The course will focus on fiction from the last 50 years or so that in one way or another straddles the borders of different literary genres, such as the novel and autobiography, historiography, journalism, etc. The students will read historical novels, photographic essays, autobiographical works, fakes and more. The course will introduce theories on literary genres, history of ideas and relationship with trends in literature and literary studies.

Long before contemporary analyses of human-induced environmental degradation, Indigenous and feminist authors wrote stories that resisted hierarchies of the human over other lifeworlds. This course will use the themes, "feminism" and "environment" to study the works of women writers such as Leslie Marmon Silko, bell hooks, Willa Cather, Maria Lugones and Muriel Rukeyser whose writings deepen and problematize both terms.  
 
Together we will ask, how have colonial histories impacted which authors are seen as "environmental" or "feminist"?  How does environmental protection materialize in the works of these authors? Further, what does environmental literature mean and how could debates in feminist theory help us answer such questions?

The course will be dealing with pioneering theatre artists and playwrights in Europe and the US starting with the rise of naturalism and realism in the nineteentch century. Then symbolism, surrealism and dada in the early years of the twentieth century will be introduced, the theatre of the absurd in the 1950s and 60s will be explained, and thereafter the discussion will be taken to contemporary postmodern theatre. The ideas of Constantine Stanislavsky, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Bertolt Brecht, Antonin Artaud, Eugene Ionesco, Jerzy Grotowski and Peter Brook will be taught in some detail - as well as the the theatre of Samuel Beckett, Tadeusz Kantor and Robert Wilson. It will be discovered how the works of playwrights from certain periods are in direct interrelation with a changing view on the art of the theatre and certain plays will be selected for reading in order to explain this further.

The nineteenth century saw the highpoint of colonial expansion around the globe. A handful of European countries owned almost every available inch of the planet´s landmass as well much of its waters. While the European industrial revolutions brought wealth and prosperity to sagging economies, they were founded on the backs of colonial loot and forced market. Many of these dichotomies of wealth and extractionism, burgeoning democracies and impositions of colonial/imperial rule, technological advancement and poverty ridden backwardness, indicate the schizophrenic nature of imperial Europe and the hidden massacres and brutally put down rebellions in its colonies. European nationalism can be read through the crisis of identity as each nation confronts its colonial other and struggles to establish its own self in the wake of its colonial anxieties of race, religion, gender, and body.

This course will follow these themes as they are reflected in the nineteenth century Realist novel in Europe and the newly established US. Through this literature we will follow the trope of marriage as an analogy for the nation, analysing the nature of its heroines, their several suitors, the shadow of colonial rebellions, the constant absent-presence of the ´oriental´ other. Close reading and analysis of the literary texts will be accompanied by critical and theoretical material covering postcolonial and decolonial approaches, theories of violence, and social and cultural contextualisations, all converging on the multiple anxieties that resulted in the invention of ´Europe´.

Students are expected to participate fully in class discussion and will be required to make short presentations and write a final paper.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

We will explore several corners of self-help culture and analyze them through the lens of literature and film. We will look at some of the leading influencers who have shaped the discourse surrounding self-help and self-improvement. Authors, leaders, and gurus such as Montaigne, Emerson, Joseph Campbell, Ram Dass, Eckhart Tolle, Walt Whitman, Oprah Winfrey, and Jane Austen will be introduced. Selected literary works and films will be examined in light of this path of improvement, as a route to discipline, and as a means to grow and to learn about oneself. We will read stories that engage with the transformative power and the value of narrative for a person’s spiritual journey or for working through difficult life experiences. Assessment will take place in the form of an in-class lecture and written assignments.  Among fictional writing are: Eat, Pray, Love, The Doors of Perception, Leaves of Grass, Hamlet, A Jane Austen Education. Among films are: Ben–Hur, 101 Reykjavík, Forrest Gump, Emma, Little Women, Barbie.

