Discussion of various approaches to writing about literature and film (from research papers to reviews, polemical essays, and informal articles). Students will be trained in the various aspects of composition: locating and organizing material, using sources, building arguments, revising, and editing. This includes analyzing different critical discourses, as well as the implied reader and other relevant theoretical issues. This is a required course for students majoring in Comparative Literature and first-year students are urged to register for it.

Literary Methods & Concepts This is the introductory course and forms the basis for other courses in Comparative Literature. The aim is to acquaint the students with the main literary concepts and methodological foundations and to give them some experience in analysing texts. In addition to lectures there are small group discussion periods in connection with required essays. This course is to be taken during the first term.

This Course will undertake a study of Epics around the world, ancient, medieval, and modern. It will establish certain common themes and narrative strategies in an attempt to define the nature of the epic as a genre. In particular, it will focus the emphasis on war and civilizational definitions, the memorialization of cultural minutiae, and the valorizing of unique individual virtues and traits, which are seen as constituting a particular civilization at a unique point of time. The Course will chart the connections between the ancient epics and more modern ones, noting the differences and contextualizing them politically, culturally, and socially.

This seminar deals with the Nordic literature of modern times. The history of literature of Nordic countries will be told, spanning from the end of 19th century to today. Various texts and different literary genres will be read, among them novels, plays and poetry. Writers like Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Edith Södergran, Tove Ditlevsen, Inger Christensen, Jon Fosse and other contemporary authors will be read. Ideas and topics that have been prominent during modernism are analysed and placed in the context of the literary works. Works from all Nordic countries will be analysed. Works will be read both in Icelandic translation and in the original language as they should be easily accessible to students. Theoretical texts will be used as tools to analyse literary works and tendencies in Nordic literature of modern times, but could also be applied in broader perspective.

In this directed studies students can work on a specific project in connection to the course FRA434G French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment,

A survey of French literature in the 18th and 19th centuries. The course will examine the main literary trends of the period, i.e. the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Realism, as they appear in various literary forms; the novel, autobiography and poetry. Special attention will be paid to the great changes that occurred in this period in the wake of the revolution and industrialisation and its effect on the development of French literature. Among the authors are Voltaire, Rousseau, Stendhal, Balzac, Georges Sand, Flaubert, Rimbaud, and Baudelaire.

Fairy tales (Fr. conte féerique) have been an important part of French literature from the 12th century, as can be seen, for instance, in the Lays of Marie de France. In the late 17th century early modern audiences enjoyed the tales of Mme d‘Aulnoy, Charles Perrault, Mlle L‘Héritier de Villandon and many others, and shortly afterwards Antoine Galland published his translation of Thousand and one Night which further increased the interest in this literary genre. The story of the Beauty and the Beast by Mme de Villeneuve was published in 1740 and was one of the tales that were rewritten and adapted to children in Mme Leprince de Beaumont‘s Le Magasin des enfants, first published in London in 1756. In this course, fairy tales by various authors will be read and examined with regard to their social and cultural context (literary salons) and their characteristics. The main focus will be on fairy tales authored by women, collections, frame narratives and fairy tales in children‘s literature in the second half of the 18th century. Icelandic translations of French fairy tales will also be examined.

The course will be taught in Icelandic, with one weekly extra hour in French for the students of the Department of French Studies.

Students can also enroll in FRA505G Directed study: French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment 4e.

By reading a selection of various literary text an attempt will be made to give a survey covering more than two millennia of literature in Latin from ancient Rome to seventeenth-century Scandinavia. Texts will be read in Icelandic translation, if available.

An overview of Icelandic literary history from the beginning to the end of the 19th century. Novelties and changes in Icelandic literature will be placed in context with contemporary currents in European literature.

The aim of this survey course is to sample the literary history of the last four millennia by reading a number of world masterpieces from Africa, Asia and Europe. All texts will be read in Icelandic translations. 

An interdisciplinary and introductory course entailing a dialogue between the academic fields of the department, i.e. comparative literature, film studies, gender studies, art studies, linguistics, cultural studies, sign language and interpreting studies and translation studies. The latest international developments in the field of humanities will be examined and questions asked about the relationship of academic studies and our world view(s). We will analyse the semiotic system of language, inquiring whether it can serve as the basis for our understanding of other semiotic systems. We will ask about the connection and relationship between different languages and linguistic worlds. What is "multiculture"? How are spoken language, written language and visual language interconnected within society? What constitutes cultural literacy? Literature, art, film and other visual material will be examined in both a national and international context, with a view to how these semiotic systems influence the borderlines of gender, race, class, nation, and different world cultures. The study materials include theoretical and critical writings, literary works, visual art and images, and films, as well as some current media coverage. Evaluation is based on four assignments and a written exam.

From folktales to modern book series, the Western literary world has shown a fascination for those beings that inhabit the plains of the supernatural. This course explores a varied corpus of texts, from the Lais of Marie de France to Tolkien’s The Hobbit, and engages with them in light of their fantastical characters. Throughout the lessons, we will engage with major theoretical approaches to fairies, monsters, and dragons, and discover the roles that these beings have within and outside of literary works in the Western world.

This course entails a study of a number of literary works from recent years, in the Icelandic original or in translation, including works published in 2020. Contemporary currents will be discussed, with an emphasis on Icelandic literary culture, including its windows to the wider world. But we shall also ask what „literary culture“ is, and what „contemporary“ means and how it manifests itself in writing and in culture generally. How, from this perspective, do we understand tradition and innovation, originality and popularity – and what concepts and paradigms are prevalent in utterances about contemporary literature, both in scholarly and critical discourses and in the broader cultural environment? The course will be in „live“ connection with what is going on around it on the Icelandic literary scene, and writers/translators will pay a visit.

This Course will undertake a study of Epics around the world, ancient, medieval, and modern. It will establish certain common themes and narrative strategies in an attempt to define the nature of the epic as a genre. In particular, it will focus the emphasis on war and civilizational definitions, the memorialization of cultural minutiae, and the valorizing of unique individual virtues and traits, which are seen as constituting a particular civilization at a unique point of time. The Course will chart the connections between the ancient epics and more modern ones, noting the differences and contextualizing them politically, culturally, and socially.

