OVERVIEW

This course is made up of 36 hours of lectures (three weekly hours over 12 weeks) and it is divided into a monographic part and a seminar on linguistic analysis of literary texts. It is worth 6 credits and will take place from the end of February to the end of May.

The course will be entirely held in Italian. In the seminar, texts in Swedish will be analysed.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

On the basis of competence and skills acquired in the previous three years of study, this course aims to enable students to critically analyse a wide 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 be first introduced to the main peculiarities of Danish and Norwegian, taking literary texts into account. Thereafter, they will be able to critically deal with the genre of Nordic noir, reflect on the main features of detective stories (and their evolution) and identify the peculiarities of the Scandinavian tradition and trends.

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

- highlight phonological, morphosyntactic and, partly, lexical differences between Swedish, Danish and Norwegian, working on literary examples;

- outline the development of crime fiction in Western tradition, while discussing its historical and socio-cultural premises;
- describe and discuss the development of Nordic crime fiction in the context of European literature;
- analyse the strategies adopted in specific works of crime fiction.​

TEACHING METHODS

36 hours of classroom activities, articulated in three weekly hours over 12 weeks (each part consisting of 18 hours). The course will take place in the second term (February to May) and corresponds to 6 credits.

Both parts of the course 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 Nordic noir will initially deal with general considerations on the characteristics of the genre and its history, later focusing on the examination of Scandinavian peculiarities, the most relevant phenomena and the most significant authors. This survey, primarily aimed at stimulating a discussion among the participants, will be finally enriched by their contribution, with the analysis of a Nordic crime fiction 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 – Introduction to Danish and Norwegian with analysis of literary texts
Scandinavian languages ​​show remarkable similarities, obviously due to the proximity of the respective cultural areas, but also (as regards Danish and Norwegian) to historical-political reasons and common literary tradition along some centuries. Basing our work on the degree of knowledge and skills in the Swedish language expected from third year students, we will examine some of the main phonetic, morphological, lexical and stylistic differences of Danish and Norwegian ​through the reading of some literary prose excerpts. In the case of Norwegian, the survey will be introduced by a reconstruction of the main cultural and political events (including the numerous linguistic reforms) in which the complex question of language was articulated between the late 19th and the early 20th century.

PART TWO - The Nordic noir: origins, evolution and trends of a contemporary international breakthrough

Crime fiction is undoubtedly one of the genres that characterize the contemporary world, in particular the industrialized urban society. Its origins can be traced back to the late 19th century, but it is in the 20th century that criminal stories and investigations flourish, in a fruitful union between literary, film and television versions. In the last fifteen years, crime fiction has become one of the international brands of Nordic literature, from Finland to Iceland, passing through Sweden, where Stieg Larsson’s Millennium triggered the breakthrough of Nordic noir writers overwhelming bookstores all over Europe. In this part of the course, the principles and features of this genre will be highlighted, later on moving to a historical-literary examination of the main Scandinavian authors and phenomena. Starting from these analyses, students will be asked to contribute with their own survey of a Scandinavian crime novel at their choice. 

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

For PART ONE - Introduction to Danish and Norwegian:

Anna Wegener, Inger-Marie Willert Bortignon, Luca Panieri, Grammatica danese. Fonetica, morfologia, sintassi ed esercizi, Milano, Hoepli 2013

Irene Burdese, Cathrine Rysst, Lær deg norsk! Corso di lingua norvegese, Milano, Hoepli 2015

All literary excerpts that will be examined in class will have been regularly uploaded on Aulaweb.

For PART TWO - The Nordic noir:

Gunhild Agger, Anne Marit Waade (red.), Den skandinaviske krimi. Bestseller og blockbuster, Göteborg, Nordicom, 2010

Elvio Guagnini, Dal giallo al noir e oltre: declinazioni del poliziesco italiano, Formia, Ghenomena, 2010

Michael Tapper, Snuten i Skymningslandet. Svenska polisberättelser i roman och på film 1965- 2010, Lund-Falun, Nordic Academic Press, 2011

Barry Forshaw, Death in a Cold Climate. A Guide to Scandinavian Crime Fiction, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillian, 2012

Kerstin Bergman, Swedish Crime Fiction, the Making of Nordic Noir, Sesto San Giovanni, Mimesis International, 2014

Steven Peacock, Swedish Crime Fiction: Novel, Film, Television, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2014

Michael Tapper, Swedish Cops: from Sjöwahl & Wahlöö to Stieg Larsson, United Kingdom, Intellect Books, 2014

Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen, Scandinavian Crime Fiction, London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2017

Renato Zatti, “Il giallo nordico”, in Massimo Ciaravolo (a cura di), Storia delle letterature scandinave. Dalle origini a oggi, Milano, Iperborea, 2019, pp. 818-844

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:

Hjalmar Söderberg, “Tuschritningen”, “Drömmen om evigheten”, “Pälsen” and “Skuggan” (in Historietter, 1898), all available at www.projektruneberg.org or www.litteraturbanken.se

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

Tove Jansson, Det osynliga barnet (1962, two tales at students' choice) or Björn Larsson, Filologens dröm: Berättelser om upptäckarglädje (2008, two tales at students' choice)

Michael Tapper, “Hans kropp – samhället självt. Manliga svenska mordspanare på ålderns höst” or a different essay contained in Den skandinaviske krimi, available online.

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 on Monday, 19th February 2024, with the following schedule:

Monday 16-18, classroom Koch (Palazzo Serra, fifth floor)

Wednesday 11-12, classroom Koch

Class schedule

SCANDINAVIAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE MOD.1

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

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An oral exam at the end of the course and in the following exam sessions. The exam will last about forty minutes and is meant to test both the knowledge of the programme (contents of the lessons, texts analysed and readings) and the reasoning skills. The accuracy in the use of the specific language of the discipline will be taken into account. 

N.B. The final judgement will include the evaluation of a written works (in Italian) on a topic connected with the second part of the programme (The Nordic noir): 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 papers can be presented apart, provided that they 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 six ordinary ones: even in this case, the examination days are indicated in the lecturers’ personal pages or in Genoa 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.

Exam schedule

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 been certified with special educational needs (DSA), such as dyslexia or dysgraphia, are invited to contact me, as well as to familiarise with the services (e.g. “ufficio disabilità  e DSA”) the University offers to support them: all information available at https://unige.it/disabilita-dsa.