The course focuses on the fiction of Sjón, with emphasis on novels, poetry and cinema, based on the study Sjónsbók: Ævintýrið um höfundinn, súrrealisma og sýnir (2016) by Úlfhildur Dagsdóttir, and the essay collection Critical Approaches to Sjón : North of the Sun (2025). Theories of surrealism and the avant garde, narrative and cultural studies will be discussed.

Anger is a prominent driving force and theme in literature and the arts from the very beginning of the Western cultural tradition. Anger is intertwined with the very nature of storytelling. In this course, we examine various examples of anger and place them in the context of theories from the study of emotions—ranging from the anger of Achilles to that of Donald Duck. Who is allowed to be angry? Why are they so angry, and what purpose does their anger serve in a cultural-historical context? A selection of works and scholarly texts dealing with anger, and with anger as a phenomenon, will be read.

By focusing on folk tales, literature and other relevant sources, the course discusses the manifestations of nature and the supernatural in Icelandic narrative culture throughout the centuries. Students will learn about the significance, interface, and unclear boundaries of these phenomena and how they have shaped society and the environment as well. Students will thus get to know different ideas about the position of people and (other) animals within, above or "outside" of nature. Through diverse lectures and assignments, topics such as humanity vs. animality, the known world vs. other worlds, and the materiality vs. the supernatural, will be discussed from critical points of view. The roles and forms of landscape, organisms, bodies, weather, and natural phenomena in the narrative culture will be explored. The latest research in this broad field will be presented, such as on the representation of earthquakes and celestial bodies, bears, whales, seals, and domestic animals, and on the supernatural creatures of nature and other mythological creatures such as fairies, ghosts, trolls, and berserks. Students will learn how story worlds and folklore have left their mark on the perception of nature, folk traditions, folk customs, and social spaces such as enchanted spots, sacred places and hunted places. We also ask how these narratives appear in folk art and visual art, from previous centuries to the present. Finally, we will explore the significance of nature narratives and the supernatural in the context of the Anthropocene, human perspectives, climate change, and the different status of social groups and species.

The period from the end of the 17th century to the late 19th century has been described in terms of an Oriental Renaissance, a revolution importance  of equal to the Renaissance following the end of the Middle Ages. The research seminar will explore the extensive translations and scholarly publications of the period, thus shedding light on how publications of the narrative, poetic and religious literature of the East by European scholars came to shape the modern concept of literature during the era of Romanticism. Students will deal with translations of works such as Bhagavad-Gītā, Śakuntalā, Zend-Avesta, The Arabian Nights and Tao Te Ching, focusing on their reception history. Students will furthermore read recent writings of scholars as well as shorter texts and textual fragments by authors such as Goethe, Schlegel, Schopenhauer, Novalis, Chateaubriand, Max Müller, Abraham Anquetil and William Jones..

In this course, students will become acquainted with some of the masterpieces of French dramatic literature from the Renaissance to the present day. The return of tragedy in relation to war and civil conflict will be examined, as will the social relevance of comedy over time. Trends and movements in theatre will be examined, from the experimental theatre of the Renaissance, neoclassicism, revolutionary ideas in eighteenth and nineteenth-century theatre, and the avant-garde theatre of the twentieth century to the devised and/or research-based dramaturgy of today. Emphasis will be placed on the aesthetics and dramaturgy of plays, including the specificity of drama in verse. Entire plays or excerpts from works will be read in Icelandic or English translations by Garnier, Corneille, Molière, Racine, Marivaux, Musset, Beaumarchais, Hugo, Dumas, Feydeau, Anouilh, Sartre, Genet, Cixous, Koltès, Mouawad.

The course will be taught in Icelandic, but some of the course material will be in English. For students of French, an additional weekly class (40 min.) will be offered in French.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

The course will focus on fiction from the last 50 years or so that in one way or another straddles the borders of different literary genres, such as the novel and autobiography, historiography, journalism, etc. The students will read historical novels, photographic essays, autobiographical works, fakes and more. The course will introduce theories on literary genres, history of ideas and relationship with trends in literature and literary studies.

