course syllabus.
Unit A: All students are required to write a short essay (min. 5000 characters, max. 8000 characters) on a topic of their choice discussed with the instructor. The essay must be handed in no less than 10 days before the exam session for which the student has registered.
Third year students can choose whether to take the exam in Italian or in Danish, Norwegian, or Swedish. Grades are on a scale of 30, with a minimum of 18 (pass) and a maximum of 30+lode. Students have the right to reject the mark.
International and Erasmus students are requested to contact the instructor upon arrival if they intend to take this course.
Unit A: All students are required to write a short essay (min. 5000 characters, max. 8000 characters) on a topic of their choice discussed with the instructor. The essay must be handed in no less than 10 days before the exam session for which the student has registered.
Third year students can choose whether to take the exam in Italian or in Danish, Norwegian, or Swedish. Grades are on a scale of 30, with a minimum of 18 (pass) and a maximum of 30+lode. Students have the right to reject the mark.
International and Erasmus students are requested to contact the instructor upon arrival if they intend to take this course.
Unita' didattica A
L-LIN/15 - NORDIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
Unita' didattica B+C
L-LIN/15 - NORDIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES - University credits: 6
Lessons: 40 hours