This seminar deals with the Nordic literature of modern times. The history of literature of Nordic countries will be told, spanning from the end of 19th century to today. Various texts and different literary genres will be read, among them novels, plays and poetry. Writers like Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Edith Södergran, Tove Ditlevsen, Inger Christensen, Jon Fosse and other contemporary authors will be read. Ideas and topics that have been prominent during modernism are analysed and placed in the context of the literary works. Works from all Nordic countries will be analysed. Works will be read both in Icelandic translation and in the original language as they should be easily accessible to students. Theoretical texts will be used as tools to analyse literary works and tendencies in Nordic literature of modern times, but could also be applied in broader perspective.

In this directed studies students can work on a specific project in connection to the course FRA434G French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment,

A survey of French literature in the 18th and 19th centuries. The course will examine the main literary trends of the period, i.e. the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Realism, as they appear in various literary forms; the novel, autobiography and poetry. Special attention will be paid to the great changes that occurred in this period in the wake of the revolution and industrialisation and its effect on the development of French literature. Among the authors are Voltaire, Rousseau, Stendhal, Balzac, Georges Sand, Flaubert, Rimbaud, and Baudelaire.

Fairy tales (Fr. conte féerique) have been an important part of French literature from the 12th century, as can be seen, for instance, in the Lays of Marie de France. In the late 17th century early modern audiences enjoyed the tales of Mme d‘Aulnoy, Charles Perrault, Mlle L‘Héritier de Villandon and many others, and shortly afterwards Antoine Galland published his translation of Thousand and one Night which further increased the interest in this literary genre. The story of the Beauty and the Beast by Mme de Villeneuve was published in 1740 and was one of the tales that were rewritten and adapted to children in Mme Leprince de Beaumont‘s Le Magasin des enfants, first published in London in 1756. In this course, fairy tales by various authors will be read and examined with regard to their social and cultural context (literary salons) and their characteristics. The main focus will be on fairy tales authored by women, collections, frame narratives and fairy tales in children‘s literature in the second half of the 18th century. Icelandic translations of French fairy tales will also be examined.

The course will be taught in Icelandic, with one weekly extra hour in French for the students of the Department of French Studies.

Students can also enroll in FRA505G Directed study: French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment 4e.

Historical overview of the development of literary theory. The main emphasis is on twentieth and twenty-first century trends and methods. In addition to lectures there are small group discussion periods.

By reading a selection of various literary text an attempt will be made to give a survey covering more than two millennia of literature in Latin from ancient Rome to seventeenth-century Scandinavia. Texts will be read in Icelandic translation, if available.

An overview of Icelandic literary history from the beginning to the end of the 19th century. Novelties and changes in Icelandic literature will be placed in context with contemporary currents in European literature.

From folktales to modern book series, the Western literary world has shown a fascination for those beings that inhabit the plains of the supernatural. This course explores a varied corpus of texts, from the Lais of Marie de France to Tolkien’s The Hobbit, and engages with them in light of their fantastical characters. Throughout the lessons, we will engage with major theoretical approaches to fairies, monsters, and dragons, and discover the roles that these beings have within and outside of literary works in the Western world.

This course entails a study of a number of literary works from recent years, in the Icelandic original or in translation, including works published in 2020. Contemporary currents will be discussed, with an emphasis on Icelandic literary culture, including its windows to the wider world. But we shall also ask what „literary culture“ is, and what „contemporary“ means and how it manifests itself in writing and in culture generally. How, from this perspective, do we understand tradition and innovation, originality and popularity – and what concepts and paradigms are prevalent in utterances about contemporary literature, both in scholarly and critical discourses and in the broader cultural environment? The course will be in „live“ connection with what is going on around it on the Icelandic literary scene, and writers/translators will pay a visit.

Franz Kafka is among the best-known modern writers of the Western world. His oeuvre is often thought to be cryptic and hard to interpret, and yet many seem to think that it home to a very distinct meaning which can be summarized with the attribute “Kafkaesque”. Some claim that he stages mankind in dark times; others find humour and comic elements to be prominent in his texts. The course will tackle these paradoxes by exploring Kafka´s narrative world from various angles and in all its variety. Narrative kernels will be pursued in his aphorisms and they will also be traced in his diaries and letters, his microfiction, short stories, novellas, and novels. Kafka’s writing invites diverse explorations of the connections and differences between these different genres of expression.

These works will be contemplated vis-à-vis 20th Century narrative conventions and modernist ruptures, with an emphasis on questions about existential issues, freedom, power, and modern societal manifestations. The challenges of transporting the characteristics of Kafka´s writing between languages will also be of concern, for most readers of Kafka get to know his work in translation. This course is aimed at both graduate and advanced undergraduate students. Students could possibly work on aspects of translation, on creative writing projects, or on comparative projects also pertaining to the works of other writers.

This Course will undertake a study of Epics around the world, ancient, medieval, and modern. It will establish certain common themes and narrative strategies in an attempt to define the nature of the epic as a genre. In particular, it will focus the emphasis on war and civilizational definitions, the memorialization of cultural minutiae, and the valorizing of unique individual virtues and traits, which are seen as constituting a particular civilization at a unique point of time. The Course will chart the connections between the ancient epics and more modern ones, noting the differences and contextualizing them politically, culturally, and socially.

This seminar deals with the Nordic literature of modern times. The history of literature of Nordic countries will be told, spanning from the end of 19th century to today. Various texts and different literary genres will be read, among them novels, plays and poetry. Writers like Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Edith Södergran, Tove Ditlevsen, Inger Christensen, Jon Fosse and other contemporary authors will be read. Ideas and topics that have been prominent during modernism are analysed and placed in the context of the literary works. Works from all Nordic countries will be analysed. Works will be read both in Icelandic translation and in the original language as they should be easily accessible to students. Theoretical texts will be used as tools to analyse literary works and tendencies in Nordic literature of modern times, but could also be applied in broader perspective.

