OVERVIEW

The course, divided into three modules, is meant to examine two relevant genres in Scandinavian literature and culture: children’s literature and medieval sagas, to which the first and third part of the course will be dedicated, respectively; the second part will investigate the complex phenomenon of the representation of the North, from landscape to society to the arts, from both a Scandinavian and an extra-Scandinavian perspective. A historical-literary approach will be combined with text analysis and the use of both established and recently proposed critical tools.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

On the basis of linguistic and historical-literary competence and skills acquired in the previous three years of study, this course aims to enable students to critically analyse a range of aspects and periods of the Scandinavian literature and culture, starting (although not exclusively) from literary texts and considering translation issues.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

Students will critically engage with the 'genre' of children's literature, considering its origin, development and trends, and identifying the peculiarities of the Scandinavian tradition. In addition, they will critically examine the phenomenon of the representation of the North, in its stereotypes and their deconstruction, drawing on a corpus of literary and extra-literary examples which they will have the chance to integrate. Moreover, they will be able to critically deal with the genre of Nordic sagas, reflect on the main features of this kind of narrative works (and their evolution) and identify the peculiarities of the Scandinavian tradition and trends. 

At the end of the course they will be able to:

- outline the development of children's literature in the Western tradition, discussing its historical and socio-cultural premises, with particular regard to the different pedagogical perspectives;

- describe and discuss the development of Scandinavian children's literature, framing it in European literature;

- analyse the dynamics adopted in significant works of Scandinavian children's literature;

- address stereotypes linked to the imagery of and about the Nordic countries, adopting and adapting the conceptual tools of mythemes and borealism;

- apply the principles and tools they will acquire to independently chosen case studies;

- outline the development of Nordic sagas, while discussing the historical and socio-cultural premises of this literary genre;

- describe and discuss the features of Nordic sagas in the context of European literature;

- critically analyse some relevant examples of legendary sagas and sagas of the Icelanders.​

PREREQUISITES

There are no specific binding requirements to attend the course.

TEACHING METHODS

54 hours of classroom activities, articulated in two weekly hours over 9 weeks (part one) in the first term (October to December) and three weekly hours over 12 weeks (parts two and three, each consisting of 18 hours) in the second term (February to May).

The whole course, particularly the second part, will have a markedly seminar character, therefore students are expected to contribute to analyses and discussion with their own remarks.

The monographic module on the imagery about the North will initially deal with theoretical considerations on the approach to this topic, later focusing on the examination of significant case studies of the 20th century. This survey, primarily aimed at stimulating a discussion among the participants, will be finally enriched by their contribution, with the analysis of a work of their choice to be presented during the course.

Further activities will be announced during the course. The course will be entirely held in Italian.

The course attendance is not compulsory, but highly recommended.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

PART ONE - Tradition and transgression in Scandinavian children's literature: the surprising features of a 'minor' genre

During the 20th century, Scandinavian literature offered interesting cases of alternative, provocative and innovative children’s books, which often highlighted the contradictions and limitations of traditional literature, the most famous example of which is certainly the series on Pippi Longstocking by the Swedish author Astrid Lindgren. No less disruptive – even though less celebrated – were the adventures of Bibi by the Danish writer Karin Michaëlis and those settled in the Moomin valley by the Finland-Swedish author Tove Jansson. We will address several issues concerning children’s literature, reconstruct its development in the different European socio-cultural contexts, point out its characteristic features and focus on aspects of similarity and diversity among the mentioned authors and among their works. This analysis will also consider pedagogical aspects and the role of literature in representing, suggesting and promoting social values, specifically related to children’s conditions and needs.

PART TWO - Images of the North, imagery about the North: between mythemes, borealism and northernness

This module offers an initial reflection on the stereotypes that are associated with the Northern countries, in particular from the Italian perspective, drawing examples from literature and cinema: which images have been successful or most frequent? What functions did they have? Have there been any attempts to deconstruct (some of) them? The participants, on the basis of the literary criticism indicated and inspired by the suggested examples, will be asked to enrich the research corpus and to discuss the dynamics, evolution and implications of such narratives on the North.

