Scandinavian Studies and Swedish Courses 2019-2020
FALL 2019
SWE-101: Introductory Swedish I (3 sections)
David Jessup: MTWF 9:00-9:50 a.m., Confer 126
Ursula Lindqvist: MTWF 12:30-1:20 p.m., Confer 332
Kjerstin Moody: MTWF 1:30-2:20 p.m., Confer 126
An introduction to the Swedish language in the context of modern Swedish society, utilizing immersion learning methods such as conversation, writing, and grammar study to analyze short stories, textbooks, and film; accessible without any prior exposure to Swedish.
SWE-201: Intermediate Swedish I
Ursula Lindquist: MTWF, 10:30-11:20 a.m., Confer 123
A continuation of SWE-102, these courses are designed to help students strengthen their Swedish conversation skills and improve their writing and reading abilities. Students will read modern Swedish literary texts and will also discuss articles, TV and radio programs, and films about modern Swedish culture. After successful completion of SWE-201, students will qualify for study in Sweden, if desired.
SWE-302: Swedish Poetry and Music
Kjerstin Moody: MWF 10:30-11:20 a.m., Confer 222
This course focuses on the strong musical and poetic traditions in Swedish language and culture. Taking a historical approach, the course acquaints students with both of these vibrant traditions, which are often interconnected. Musical genres include folkvisor, ballads, Carl Michael Bellman and the troubadour tradition to contemporary folk, pop, and hip hop. The Swedish poetry studied spans the Baroque Period through the twenty-first century.
FTS-100-240: Coming of Age in Nordic Folk and Fairy Tales
Kjerstin Moody: MTWF 12:30-1:20 p.m., Confer 126
This First Term Seminar introduces students to critical thinking and a discussion of values, and develops oral and written communication skills, through an investigation of how childhood is depicted and, eventually, moved beyond in Nordic folk and fairy tales. This seminar will explore narratives written primarily for and/or about children and childhood, with a focus on well-known folk tales from throughout the Nordic region. Special emphasis will be given to the tales of Danish storyteller Hans Christian Andersen: their narrative structures, their light and darkness, their characters, what they grapple with and the settings and conditions of their emotional and physical lives. We will consider the origins of the fairy tale, analyze its mythology, psychology, and structures, expanding, at the close of the semester, from the Nordic region into expressions of this genre from around the world.
HIS-218: Scandinavian History to 1800
Glenn Kranking: MWF 11:30 a.m.-12:20 p.m., Beck 313
An overview of Scandinavian history since 1800, with emphasis on the Vikings, the Middle Ages, dynastic states & empires, the 17th century Baltic Swedish Empire, and 18th century dynamics of change in the region
J-TERM 2020
GEG-152/SCA-152: Glaciers, Volcanoes, Sagas and Songs: Interweaving Culture and Landscape in Iceland
Kjerstin Moody and Jeff LaFrenierre
This course weaves together the humanities and physical geosciences to explore the concept of place. Iceland, with its unique island culture rooted in literature, art, and song and its geographically dynamic and visually stunning landscape is an ideal laboratory for immersing ourselves into this way of thinking about the world. In this course we will explore contemporary and historical literature, art, and music, investigate how humans adapt to and thrive in harsh, remote environments, and experience both glacial and volcanic processes and the Icelanders’ ongoing interactions with these. It counts towards both the Geography major/minor and the major/minor in Scandinavian Studies and as an IEX/J-Term credit.
Spring 2020
SWE-102: Intermediate Swedish II (3 sections)
Ursula Lindqvist, Kjerstin Moody, David Jessup
MTWF
Confer Hall
A continuation of SWE 101, building upon the modern Swedish language used in Swedish society through continued study of short stories, text, and film by means of grammar, pronunciation, and conversation
SWE-202: Intermediate Swedish II
Ursula Lindqvist
MTWF
Confer Hall
A continuation of SWE-102, these courses are designed to help students strengthen their Swedish conversation skills and improve their writing and reading abilities. Students will read modern Swedish literary texts and will also discuss articles, TV and radio programs, and films about modern Swedish culture. After successful completion of SWE-201, students will qualify for study in Sweden, if desired.
SCA-100: Scandinavian Life and Culture
Kjerstin Moody
This course will give a survey of the history, literature, art, and philosophies of the Scandinavian peoples. Students will hear lectures on and discuss developments and issues in Scandinavia from the Viking Age to the modern welfare state and will read works of fiction that reflect life and thought in Scandinavia. Sample topics might be: pagan mythology and the Vikings, the Icelandic sagas, Scandinavian emigration, the Scandinavian welfare state, Scandinavia and the European Union, and Scandinavian feature films. (LARS, HIPHI)
SCA-211: Diversity and Social Change in Scandinavia
Kjerstin Moody
While the Nordic countries rank among the world’s wealthiest, most educated, and most egalitarian, categories of identity in the Nordic region are shifting dramatically in the new millennium. Ample and important counternarratives have emerged to prevailing discourses of exceptional and homogenous “Nordicness.” This course interrogates historical categories of diversity in a Nordic context, including gender, sex, class, ethnicity, and race, as well as how these categories intersect. We will examine new forms of, and platforms for, diverse ideas and creative expression, including fluid masculinities, digital cultures, new media, and fashion. We will question the terms on which the Nordic region’s indigenous peoples, the Sámi and the Greenlandic Inuit, as well as stateless people such as the Kurds, are brought into Nordic discussions of diversity, citizenship, and agency, and analyze the implications of neo-nationalist and patriarchal discourses that have emerged since the turn of the century. (LARS, GLOBL; counts for GWSS major/minor)
SCA-334: Nordic Cinema
Ursula Lindqvist
This survey course explores the formidable contributions that the Nordic region has made to world cinema, from the Swedish invasion of Hollywood in the silent film era to Denmark’s recent Dogma 95 movement and beyond. This course instructs students in analyzing films in their Nordic cultural and historical contexts and provides an overview of this regional cinema as art and industry within the European film history. Rather than follow a strict chronological order, this course highlights key moments, topics, and genres. Topics will include the silent Golden Age; auteurs Dreyer, Bergman, Kaurismäki, and von Trier; Dogma 95; women in Nordic film production; the cinema of Native (Greenlandic and Sámi) peoples; the new Nordic avant-garde; and new Nordic horror cinema. All films will be screened in the original language with English subtitles. This course counts towards the Film and Media Studies minor. (WRITD)
More information at:
gustavus.edu/scand-studies
Students studying abroad in fall, spring, for the entire year or during J-Term are eligible to apply for the Hasselquist Scholarship program. For more information about this scholarship program, contact Bryan Messerly in Gustavus’s Center for International and Cultural Education.