In this directed studies students can work on a specific project in connection to the course FRA434G French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment,

A survey of French literature in the 18th and 19th centuries. The course will examine the main literary trends of the period, i.e. the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Realism, as they appear in various literary forms; the novel, autobiography and poetry. Special attention will be paid to the great changes that occurred in this period in the wake of the revolution and industrialisation and its effect on the development of French literature. Among the authors are Voltaire, Rousseau, Stendhal, Balzac, Georges Sand, Flaubert, Rimbaud, and Baudelaire.

Fairy tales (Fr. conte féerique) have been an important part of French literature from the 12th century, as can be seen, for instance, in the Lays of Marie de France. In the late 17th century early modern audiences enjoyed the tales of Mme d‘Aulnoy, Charles Perrault, Mlle L‘Héritier de Villandon and many others, and shortly afterwards Antoine Galland published his translation of Thousand and one Night which further increased the interest in this literary genre. The story of the Beauty and the Beast by Mme de Villeneuve was published in 1740 and was one of the tales that were rewritten and adapted to children in Mme Leprince de Beaumont‘s Le Magasin des enfants, first published in London in 1756. In this course, fairy tales by various authors will be read and examined with regard to their social and cultural context (literary salons) and their characteristics. The main focus will be on fairy tales authored by women, collections, frame narratives and fairy tales in children‘s literature in the second half of the 18th century. Icelandic translations of French fairy tales will also be examined.

The course will be taught in Icelandic, with one weekly extra hour in French for the students of the Department of French Studies.

Students can also enroll in FRA505G Directed study: French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment 4e.

BA-thesis in Comparative Literature

By reading a selection of various literary text an attempt will be made to give a survey covering more than two millennia of literature in Latin from ancient Rome to seventeenth-century Scandinavia. Texts will be read in Icelandic translation, if available.

An overview of Icelandic literary history from the beginning to the end of the 19th century. Novelties and changes in Icelandic literature will be placed in context with contemporary currents in European literature.

From folktales to modern book series, the Western literary world has shown a fascination for those beings that inhabit the plains of the supernatural. This course explores a varied corpus of texts, from the Lais of Marie de France to Tolkien’s The Hobbit, and engages with them in light of their fantastical characters. Throughout the lessons, we will engage with major theoretical approaches to fairies, monsters, and dragons, and discover the roles that these beings have within and outside of literary works in the Western world.

This course entails a study of a number of literary works from recent years, in the Icelandic original or in translation, including works published in 2020. Contemporary currents will be discussed, with an emphasis on Icelandic literary culture, including its windows to the wider world. But we shall also ask what „literary culture“ is, and what „contemporary“ means and how it manifests itself in writing and in culture generally. How, from this perspective, do we understand tradition and innovation, originality and popularity – and what concepts and paradigms are prevalent in utterances about contemporary literature, both in scholarly and critical discourses and in the broader cultural environment? The course will be in „live“ connection with what is going on around it on the Icelandic literary scene, and writers/translators will pay a visit.

Franz Kafka is among the best-known modern writers of the Western world. His oeuvre is often thought to be cryptic and hard to interpret, and yet many seem to think that it home to a very distinct meaning which can be summarized with the attribute “Kafkaesque”. Some claim that he stages mankind in dark times; others find humour and comic elements to be prominent in his texts. The course will tackle these paradoxes by exploring Kafka´s narrative world from various angles and in all its variety. Narrative kernels will be pursued in his aphorisms and they will also be traced in his diaries and letters, his microfiction, short stories, novellas, and novels. Kafka’s writing invites diverse explorations of the connections and differences between these different genres of expression.

These works will be contemplated vis-à-vis 20th Century narrative conventions and modernist ruptures, with an emphasis on questions about existential issues, freedom, power, and modern societal manifestations. The challenges of transporting the characteristics of Kafka´s writing between languages will also be of concern, for most readers of Kafka get to know his work in translation. This course is aimed at both graduate and advanced undergraduate students. Students could possibly work on aspects of translation, on creative writing projects, or on comparative projects also pertaining to the works of other writers.

BA-thesis in Comparative Literature

Survey of literary history, currents and themes in the 19th century. Russian literature in social and cultural context. Selected texts and works of major writers (such as Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov) will be read in Icelandic or English translation. 

The course is taught in Icelandic.

This course provides an introduction to the study of folk narrative as a particular genre within the overall field of folkloristics. Students will be introduced to the main theories concerning the origins, features and distribution of folk tales, their role in society, their collection, methods of classification and means of preservation. Among others, students will be introduced to the work of Antti Aarne, Inger M. Boberg, Bruno Bettleheim, Linda Dégh, Stith Thompson, Timothy Tangherlini and Alan Dundes. Particular attention will be laid to the main forms of oral narrative, particular attention being paid to the form and analysis of legends and fairy tales from the viewpoint of the main arguments concerning these aspects of study, among others the work of Algirdas Greimas, Bengt Holbek, Max Lüthi, Axel Olrik and Vladimir Propp.

The legend tradition will be examined in detail in this course, in the light of both earlier and more recent academic theory concerning this subject. The concentration will be placed on Icelandic legends, how they have come about, been passed from person to person, living and developing in the oral tradition. Particular attention will be paid to what these legends tell us about folk belief in Iceland. From this viewpoint, particular attention will be paid to memorats, their source value, and the degree to which the narrative tradition shapes new narratives. Close attention will also be paid to Icelandic migratory legends, their means of transmission, their distribution, and they way in which they have been shaped and influenced by local narrative traditions and beliefs. In this context, attention will also be drawn to individual legendary motifs, and research that has been undertaken into them. 

Both fixed and relative, lived and imagined, the North has been a reservoir of imaginary potential. In this potentiality, modern subjects -- local and distant -- might regenerate and reinvigorate. The North contains apparent contradictions: beautiful and terrifying, invigorating and deadly. The imagery of such an imagined and real north, read through history, folklore, literature, film, is the subject of this course. Comparative, interdisciplinary, and multi-sited, our investigations focus on the ways in which the construction of the North has been a contested field representing different agendas and offering divergent outcomes.