Long before contemporary analyses of human-induced environmental degradation, Indigenous and feminist authors wrote stories that resisted hierarchies of the human over other lifeworlds. This course will use the themes, "feminism" and "environment" to study the works of women writers such as Leslie Marmon Silko, bell hooks, Willa Cather, Maria Lugones and Muriel Rukeyser whose writings deepen and problematize both terms.  
 
Together we will ask, how have colonial histories impacted which authors are seen as "environmental" or "feminist"?  How does environmental protection materialize in the works of these authors? Further, what does environmental literature mean and how could debates in feminist theory help us answer such questions?

The course will be dealing with pioneering theatre artists and playwrights in Europe and the US starting with the rise of naturalism and realism in the nineteentch century. Then symbolism, surrealism and dada in the early years of the twentieth century will be introduced, the theatre of the absurd in the 1950s and 60s will be explained, and thereafter the discussion will be taken to contemporary postmodern theatre. The ideas of Constantine Stanislavsky, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Bertolt Brecht, Antonin Artaud, Eugene Ionesco, Jerzy Grotowski and Peter Brook will be taught in some detail - as well as the the theatre of Samuel Beckett, Tadeusz Kantor and Robert Wilson. It will be discovered how the works of playwrights from certain periods are in direct interrelation with a changing view on the art of the theatre and certain plays will be selected for reading in order to explain this further.

The nineteenth century saw the highpoint of colonial expansion around the globe. A handful of European countries owned almost every available inch of the planet´s landmass as well much of its waters. While the European industrial revolutions brought wealth and prosperity to sagging economies, they were founded on the backs of colonial loot and forced market. Many of these dichotomies of wealth and extractionism, burgeoning democracies and impositions of colonial/imperial rule, technological advancement and poverty ridden backwardness, indicate the schizophrenic nature of imperial Europe and the hidden massacres and brutally put down rebellions in its colonies. European nationalism can be read through the crisis of identity as each nation confronts its colonial other and struggles to establish its own self in the wake of its colonial anxieties of race, religion, gender, and body.

This course will follow these themes as they are reflected in the nineteenth century Realist novel in Europe and the newly established US. Through this literature we will follow the trope of marriage as an analogy for the nation, analysing the nature of its heroines, their several suitors, the shadow of colonial rebellions, the constant absent-presence of the ´oriental´ other. Close reading and analysis of the literary texts will be accompanied by critical and theoretical material covering postcolonial and decolonial approaches, theories of violence, and social and cultural contextualisations, all converging on the multiple anxieties that resulted in the invention of ´Europe´.

Students are expected to participate fully in class discussion and will be required to make short presentations and write a final paper.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

MA-thesis in Comparative Literature

In this course, MA students in Comparative literature, Cultural studies and Film studies prepare for their final thesis. The group meets every two weeks during the semester. In the first half of the semester, the focus is on selecting a thesis topic, determining and searching primary sources, formulating a research question and other questions about getting started with a final thesis. Students then turn their attention to the theoretical background for their work and its theoretical basis. This work also involves critical reflection on search methods and approaches to texts. The third part of the course is dedicated to student presentations and discussion, where students and instructors come together to discuss research proposals, give feedback and get constructive criticism. The final product of the course is a report with a research proposal, partial bibliography and commentary on thesis aims, theory and methods. Students are also required to write a working diary describing their preparation process and readings and explaining the relation of different texts to their work. Course evaluation is based on this working diary (20%), class presentation (25%) and final paper (55%).

We will explore several corners of self-help culture and analyze them through the lens of literature and film. We will look at some of the leading influencers who have shaped the discourse surrounding self-help and self-improvement. Authors, leaders, and gurus such as Montaigne, Emerson, Joseph Campbell, Ram Dass, Eckhart Tolle, Walt Whitman, Oprah Winfrey, and Jane Austen will be introduced. Selected literary works and films will be examined in light of this path of improvement, as a route to discipline, and as a means to grow and to learn about oneself. We will read stories that engage with the transformative power and the value of narrative for a person’s spiritual journey or for working through difficult life experiences. Assessment will take place in the form of an in-class lecture and written assignments.  Among fictional writing are: Eat, Pray, Love, The Doors of Perception, Leaves of Grass, Hamlet, A Jane Austen Education. Among films are: Ben–Hur, 101 Reykjavík, Forrest Gump, Emma, Little Women, Barbie.