PART THREE - Sagas between mythology, literature and chronicle, from the ancient times to the birth of Iceland: Hervarar saga, Völsunga saga and Njáls saga

A typical Scandinavian literary genre, sagas also preserve a common German cultural heritage and are undoubtedly one of the best examples of the literary flourishing in medieval Scandinavia. Drawing on both myth and history, they document in a precious and sometimes unique manner the richness of ancient German culture as well as the early stages of Nordic history. After an introduction pointing out the main features of this kind of narrative (and texts) and clarifying the historical context in which it has developed, the three mentioned sagas will be analysed by reading and commenting on significant passages in Italian translation.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

For PART ONE (Children's literature):

Karin Michaëlis, Bibi. En lille Piges historie (1929, Bibi. Una bambina del Nord)

Astrid Lindgren, Boken om Pippi Långstrump (1952, Pippi Calzelunghe)

Tove Jansson, Det osynliga barnet (1962, Racconti dalla valle dei Mumin)

Anna Wegener, Karin Michaëlis' Bibi Books. Producing, Rewriting, Reading and Continuing a Children's Fiction Series 1927-1953, Berlin, Franck & Timme 2021

Åsa Warnqvist, Lillemor Torstensson (eds.), The Liberated Child: Childhood in the Works of Astrid Lindgren. Astrid Lindgren Centennial Conference, Stockholm, May 30-31, 2007, disponibile su barnboken.net

Maria Nikolajeva (ed.), Tove Jansson (special issue), The Lion and the Unicorn, 38/2, April 2014, Johns Hopkins University Press

For PART TWO (Imagery about the North):

Andrea Meregalli and Camilla Storskog (eds.), Bridges to Scandinavia, Milano, di/segni, Dipartimento di Lingue e letterature straniere, Università degli Studi di Milano 2016, pp. 141-155

Robert Zola Christensen (ed.), Rethinking Scandinavia. A collection of articles based on presentation held at the CSS Conference 2017 – (web proceedings), Lund, International web community for Scandinavian Studies 2018

Bruno Berni and Anna Wegener (eds.), Translating Scandinavia. Scandinavian Literature in Italian and German Translation, 1918-1945, Roma, Edizioni Quasar 2018, pp. 109-129

Frédérique Toudoire-Surlapierre et Alessandra Balloti (dir.), Nordiques n° 38 – Automne 2019. Le petit héros scandinave, Bibliothèque de Caen-Association Norden

Alessandra Ballotti, Claire McKeown, Frédérique Toudoire Surlapierre (dir.), De la nordicité au boréalisme, Reims, Presses Universitaires 2020

Jens Bjerring-Hansen, Torben Jelsbak, Anna Estera Mrozewicz (eds.), Scandinavian Exceptionalisms. Culture, Society, Discourse, Berlin, Nordeuropa-Institut der Humboldt Universität 2021

For PART THREE - The Nordic sagas:

La Saga dei Volsunghi, a cura di Marcello Meli, Alessandria, Edizioni dell'Orso 1993

La Saga dei Völsunghi, a cura di Ludovica Koch, trad. di Annalisa Febbraio, Torino, Nuova Pratica Editrice 1994

La Saga di Hervör, in M. Meli (a cura di), Antiche saghe nordiche, Milano, Mondadori 1997, volume primo, pp. 5-75

La Saga di Njáll, in M. Meli (a cura di), Antiche saghe nordiche, volume secondo, pp. 707-1086

Further critical bibliography will be announced during the course.