Teacher of the course: JoAnn Conrad

The course looks at how identities and images of Icelanders and other nations have been shaped and they use traditions in each case. We examine Icelandic experiences and images in relation to neighbouring countries and how narratives, traditions and material culture shape nations, from national museums to midwinter festivals in London, from a wee dram of whiskey (in Scotland) to Viking sagas (in Scandinavia), with a quick stop at Up Helly Aa (in the Shetland Islands) and Olavsvaka (in the Faroe Islands); we look at a fashion show in Nuuk Center (Greenland), Nordic settlements in the New World and then we’ll post it all on social media.

We explore films and music, festivals, games and political spectacles. In particular we will analyse how national images unite and divide different groups of people. In that context we look at men and women, rural and urban communities, mobile people, racism and gender. We’ll study these images as dynamics and ideals, resources and matters of dispute, that are used for various purposes by different people in different places, by demagogues and greens, government institutions and banks, scholars and students.

Discussion of various approaches to writing about literature and film (from research papers to reviews, polemical essays, and informal articles). Students will be trained in the various aspects of composition: locating and organizing material, using sources, building arguments, revising, and editing. This includes analyzing different critical discourses, as well as the implied reader and other relevant theoretical issues. This is a required course for students majoring in Comparative Literature and first-year students are urged to register for it.

Literary Methods & Concepts This is the introductory course and forms the basis for other courses in Comparative Literature. The aim is to acquaint the students with the main literary concepts and methodological foundations and to give them some experience in analysing texts. In addition to lectures there are small group discussion periods in connection with required essays. This course is to be taken during the first term.

This Course will undertake a study of Epics around the world, ancient, medieval, and modern. It will establish certain common themes and narrative strategies in an attempt to define the nature of the epic as a genre. In particular, it will focus the emphasis on war and civilizational definitions, the memorialization of cultural minutiae, and the valorizing of unique individual virtues and traits, which are seen as constituting a particular civilization at a unique point of time. The Course will chart the connections between the ancient epics and more modern ones, noting the differences and contextualizing them politically, culturally, and socially.

This seminar deals with the Nordic literature of modern times. The history of literature of Nordic countries will be told, spanning from the end of 19th century to today. Various texts and different literary genres will be read, among them novels, plays and poetry. Writers like Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Edith Södergran, Tove Ditlevsen, Inger Christensen, Jon Fosse and other contemporary authors will be read. Ideas and topics that have been prominent during modernism are analysed and placed in the context of the literary works. Works from all Nordic countries will be analysed. Works will be read both in Icelandic translation and in the original language as they should be easily accessible to students. Theoretical texts will be used as tools to analyse literary works and tendencies in Nordic literature of modern times, but could also be applied in broader perspective.

In this directed studies students can work on a specific project in connection to the course FRA434G French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment,

A survey of French literature in the 18th and 19th centuries. The course will examine the main literary trends of the period, i.e. the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Realism, as they appear in various literary forms; the novel, autobiography and poetry. Special attention will be paid to the great changes that occurred in this period in the wake of the revolution and industrialisation and its effect on the development of French literature. Among the authors are Voltaire, Rousseau, Stendhal, Balzac, Georges Sand, Flaubert, Rimbaud, and Baudelaire.

Fairy tales (Fr. conte féerique) have been an important part of French literature from the 12th century, as can be seen, for instance, in the Lays of Marie de France. In the late 17th century early modern audiences enjoyed the tales of Mme d‘Aulnoy, Charles Perrault, Mlle L‘Héritier de Villandon and many others, and shortly afterwards Antoine Galland published his translation of Thousand and one Night which further increased the interest in this literary genre. The story of the Beauty and the Beast by Mme de Villeneuve was published in 1740 and was one of the tales that were rewritten and adapted to children in Mme Leprince de Beaumont‘s Le Magasin des enfants, first published in London in 1756. In this course, fairy tales by various authors will be read and examined with regard to their social and cultural context (literary salons) and their characteristics. The main focus will be on fairy tales authored by women, collections, frame narratives and fairy tales in children‘s literature in the second half of the 18th century. Icelandic translations of French fairy tales will also be examined.

The course will be taught in Icelandic, with one weekly extra hour in French for the students of the Department of French Studies.

Students can also enroll in FRA505G Directed study: French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment 4e.

By reading a selection of various literary text an attempt will be made to give a survey covering more than two millennia of literature in Latin from ancient Rome to seventeenth-century Scandinavia. Texts will be read in Icelandic translation, if available.

An overview of Icelandic literary history from the beginning to the end of the 19th century. Novelties and changes in Icelandic literature will be placed in context with contemporary currents in European literature.

The aim of this survey course is to sample the literary history of the last four millennia by reading a number of world masterpieces from Africa, Asia and Europe. All texts will be read in Icelandic translations. 

An interdisciplinary and introductory course entailing a dialogue between the academic fields of the department, i.e. comparative literature, film studies, gender studies, art studies, linguistics, cultural studies, sign language and interpreting studies and translation studies. The latest international developments in the field of humanities will be examined and questions asked about the relationship of academic studies and our world view(s). We will analyse the semiotic system of language, inquiring whether it can serve as the basis for our understanding of other semiotic systems. We will ask about the connection and relationship between different languages and linguistic worlds. What is "multiculture"? How are spoken language, written language and visual language interconnected within society? What constitutes cultural literacy? Literature, art, film and other visual material will be examined in both a national and international context, with a view to how these semiotic systems influence the borderlines of gender, race, class, nation, and different world cultures. The study materials include theoretical and critical writings, literary works, visual art and images, and films, as well as some current media coverage. Evaluation is based on four assignments and a written exam.

From folktales to modern book series, the Western literary world has shown a fascination for those beings that inhabit the plains of the supernatural. This course explores a varied corpus of texts, from the Lais of Marie de France to Tolkien’s The Hobbit, and engages with them in light of their fantastical characters. Throughout the lessons, we will engage with major theoretical approaches to fairies, monsters, and dragons, and discover the roles that these beings have within and outside of literary works in the Western world.