The course focuses on the fiction of Sjón, with emphasis on novels, poetry and cinema, based on the study Sjónsbók: Ævintýrið um höfundinn, súrrealisma og sýnir (2016) by Úlfhildur Dagsdóttir, and the essay collection Critical Approaches to Sjón : North of the Sun (2025). Theories of surrealism and the avant garde, narrative and cultural studies will be discussed.

Anger is a prominent driving force and theme in literature and the arts from the very beginning of the Western cultural tradition. Anger is intertwined with the very nature of storytelling. In this course, we examine various examples of anger and place them in the context of theories from the study of emotions—ranging from the anger of Achilles to that of Donald Duck. Who is allowed to be angry? Why are they so angry, and what purpose does their anger serve in a cultural-historical context? A selection of works and scholarly texts dealing with anger, and with anger as a phenomenon, will be read.

By focusing on folk tales, literature and other relevant sources, the course discusses the manifestations of nature and the supernatural in Icelandic narrative culture throughout the centuries. Students will learn about the significance, interface, and unclear boundaries of these phenomena and how they have shaped society and the environment as well. Students will thus get to know different ideas about the position of people and (other) animals within, above or "outside" of nature. Through diverse lectures and assignments, topics such as humanity vs. animality, the known world vs. other worlds, and the materiality vs. the supernatural, will be discussed from critical points of view. The roles and forms of landscape, organisms, bodies, weather, and natural phenomena in the narrative culture will be explored. The latest research in this broad field will be presented, such as on the representation of earthquakes and celestial bodies, bears, whales, seals, and domestic animals, and on the supernatural creatures of nature and other mythological creatures such as fairies, ghosts, trolls, and berserks. Students will learn how story worlds and folklore have left their mark on the perception of nature, folk traditions, folk customs, and social spaces such as enchanted spots, sacred places and hunted places. We also ask how these narratives appear in folk art and visual art, from previous centuries to the present. Finally, we will explore the significance of nature narratives and the supernatural in the context of the Anthropocene, human perspectives, climate change, and the different status of social groups and species.

The period from the end of the 17th century to the late 19th century has been described in terms of an Oriental Renaissance, a revolution importance  of equal to the Renaissance following the end of the Middle Ages. The research seminar will explore the extensive translations and scholarly publications of the period, thus shedding light on how publications of the narrative, poetic and religious literature of the East by European scholars came to shape the modern concept of literature during the era of Romanticism. Students will deal with translations of works such as Bhagavad-Gītā, Śakuntalā, Zend-Avesta, The Arabian Nights and Tao Te Ching, focusing on their reception history. Students will furthermore read recent writings of scholars as well as shorter texts and textual fragments by authors such as Goethe, Schlegel, Schopenhauer, Novalis, Chateaubriand, Max Müller, Abraham Anquetil and William Jones..

In this course, students will become acquainted with some of the masterpieces of French dramatic literature from the Renaissance to the present day. The return of tragedy in relation to war and civil conflict will be examined, as will the social relevance of comedy over time. Trends and movements in theatre will be examined, from the experimental theatre of the Renaissance, neoclassicism, revolutionary ideas in eighteenth and nineteenth-century theatre, and the avant-garde theatre of the twentieth century to the devised and/or research-based dramaturgy of today. Emphasis will be placed on the aesthetics and dramaturgy of plays, including the specificity of drama in verse. Entire plays or excerpts from works will be read in Icelandic or English translations by Garnier, Corneille, Molière, Racine, Marivaux, Musset, Beaumarchais, Hugo, Dumas, Feydeau, Anouilh, Sartre, Genet, Cixous, Koltès, Mouawad.