Students are expected to know the contents of the lessons, including all the texts which will be examined during the course, and will have to read a number of tales or essays in Swedish to be able to translate them (some passages will be chosen by the teacher during the exam) into Italian and summarize them in Swedish. In details:

- Astrid Lindgren, “Pippi flyttar in i Villa Villekulla” and “Pippi vill inte bli stor” (da Boken om Pippi Långstrump, 1952)

- Birgitta Svanberg, “På barnets sida. Om Astrid Lindgren” (in Elisabeth Møller Jensen, Nordisk kvinnolitteraturhistoria 3, 1996), available at www.litteraturbanken.se  

- Tove Jansson, “Vårvisan” and “Granen” (from Det osynliga barnet, 1962) 

- Ebba Witt-Brattström, “Motståndets utopi. Om Tove Jansson” (in Nordisk kvinnolitteraturhistoria 3)

- August Strindberg, “Blåvingen finner guldpudran” or “Lotsens vedermödor” (in Sagor, 1903), available at www.projektruneberg.org o www.litteraturbanken.se

For details about the programme, the reading list and all the material for students who cannot attend the lessons, please contact the teacher at davide.finco@unige.it.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

LESSONS

LESSONS START

Lessons will start at the end of September / begin of October, the course schedule will be announced a few weeks earlier.

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

An oral exam at the end of the course and in the following exam sessions. During the exam, texts or case studies examined during the course will be submitted to candidates for their analysis. 

N.B. The final judgement will include the evaluation of a written work (in Italian or Swedish) on a topic connected with the second part of the programme (Images of the North): students are warmly invited to ask the teacher about indications and details regarding this paper.

The examination will take place partly in Italian and partly in Swedish on course topics.

Students are allowed to divide the programme into (no more than) two parts to be prepared for two different exam sessions at their choice. The final evaluation will consider the results of both parts (however, they must be both sufficient, i.e. both evaluated at least with 18/30) and students are free to take the exam(s) as many times as they wish to take a better evaluation.

The mentioned term paper can be presented apart, provided that it will have to be discussed with the examiners as a necessary subject for the final evaluation.

The final mark is announced at the end of the exam and it can be refused by the candidate. In case of a refused mark or a failed exam, the candidate may always sit the exam in the following session (no limit is prescribed in the number of attempts).

For final year or Erasmus students there are special sessions in addition to the seven ordinary ones: even in this case, the examination days are indicated in the lecturer's personal pages or in the university website (students are requested to contact the teachers of “Sezione Scandinavistica” to have further information).

ASSESSMENT METHODS

In the overall evaluation, not only the knowledge of the syllabus (course topics, texts analysed in class – or included in the specific list – and readings) and reasoning skills, but also expository skills and accuracy in the use of the specific language of the discipline will be taken into account.

The main skills that will be evaluated are: capability orientating oneself in the different periods of the literary history, setting the considered works (or texts) in the proper context, comparing different authors, ages, nations, movements, developing a personal critical judgement on the considered phenomena, mainly basing on competences acquired and critical contributions presented during the course.

The part of the exam that has to be taken in Swedish is aimed to make students used to expressing even in this language on formal subjects, like literature, linguistics and culture. The evaluation of students’ language skills will be less strict than that required in a typical language assessment, but it will, nonetheless, contribute to the final mark according to grammatical correctness, fluency of expression and richness of vocabulary.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Students will not have to formally enrol in this course; however, this course – as any other – is to be inserted in the learning plan to be officially acknowledged.

Those who want to take the exam must enrol through the university website within three days before the examination. Participants in the course will have to log in the Aulaweb platform, where all material that will be examined will be uploaded.

This course is obligatory for all first year students of “Laurea Magistrale” (Master) who have chosen Swedish as Language A or Language B.

Students who have valid certification of physical or learning disabilities on file with the University and who wish to discuss possible accommodations or other circumstances regarding lectures, coursework and exams, should speak both with the instructor and with prof. Sara Dickinson (sara.dickinson@unige.it), the Department's disability liaison. Further information available at https://unige.it/disabilita-dsa.