This course entails a study of a number of literary works from recent years, in the Icelandic original or in translation, including works published in 2020. Contemporary currents will be discussed, with an emphasis on Icelandic literary culture, including its windows to the wider world. But we shall also ask what „literary culture“ is, and what „contemporary“ means and how it manifests itself in writing and in culture generally. How, from this perspective, do we understand tradition and innovation, originality and popularity – and what concepts and paradigms are prevalent in utterances about contemporary literature, both in scholarly and critical discourses and in the broader cultural environment? The course will be in „live“ connection with what is going on around it on the Icelandic literary scene, and writers/translators will pay a visit.

This Course will undertake a study of Epics around the world, ancient, medieval, and modern. It will establish certain common themes and narrative strategies in an attempt to define the nature of the epic as a genre. In particular, it will focus the emphasis on war and civilizational definitions, the memorialization of cultural minutiae, and the valorizing of unique individual virtues and traits, which are seen as constituting a particular civilization at a unique point of time. The Course will chart the connections between the ancient epics and more modern ones, noting the differences and contextualizing them politically, culturally, and socially.

This seminar deals with the Nordic literature of modern times. The history of literature of Nordic countries will be told, spanning from the end of 19th century to today. Various texts and different literary genres will be read, among them novels, plays and poetry. Writers like Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Edith Södergran, Tove Ditlevsen, Inger Christensen, Jon Fosse and other contemporary authors will be read. Ideas and topics that have been prominent during modernism are analysed and placed in the context of the literary works. Works from all Nordic countries will be analysed. Works will be read both in Icelandic translation and in the original language as they should be easily accessible to students. Theoretical texts will be used as tools to analyse literary works and tendencies in Nordic literature of modern times, but could also be applied in broader perspective.

In this directed studies students can work on a specific project in connection to the course FRA434G French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment,

A survey of French literature in the 18th and 19th centuries. The course will examine the main literary trends of the period, i.e. the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Realism, as they appear in various literary forms; the novel, autobiography and poetry. Special attention will be paid to the great changes that occurred in this period in the wake of the revolution and industrialisation and its effect on the development of French literature. Among the authors are Voltaire, Rousseau, Stendhal, Balzac, Georges Sand, Flaubert, Rimbaud, and Baudelaire.

Fairy tales (Fr. conte féerique) have been an important part of French literature from the 12th century, as can be seen, for instance, in the Lays of Marie de France. In the late 17th century early modern audiences enjoyed the tales of Mme d‘Aulnoy, Charles Perrault, Mlle L‘Héritier de Villandon and many others, and shortly afterwards Antoine Galland published his translation of Thousand and one Night which further increased the interest in this literary genre. The story of the Beauty and the Beast by Mme de Villeneuve was published in 1740 and was one of the tales that were rewritten and adapted to children in Mme Leprince de Beaumont‘s Le Magasin des enfants, first published in London in 1756. In this course, fairy tales by various authors will be read and examined with regard to their social and cultural context (literary salons) and their characteristics. The main focus will be on fairy tales authored by women, collections, frame narratives and fairy tales in children‘s literature in the second half of the 18th century. Icelandic translations of French fairy tales will also be examined.

The course will be taught in Icelandic, with one weekly extra hour in French for the students of the Department of French Studies.

Students can also enroll in FRA505G Directed study: French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment 4e.

Historical overview of the development of literary theory. The main emphasis is on twentieth and twenty-first century trends and methods. In addition to lectures there are small group discussion periods.

By reading a selection of various literary text an attempt will be made to give a survey covering more than two millennia of literature in Latin from ancient Rome to seventeenth-century Scandinavia. Texts will be read in Icelandic translation, if available.

An overview of Icelandic literary history from the beginning to the end of the 19th century. Novelties and changes in Icelandic literature will be placed in context with contemporary currents in European literature.

From folktales to modern book series, the Western literary world has shown a fascination for those beings that inhabit the plains of the supernatural. This course explores a varied corpus of texts, from the Lais of Marie de France to Tolkien’s The Hobbit, and engages with them in light of their fantastical characters. Throughout the lessons, we will engage with major theoretical approaches to fairies, monsters, and dragons, and discover the roles that these beings have within and outside of literary works in the Western world.

This course entails a study of a number of literary works from recent years, in the Icelandic original or in translation, including works published in 2020. Contemporary currents will be discussed, with an emphasis on Icelandic literary culture, including its windows to the wider world. But we shall also ask what „literary culture“ is, and what „contemporary“ means and how it manifests itself in writing and in culture generally. How, from this perspective, do we understand tradition and innovation, originality and popularity – and what concepts and paradigms are prevalent in utterances about contemporary literature, both in scholarly and critical discourses and in the broader cultural environment? The course will be in „live“ connection with what is going on around it on the Icelandic literary scene, and writers/translators will pay a visit.

Franz Kafka is among the best-known modern writers of the Western world. His oeuvre is often thought to be cryptic and hard to interpret, and yet many seem to think that it home to a very distinct meaning which can be summarized with the attribute “Kafkaesque”. Some claim that he stages mankind in dark times; others find humour and comic elements to be prominent in his texts. The course will tackle these paradoxes by exploring Kafka´s narrative world from various angles and in all its variety. Narrative kernels will be pursued in his aphorisms and they will also be traced in his diaries and letters, his microfiction, short stories, novellas, and novels. Kafka’s writing invites diverse explorations of the connections and differences between these different genres of expression.

These works will be contemplated vis-à-vis 20th Century narrative conventions and modernist ruptures, with an emphasis on questions about existential issues, freedom, power, and modern societal manifestations. The challenges of transporting the characteristics of Kafka´s writing between languages will also be of concern, for most readers of Kafka get to know his work in translation. This course is aimed at both graduate and advanced undergraduate students. Students could possibly work on aspects of translation, on creative writing projects, or on comparative projects also pertaining to the works of other writers.

This Course will undertake a study of Epics around the world, ancient, medieval, and modern. It will establish certain common themes and narrative strategies in an attempt to define the nature of the epic as a genre. In particular, it will focus the emphasis on war and civilizational definitions, the memorialization of cultural minutiae, and the valorizing of unique individual virtues and traits, which are seen as constituting a particular civilization at a unique point of time. The Course will chart the connections between the ancient epics and more modern ones, noting the differences and contextualizing them politically, culturally, and socially.

