Course Syllabus

Jump to Today

Convener: Guntis Šmidchens, guntiss@uw.edu

[pdf copy of syllabus.  Please follow this Canvas website for updates]

This seminar interrogates the role of cultural institutions and the arts in shaping public discourse, in two general contexts:

  • The "canon" of Scandinavian (including Baltic) literature studies:
    • classic works of Scandinavian literature that engage social institutions such as monarchy and the state, marriage and gender hierarchies, etc., both supporting and challenging them;
  • and the academic institutions that frame and shape a "canon":
    • departmental reading lists (like the one that appears below); university administrations; libraries; conferences; peer-reviewed journals; book reviews; etc. 

Reading List

  • Roosevelt Montás, Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation (Princeton University Press 2021)
  • Selected articles about academic institutions, TBA. 
  • Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter I: The Wreath
  • Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House and Other Plays
  • Elias Lönnrot, The Kalevala
  • Tõnu Õnnepalu, Border State
  • Johannes Jensen, Fall of the King [Link to e-book]
  • Žemaitė, Marriage for Love
  • Rainis, Fire and Night
  • Selected folktales in Kvideland Sehmsdorf, eds, All the World's Reward [Link to e-book]

General reference:

  • UW Department of Scandinavian Studies M.A. Reading List, Literature Short List

  • Definitions of "Institution" and "Social Structure", in Scott, J. (2014). A dictionary of sociology (Fourth ed., Oxford paperback reference). Oxford: Oxford University Press.  [Link to e-book]

  • Rossel, S. (1982). History of Scandinavian Literature, 1870-1980 (Nordic series ; v. 5). Minneapolis: Univ Of Minnesota Press. [Link to e-book]
  • Violeta Kelertas, Introduction, Baltic Postcolonialism. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2006. [Link to e-book]

  • Marianne Stecher-Hansen, "Introduction" (2004). Danish writers from the Reformation to decadence, 1550-1900 (Dictionary of literary biography ; v. 300). Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale.  ? [Link to e-book]
  • and/or other canonic histories of literature in your language (or country) of specialization.

Asssignments (to be updated soon)

  • Contribute to class discussions about assigned readings
  • Write an essay about a book we're reading, and its place in the literary canon; or a book which we are not reading, which should be in the canon! (mindful that we wish to have a single, feasible M.A. reading list)
  • Lurk (and/or present a paper) at an academic conference (any one or all of the following!), to study how literary and other academic canons are created and reinforced.
    • Scandinavian Department graduate students conference presentations dry-run on April 8, 2022, 12:30-3:30, Allen Auditorium;
    • REECAS-NW, April 7-9, 2022 [Conference website]
    • Society for Advancement of Scandinavian Study, April 27-30, 2022 [Conference website]
    • Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies, May 26-29, 2022. [Conference website]

Course Summary:

Date Details Due