The course will be taught in Icelandic, but some of the course material will be in English. For students of French, an additional weekly class (40 min.) will be offered in French.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

MA-thesis in Comparative Literature

The course will focus on fiction from the last 50 years or so that in one way or another straddles the borders of different literary genres, such as the novel and autobiography, historiography, journalism, etc. The students will read historical novels, photographic essays, autobiographical works, fakes and more. The course will introduce theories on literary genres, history of ideas and relationship with trends in literature and literary studies.

Long before contemporary analyses of human-induced environmental degradation, Indigenous and feminist authors wrote stories that resisted hierarchies of the human over other lifeworlds. This course will use the themes, "feminism" and "environment" to study the works of women writers such as Leslie Marmon Silko, bell hooks, Willa Cather, Maria Lugones and Muriel Rukeyser whose writings deepen and problematize both terms.  
 
Together we will ask, how have colonial histories impacted which authors are seen as "environmental" or "feminist"?  How does environmental protection materialize in the works of these authors? Further, what does environmental literature mean and how could debates in feminist theory help us answer such questions?

The course will be dealing with pioneering theatre artists and playwrights in Europe and the US starting with the rise of naturalism and realism in the nineteentch century. Then symbolism, surrealism and dada in the early years of the twentieth century will be introduced, the theatre of the absurd in the 1950s and 60s will be explained, and thereafter the discussion will be taken to contemporary postmodern theatre. The ideas of Constantine Stanislavsky, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Bertolt Brecht, Antonin Artaud, Eugene Ionesco, Jerzy Grotowski and Peter Brook will be taught in some detail - as well as the the theatre of Samuel Beckett, Tadeusz Kantor and Robert Wilson. It will be discovered how the works of playwrights from certain periods are in direct interrelation with a changing view on the art of the theatre and certain plays will be selected for reading in order to explain this further.

The nineteenth century saw the highpoint of colonial expansion around the globe. A handful of European countries owned almost every available inch of the planet´s landmass as well much of its waters. While the European industrial revolutions brought wealth and prosperity to sagging economies, they were founded on the backs of colonial loot and forced market. Many of these dichotomies of wealth and extractionism, burgeoning democracies and impositions of colonial/imperial rule, technological advancement and poverty ridden backwardness, indicate the schizophrenic nature of imperial Europe and the hidden massacres and brutally put down rebellions in its colonies. European nationalism can be read through the crisis of identity as each nation confronts its colonial other and struggles to establish its own self in the wake of its colonial anxieties of race, religion, gender, and body.

This course will follow these themes as they are reflected in the nineteenth century Realist novel in Europe and the newly established US. Through this literature we will follow the trope of marriage as an analogy for the nation, analysing the nature of its heroines, their several suitors, the shadow of colonial rebellions, the constant absent-presence of the ´oriental´ other. Close reading and analysis of the literary texts will be accompanied by critical and theoretical material covering postcolonial and decolonial approaches, theories of violence, and social and cultural contextualisations, all converging on the multiple anxieties that resulted in the invention of ´Europe´.

Students are expected to participate fully in class discussion and will be required to make short presentations and write a final paper.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

We will explore several corners of self-help culture and analyze them through the lens of literature and film. We will look at some of the leading influencers who have shaped the discourse surrounding self-help and self-improvement. Authors, leaders, and gurus such as Montaigne, Emerson, Joseph Campbell, Ram Dass, Eckhart Tolle, Walt Whitman, Oprah Winfrey, and Jane Austen will be introduced. Selected literary works and films will be examined in light of this path of improvement, as a route to discipline, and as a means to grow and to learn about oneself. We will read stories that engage with the transformative power and the value of narrative for a person’s spiritual journey or for working through difficult life experiences. Assessment will take place in the form of an in-class lecture and written assignments.  Among fictional writing are: Eat, Pray, Love, The Doors of Perception, Leaves of Grass, Hamlet, A Jane Austen Education. Among films are: Ben–Hur, 101 Reykjavík, Forrest Gump, Emma, Little Women, Barbie.

The course focuses on the fiction of Sjón, with emphasis on novels, poetry and cinema, based on the study Sjónsbók: Ævintýrið um höfundinn, súrrealisma og sýnir (2016) by Úlfhildur Dagsdóttir, and the essay collection Critical Approaches to Sjón : North of the Sun (2025). Theories of surrealism and the avant garde, narrative and cultural studies will be discussed.