This seminar deals with the Nordic literature of modern times. The history of literature of Nordic countries will be told, spanning from the end of 19th century to today. Various texts and different literary genres will be read, among them novels, plays and poetry. Writers like Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Edith Södergran, Tove Ditlevsen, Inger Christensen, Jon Fosse and other contemporary authors will be read. Ideas and topics that have been prominent during modernism are analysed and placed in the context of the literary works. Works from all Nordic countries will be analysed. Works will be read both in Icelandic translation and in the original language as they should be easily accessible to students. Theoretical texts will be used as tools to analyse literary works and tendencies in Nordic literature of modern times, but could also be applied in broader perspective.

In this directed studies students can work on a specific project in connection to the course FRA434G French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment,

A survey of French literature in the 18th and 19th centuries. The course will examine the main literary trends of the period, i.e. the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Realism, as they appear in various literary forms; the novel, autobiography and poetry. Special attention will be paid to the great changes that occurred in this period in the wake of the revolution and industrialisation and its effect on the development of French literature. Among the authors are Voltaire, Rousseau, Stendhal, Balzac, Georges Sand, Flaubert, Rimbaud, and Baudelaire.

Fairy tales (Fr. conte féerique) have been an important part of French literature from the 12th century, as can be seen, for instance, in the Lays of Marie de France. In the late 17th century early modern audiences enjoyed the tales of Mme d‘Aulnoy, Charles Perrault, Mlle L‘Héritier de Villandon and many others, and shortly afterwards Antoine Galland published his translation of Thousand and one Night which further increased the interest in this literary genre. The story of the Beauty and the Beast by Mme de Villeneuve was published in 1740 and was one of the tales that were rewritten and adapted to children in Mme Leprince de Beaumont‘s Le Magasin des enfants, first published in London in 1756. In this course, fairy tales by various authors will be read and examined with regard to their social and cultural context (literary salons) and their characteristics. The main focus will be on fairy tales authored by women, collections, frame narratives and fairy tales in children‘s literature in the second half of the 18th century. Icelandic translations of French fairy tales will also be examined.

The course will be taught in Icelandic, with one weekly extra hour in French for the students of the Department of French Studies.

Students can also enroll in FRA505G Directed study: French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment 4e.

BA-thesis in Comparative Literature

By reading a selection of various literary text an attempt will be made to give a survey covering more than two millennia of literature in Latin from ancient Rome to seventeenth-century Scandinavia. Texts will be read in Icelandic translation, if available.

An overview of Icelandic literary history from the beginning to the end of the 19th century. Novelties and changes in Icelandic literature will be placed in context with contemporary currents in European literature.

From folktales to modern book series, the Western literary world has shown a fascination for those beings that inhabit the plains of the supernatural. This course explores a varied corpus of texts, from the Lais of Marie de France to Tolkien’s The Hobbit, and engages with them in light of their fantastical characters. Throughout the lessons, we will engage with major theoretical approaches to fairies, monsters, and dragons, and discover the roles that these beings have within and outside of literary works in the Western world.

This course entails a study of a number of literary works from recent years, in the Icelandic original or in translation, including works published in 2020. Contemporary currents will be discussed, with an emphasis on Icelandic literary culture, including its windows to the wider world. But we shall also ask what „literary culture“ is, and what „contemporary“ means and how it manifests itself in writing and in culture generally. How, from this perspective, do we understand tradition and innovation, originality and popularity – and what concepts and paradigms are prevalent in utterances about contemporary literature, both in scholarly and critical discourses and in the broader cultural environment? The course will be in „live“ connection with what is going on around it on the Icelandic literary scene, and writers/translators will pay a visit.

Franz Kafka is among the best-known modern writers of the Western world. His oeuvre is often thought to be cryptic and hard to interpret, and yet many seem to think that it home to a very distinct meaning which can be summarized with the attribute “Kafkaesque”. Some claim that he stages mankind in dark times; others find humour and comic elements to be prominent in his texts. The course will tackle these paradoxes by exploring Kafka´s narrative world from various angles and in all its variety. Narrative kernels will be pursued in his aphorisms and they will also be traced in his diaries and letters, his microfiction, short stories, novellas, and novels. Kafka’s writing invites diverse explorations of the connections and differences between these different genres of expression.

These works will be contemplated vis-à-vis 20th Century narrative conventions and modernist ruptures, with an emphasis on questions about existential issues, freedom, power, and modern societal manifestations. The challenges of transporting the characteristics of Kafka´s writing between languages will also be of concern, for most readers of Kafka get to know his work in translation. This course is aimed at both graduate and advanced undergraduate students. Students could possibly work on aspects of translation, on creative writing projects, or on comparative projects also pertaining to the works of other writers.

BA-thesis in Comparative Literature

Survey of literary history, currents and themes in the 19th century. Russian literature in social and cultural context. Selected texts and works of major writers (such as Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov) will be read in Icelandic or English translation. 

The course is taught in Icelandic.

This course provides an introduction to the study of folk narrative as a particular genre within the overall field of folkloristics. Students will be introduced to the main theories concerning the origins, features and distribution of folk tales, their role in society, their collection, methods of classification and means of preservation. Among others, students will be introduced to the work of Antti Aarne, Inger M. Boberg, Bruno Bettleheim, Linda Dégh, Stith Thompson, Timothy Tangherlini and Alan Dundes. Particular attention will be laid to the main forms of oral narrative, particular attention being paid to the form and analysis of legends and fairy tales from the viewpoint of the main arguments concerning these aspects of study, among others the work of Algirdas Greimas, Bengt Holbek, Max Lüthi, Axel Olrik and Vladimir Propp.

The legend tradition will be examined in detail in this course, in the light of both earlier and more recent academic theory concerning this subject. The concentration will be placed on Icelandic legends, how they have come about, been passed from person to person, living and developing in the oral tradition. Particular attention will be paid to what these legends tell us about folk belief in Iceland. From this viewpoint, particular attention will be paid to memorats, their source value, and the degree to which the narrative tradition shapes new narratives. Close attention will also be paid to Icelandic migratory legends, their means of transmission, their distribution, and they way in which they have been shaped and influenced by local narrative traditions and beliefs. In this context, attention will also be drawn to individual legendary motifs, and research that has been undertaken into them. 

Both fixed and relative, lived and imagined, the North has been a reservoir of imaginary potential. In this potentiality, modern subjects -- local and distant -- might regenerate and reinvigorate. The North contains apparent contradictions: beautiful and terrifying, invigorating and deadly. The imagery of such an imagined and real north, read through history, folklore, literature, film, is the subject of this course. Comparative, interdisciplinary, and multi-sited, our investigations focus on the ways in which the construction of the North has been a contested field representing different agendas and offering divergent outcomes.

Teacher of the course: JoAnn Conrad

The course looks at how identities and images of Icelanders and other nations have been shaped and they use traditions in each case. We examine Icelandic experiences and images in relation to neighbouring countries and how narratives, traditions and material culture shape nations, from national museums to midwinter festivals in London, from a wee dram of whiskey (in Scotland) to Viking sagas (in Scandinavia), with a quick stop at Up Helly Aa (in the Shetland Islands) and Olavsvaka (in the Faroe Islands); we look at a fashion show in Nuuk Center (Greenland), Nordic settlements in the New World and then we’ll post it all on social media.

We explore films and music, festivals, games and political spectacles. In particular we will analyse how national images unite and divide different groups of people. In that context we look at men and women, rural and urban communities, mobile people, racism and gender. We’ll study these images as dynamics and ideals, resources and matters of dispute, that are used for various purposes by different people in different places, by demagogues and greens, government institutions and banks, scholars and students.

Discussion of various approaches to writing about literature and film (from research papers to reviews, polemical essays, and informal articles). Students will be trained in the various aspects of composition: locating and organizing material, using sources, building arguments, revising, and editing. This includes analyzing different critical discourses, as well as the implied reader and other relevant theoretical issues. This is a required course for students majoring in Comparative Literature and first-year students are urged to register for it.

Literary Methods & Concepts This is the introductory course and forms the basis for other courses in Comparative Literature. The aim is to acquaint the students with the main literary concepts and methodological foundations and to give them some experience in analysing texts. In addition to lectures there are small group discussion periods in connection with required essays. This course is to be taken during the first term.

This Course will undertake a study of Epics around the world, ancient, medieval, and modern. It will establish certain common themes and narrative strategies in an attempt to define the nature of the epic as a genre. In particular, it will focus the emphasis on war and civilizational definitions, the memorialization of cultural minutiae, and the valorizing of unique individual virtues and traits, which are seen as constituting a particular civilization at a unique point of time. The Course will chart the connections between the ancient epics and more modern ones, noting the differences and contextualizing them politically, culturally, and socially.

This seminar deals with the Nordic literature of modern times. The history of literature of Nordic countries will be told, spanning from the end of 19th century to today. Various texts and different literary genres will be read, among them novels, plays and poetry. Writers like Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Edith Södergran, Tove Ditlevsen, Inger Christensen, Jon Fosse and other contemporary authors will be read. Ideas and topics that have been prominent during modernism are analysed and placed in the context of the literary works. Works from all Nordic countries will be analysed. Works will be read both in Icelandic translation and in the original language as they should be easily accessible to students. Theoretical texts will be used as tools to analyse literary works and tendencies in Nordic literature of modern times, but could also be applied in broader perspective.

In this directed studies students can work on a specific project in connection to the course FRA434G French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment,

A survey of French literature in the 18th and 19th centuries. The course will examine the main literary trends of the period, i.e. the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Realism, as they appear in various literary forms; the novel, autobiography and poetry. Special attention will be paid to the great changes that occurred in this period in the wake of the revolution and industrialisation and its effect on the development of French literature. Among the authors are Voltaire, Rousseau, Stendhal, Balzac, Georges Sand, Flaubert, Rimbaud, and Baudelaire.

Fairy tales (Fr. conte féerique) have been an important part of French literature from the 12th century, as can be seen, for instance, in the Lays of Marie de France. In the late 17th century early modern audiences enjoyed the tales of Mme d‘Aulnoy, Charles Perrault, Mlle L‘Héritier de Villandon and many others, and shortly afterwards Antoine Galland published his translation of Thousand and one Night which further increased the interest in this literary genre. The story of the Beauty and the Beast by Mme de Villeneuve was published in 1740 and was one of the tales that were rewritten and adapted to children in Mme Leprince de Beaumont‘s Le Magasin des enfants, first published in London in 1756. In this course, fairy tales by various authors will be read and examined with regard to their social and cultural context (literary salons) and their characteristics. The main focus will be on fairy tales authored by women, collections, frame narratives and fairy tales in children‘s literature in the second half of the 18th century. Icelandic translations of French fairy tales will also be examined.

The course will be taught in Icelandic, with one weekly extra hour in French for the students of the Department of French Studies.

Students can also enroll in FRA505G Directed study: French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment 4e.

By reading a selection of various literary text an attempt will be made to give a survey covering more than two millennia of literature in Latin from ancient Rome to seventeenth-century Scandinavia. Texts will be read in Icelandic translation, if available.

An overview of Icelandic literary history from the beginning to the end of the 19th century. Novelties and changes in Icelandic literature will be placed in context with contemporary currents in European literature.

The aim of this survey course is to sample the literary history of the last four millennia by reading a number of world masterpieces from Africa, Asia and Europe. All texts will be read in Icelandic translations. 

An interdisciplinary and introductory course entailing a dialogue between the academic fields of the department, i.e. comparative literature, film studies, gender studies, art studies, linguistics, cultural studies, sign language and interpreting studies and translation studies. The latest international developments in the field of humanities will be examined and questions asked about the relationship of academic studies and our world view(s). We will analyse the semiotic system of language, inquiring whether it can serve as the basis for our understanding of other semiotic systems. We will ask about the connection and relationship between different languages and linguistic worlds. What is "multiculture"? How are spoken language, written language and visual language interconnected within society? What constitutes cultural literacy? Literature, art, film and other visual material will be examined in both a national and international context, with a view to how these semiotic systems influence the borderlines of gender, race, class, nation, and different world cultures. The study materials include theoretical and critical writings, literary works, visual art and images, and films, as well as some current media coverage. Evaluation is based on four assignments and a written exam.

From folktales to modern book series, the Western literary world has shown a fascination for those beings that inhabit the plains of the supernatural. This course explores a varied corpus of texts, from the Lais of Marie de France to Tolkien’s The Hobbit, and engages with them in light of their fantastical characters. Throughout the lessons, we will engage with major theoretical approaches to fairies, monsters, and dragons, and discover the roles that these beings have within and outside of literary works in the Western world.

This course entails a study of a number of literary works from recent years, in the Icelandic original or in translation, including works published in 2020. Contemporary currents will be discussed, with an emphasis on Icelandic literary culture, including its windows to the wider world. But we shall also ask what „literary culture“ is, and what „contemporary“ means and how it manifests itself in writing and in culture generally. How, from this perspective, do we understand tradition and innovation, originality and popularity – and what concepts and paradigms are prevalent in utterances about contemporary literature, both in scholarly and critical discourses and in the broader cultural environment? The course will be in „live“ connection with what is going on around it on the Icelandic literary scene, and writers/translators will pay a visit.

This Course will undertake a study of Epics around the world, ancient, medieval, and modern. It will establish certain common themes and narrative strategies in an attempt to define the nature of the epic as a genre. In particular, it will focus the emphasis on war and civilizational definitions, the memorialization of cultural minutiae, and the valorizing of unique individual virtues and traits, which are seen as constituting a particular civilization at a unique point of time. The Course will chart the connections between the ancient epics and more modern ones, noting the differences and contextualizing them politically, culturally, and socially.

This seminar deals with the Nordic literature of modern times. The history of literature of Nordic countries will be told, spanning from the end of 19th century to today. Various texts and different literary genres will be read, among them novels, plays and poetry. Writers like Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Edith Södergran, Tove Ditlevsen, Inger Christensen, Jon Fosse and other contemporary authors will be read. Ideas and topics that have been prominent during modernism are analysed and placed in the context of the literary works. Works from all Nordic countries will be analysed. Works will be read both in Icelandic translation and in the original language as they should be easily accessible to students. Theoretical texts will be used as tools to analyse literary works and tendencies in Nordic literature of modern times, but could also be applied in broader perspective.

In this directed studies students can work on a specific project in connection to the course FRA434G French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment,

A survey of French literature in the 18th and 19th centuries. The course will examine the main literary trends of the period, i.e. the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Realism, as they appear in various literary forms; the novel, autobiography and poetry. Special attention will be paid to the great changes that occurred in this period in the wake of the revolution and industrialisation and its effect on the development of French literature. Among the authors are Voltaire, Rousseau, Stendhal, Balzac, Georges Sand, Flaubert, Rimbaud, and Baudelaire.

Fairy tales (Fr. conte féerique) have been an important part of French literature from the 12th century, as can be seen, for instance, in the Lays of Marie de France. In the late 17th century early modern audiences enjoyed the tales of Mme d‘Aulnoy, Charles Perrault, Mlle L‘Héritier de Villandon and many others, and shortly afterwards Antoine Galland published his translation of Thousand and one Night which further increased the interest in this literary genre. The story of the Beauty and the Beast by Mme de Villeneuve was published in 1740 and was one of the tales that were rewritten and adapted to children in Mme Leprince de Beaumont‘s Le Magasin des enfants, first published in London in 1756. In this course, fairy tales by various authors will be read and examined with regard to their social and cultural context (literary salons) and their characteristics. The main focus will be on fairy tales authored by women, collections, frame narratives and fairy tales in children‘s literature in the second half of the 18th century. Icelandic translations of French fairy tales will also be examined.

The course will be taught in Icelandic, with one weekly extra hour in French for the students of the Department of French Studies.

Students can also enroll in FRA505G Directed study: French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment 4e.

Historical overview of the development of literary theory. The main emphasis is on twentieth and twenty-first century trends and methods. In addition to lectures there are small group discussion periods.

By reading a selection of various literary text an attempt will be made to give a survey covering more than two millennia of literature in Latin from ancient Rome to seventeenth-century Scandinavia. Texts will be read in Icelandic translation, if available.

An overview of Icelandic literary history from the beginning to the end of the 19th century. Novelties and changes in Icelandic literature will be placed in context with contemporary currents in European literature.

From folktales to modern book series, the Western literary world has shown a fascination for those beings that inhabit the plains of the supernatural. This course explores a varied corpus of texts, from the Lais of Marie de France to Tolkien’s The Hobbit, and engages with them in light of their fantastical characters. Throughout the lessons, we will engage with major theoretical approaches to fairies, monsters, and dragons, and discover the roles that these beings have within and outside of literary works in the Western world.

This course entails a study of a number of literary works from recent years, in the Icelandic original or in translation, including works published in 2020. Contemporary currents will be discussed, with an emphasis on Icelandic literary culture, including its windows to the wider world. But we shall also ask what „literary culture“ is, and what „contemporary“ means and how it manifests itself in writing and in culture generally. How, from this perspective, do we understand tradition and innovation, originality and popularity – and what concepts and paradigms are prevalent in utterances about contemporary literature, both in scholarly and critical discourses and in the broader cultural environment? The course will be in „live“ connection with what is going on around it on the Icelandic literary scene, and writers/translators will pay a visit.

Franz Kafka is among the best-known modern writers of the Western world. His oeuvre is often thought to be cryptic and hard to interpret, and yet many seem to think that it home to a very distinct meaning which can be summarized with the attribute “Kafkaesque”. Some claim that he stages mankind in dark times; others find humour and comic elements to be prominent in his texts. The course will tackle these paradoxes by exploring Kafka´s narrative world from various angles and in all its variety. