Literature, Arts, Media (Scandinavian)

'A classic is a white rabbit / in the magician's hat,' wrote Lars Huldén (1926-2016). The course examines the different ways in which the 'classics' of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Scandinavian literature have travelled across media, time, place, cultures and languages. The object of study is the transpositional process through which international artists have adapted novels, short stories, fairy tales, dramas and film works from Scandinavian cultures into the medium of comics. What happens when a 'classic' meets a medium often associated with popular culture? What kind of negotiation occurs with the source text? What other sources - intertextual, inter-artistic, intercultural - were important in the adaptation process? With theoretical-methodological tools from adaptation and comics studies (Hutcheon; Groensteen), the course will focus on the specificities of drawn literature, its narrative structures and modes.

Knowledge: the student will become acquainted with the themes and narrative structures of a selection of Scandinavian 'classics' and, acquiring theoretical and methodological tools for the study of adaptations and comics, will learn to analyse the different ways in which transpositions interact with sources as well as the narrative modes specific to the comics medium.
Skills: the student will acquire the ability to place the proposed Scandinavian works and authors in time and will learn how to place them in their historical and social context. They will be able to highlight the problems linked to the process of adaptation in another medium, highlighting the most significant peculiarities of the proposed examples. He/she will be able to use the basic terminology of adaptation and comics studies. He/she will be able to analyse the specificities of comics transposition and assess the narrative techniques of this medium.