Anger is a prominent driving force and theme in literature and the arts from the very beginning of the Western cultural tradition. Anger is intertwined with the very nature of storytelling. In this course, we examine various examples of anger and place them in the context of theories from the study of emotions—ranging from the anger of Achilles to that of Donald Duck. Who is allowed to be angry? Why are they so angry, and what purpose does their anger serve in a cultural-historical context? A selection of works and scholarly texts dealing with anger, and with anger as a phenomenon, will be read.

By focusing on folk tales, literature and other relevant sources, the course discusses the manifestations of nature and the supernatural in Icelandic narrative culture throughout the centuries. Students will learn about the significance, interface, and unclear boundaries of these phenomena and how they have shaped society and the environment as well. Students will thus get to know different ideas about the position of people and (other) animals within, above or "outside" of nature. Through diverse lectures and assignments, topics such as humanity vs. animality, the known world vs. other worlds, and the materiality vs. the supernatural, will be discussed from critical points of view. The roles and forms of landscape, organisms, bodies, weather, and natural phenomena in the narrative culture will be explored. The latest research in this broad field will be presented, such as on the representation of earthquakes and celestial bodies, bears, whales, seals, and domestic animals, and on the supernatural creatures of nature and other mythological creatures such as fairies, ghosts, trolls, and berserks. Students will learn how story worlds and folklore have left their mark on the perception of nature, folk traditions, folk customs, and social spaces such as enchanted spots, sacred places and hunted places. We also ask how these narratives appear in folk art and visual art, from previous centuries to the present. Finally, we will explore the significance of nature narratives and the supernatural in the context of the Anthropocene, human perspectives, climate change, and the different status of social groups and species.

The period from the end of the 17th century to the late 19th century has been described in terms of an Oriental Renaissance, a revolution importance  of equal to the Renaissance following the end of the Middle Ages. The research seminar will explore the extensive translations and scholarly publications of the period, thus shedding light on how publications of the narrative, poetic and religious literature of the East by European scholars came to shape the modern concept of literature during the era of Romanticism. Students will deal with translations of works such as Bhagavad-Gītā, Śakuntalā, Zend-Avesta, The Arabian Nights and Tao Te Ching, focusing on their reception history. Students will furthermore read recent writings of scholars as well as shorter texts and textual fragments by authors such as Goethe, Schlegel, Schopenhauer, Novalis, Chateaubriand, Max Müller, Abraham Anquetil and William Jones..

In this course, students will become acquainted with some of the masterpieces of French dramatic literature from the Renaissance to the present day. The return of tragedy in relation to war and civil conflict will be examined, as will the social relevance of comedy over time. Trends and movements in theatre will be examined, from the experimental theatre of the Renaissance, neoclassicism, revolutionary ideas in eighteenth and nineteenth-century theatre, and the avant-garde theatre of the twentieth century to the devised and/or research-based dramaturgy of today. Emphasis will be placed on the aesthetics and dramaturgy of plays, including the specificity of drama in verse. Entire plays or excerpts from works will be read in Icelandic or English translations by Garnier, Corneille, Molière, Racine, Marivaux, Musset, Beaumarchais, Hugo, Dumas, Feydeau, Anouilh, Sartre, Genet, Cixous, Koltès, Mouawad.

The course will be taught in Icelandic, but some of the course material will be in English. For students of French, an additional weekly class (40 min.) will be offered in French.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

The course will focus on fiction from the last 50 years or so that in one way or another straddles the borders of different literary genres, such as the novel and autobiography, historiography, journalism, etc. The students will read historical novels, photographic essays, autobiographical works, fakes and more. The course will introduce theories on literary genres, history of ideas and relationship with trends in literature and literary studies.

Long before contemporary analyses of human-induced environmental degradation, Indigenous and feminist authors wrote stories that resisted hierarchies of the human over other lifeworlds. This course will use the themes, "feminism" and "environment" to study the works of women writers such as Leslie Marmon Silko, bell hooks, Willa Cather, Maria Lugones and Muriel Rukeyser whose writings deepen and problematize both terms.  
 
Together we will ask, how have colonial histories impacted which authors are seen as "environmental" or "feminist"?  How does environmental protection materialize in the works of these authors? Further, what does environmental literature mean and how could debates in feminist theory help us answer such questions?

The course will be dealing with pioneering theatre artists and playwrights in Europe and the US starting with the rise of naturalism and realism in the nineteentch century. Then symbolism, surrealism and dada in the early years of the twentieth century will be introduced, the theatre of the absurd in the 1950s and 60s will be explained, and thereafter the discussion will be taken to contemporary postmodern theatre. The ideas of Constantine Stanislavsky, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Bertolt Brecht, Antonin Artaud, Eugene Ionesco, Jerzy Grotowski and Peter Brook will be taught in some detail - as well as the the theatre of Samuel Beckett, Tadeusz Kantor and Robert Wilson. It will be discovered how the works of playwrights from certain periods are in direct interrelation with a changing view on the art of the theatre and certain plays will be selected for reading in order to explain this further.

The nineteenth century saw the highpoint of colonial expansion around the globe. A handful of European countries owned almost every available inch of the planet´s landmass as well much of its waters. While the European industrial revolutions brought wealth and prosperity to sagging economies, they were founded on the backs of colonial loot and forced market. Many of these dichotomies of wealth and extractionism, burgeoning democracies and impositions of colonial/imperial rule, technological advancement and poverty ridden backwardness, indicate the schizophrenic nature of imperial Europe and the hidden massacres and brutally put down rebellions in its colonies. European nationalism can be read through the crisis of identity as each nation confronts its colonial other and struggles to establish its own self in the wake of its colonial anxieties of race, religion, gender, and body.

This course will follow these themes as they are reflected in the nineteenth century Realist novel in Europe and the newly established US. Through this literature we will follow the trope of marriage as an analogy for the nation, analysing the nature of its heroines, their several suitors, the shadow of colonial rebellions, the constant absent-presence of the ´oriental´ other. Close reading and analysis of the literary texts will be accompanied by critical and theoretical material covering postcolonial and decolonial approaches, theories of violence, and social and cultural contextualisations, all converging on the multiple anxieties that resulted in the invention of ´Europe´.

Students are expected to participate fully in class discussion and will be required to make short presentations and write a final paper.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

MA-thesis in Comparative Literature

In this course, MA students in Comparative literature, Cultural studies and Film studies prepare for their final thesis. The group meets every two weeks during the semester. In the first half of the semester, the focus is on selecting a thesis topic, determining and searching primary sources, formulating a research question and other questions about getting started with a final thesis. Students then turn their attention to the theoretical background for their work and its theoretical basis. This work also involves critical reflection on search methods and approaches to texts. The third part of the course is dedicated to student presentations and discussion, where students and instructors come together to discuss research proposals, give feedback and get constructive criticism. The final product of the course is a report with a research proposal, partial bibliography and commentary on thesis aims, theory and methods. Students are also required to write a working diary describing their preparation process and readings and explaining the relation of different texts to their work. Course evaluation is based on this working diary (20%), class presentation (25%) and final paper (55%).

We will explore several corners of self-help culture and analyze them through the lens of literature and film. We will look at some of the leading influencers who have shaped the discourse surrounding self-help and self-improvement. Authors, leaders, and gurus such as Montaigne, Emerson, Joseph Campbell, Ram Dass, Eckhart Tolle, Walt Whitman, Oprah Winfrey, and Jane Austen will be introduced. Selected literary works and films will be examined in light of this path of improvement, as a route to discipline, and as a means to grow and to learn about oneself. We will read stories that engage with the transformative power and the value of narrative for a person’s spiritual journey or for working through difficult life experiences. Assessment will take place in the form of an in-class lecture and written assignments.  Among fictional writing are: Eat, Pray, Love, The Doors of Perception, Leaves of Grass, Hamlet, A Jane Austen Education. Among films are: Ben–Hur, 101 Reykjavík, Forrest Gump, Emma, Little Women, Barbie.

The course focuses on the fiction of Sjón, with emphasis on novels, poetry and cinema, based on the study Sjónsbók: Ævintýrið um höfundinn, súrrealisma og sýnir (2016) by Úlfhildur Dagsdóttir, and the essay collection Critical Approaches to Sjón : North of the Sun (2025). Theories of surrealism and the avant garde, narrative and cultural studies will be discussed.

Anger is a prominent driving force and theme in literature and the arts from the very beginning of the Western cultural tradition. Anger is intertwined with the very nature of storytelling. In this course, we examine various examples of anger and place them in the context of theories from the study of emotions—ranging from the anger of Achilles to that of Donald Duck. Who is allowed to be angry? Why are they so angry, and what purpose does their anger serve in a cultural-historical context? A selection of works and scholarly texts dealing with anger, and with anger as a phenomenon, will be read.

By focusing on folk tales, literature and other relevant sources, the course discusses the manifestations of nature and the supernatural in Icelandic narrative culture throughout the centuries. Students will learn about the significance, interface, and unclear boundaries of these phenomena and how they have shaped society and the environment as well. Students will thus get to know different ideas about the position of people and (other) animals within, above or "outside" of nature. Through diverse lectures and assignments, topics such as humanity vs. animality, the known world vs. other worlds, and the materiality vs. the supernatural, will be discussed from critical points of view. The roles and forms of landscape, organisms, bodies, weather, and natural phenomena in the narrative culture will be explored. The latest research in this broad field will be presented, such as on the representation of earthquakes and celestial bodies, bears, whales, seals, and domestic animals, and on the supernatural creatures of nature and other mythological creatures such as fairies, ghosts, trolls, and berserks. Students will learn how story worlds and folklore have left their mark on the perception of nature, folk traditions, folk customs, and social spaces such as enchanted spots, sacred places and hunted places. We also ask how these narratives appear in folk art and visual art, from previous centuries to the present. Finally, we will explore the significance of nature narratives and the supernatural in the context of the Anthropocene, human perspectives, climate change, and the different status of social groups and species.

The period from the end of the 17th century to the late 19th century has been described in terms of an Oriental Renaissance, a revolution importance  of equal to the Renaissance following the end of the Middle Ages. The research seminar will explore the extensive translations and scholarly publications of the period, thus shedding light on how publications of the narrative, poetic and religious literature of the East by European scholars came to shape the modern concept of literature during the era of Romanticism. Students will deal with translations of works such as Bhagavad-Gītā, Śakuntalā, Zend-Avesta, The Arabian Nights and Tao Te Ching, focusing on their reception history. Students will furthermore read recent writings of scholars as well as shorter texts and textual fragments by authors such as Goethe, Schlegel, Schopenhauer, Novalis, Chateaubriand, Max Müller, Abraham Anquetil and William Jones..

In this course, students will become acquainted with some of the masterpieces of French dramatic literature from the Renaissance to the present day. The return of tragedy in relation to war and civil conflict will be examined, as will the social relevance of comedy over time. Trends and movements in theatre will be examined, from the experimental theatre of the Renaissance, neoclassicism, revolutionary ideas in eighteenth and nineteenth-century theatre, and the avant-garde theatre of the twentieth century to the devised and/or research-based dramaturgy of today. Emphasis will be placed on the aesthetics and dramaturgy of plays, including the specificity of drama in verse. Entire plays or excerpts from works will be read in Icelandic or English translations by Garnier, Corneille, Molière, Racine, Marivaux, Musset, Beaumarchais, Hugo, Dumas, Feydeau, Anouilh, Sartre, Genet, Cixous, Koltès, Mouawad.

The course will be taught in Icelandic, but some of the course material will be in English. For students of French, an additional weekly class (40 min.) will be offered in French.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

A project is selected in consultation with a teacher, and that teacher must approve the student's research plans before she or he is permitted to register for a study of this kind.

MA-thesis in Comparative Literature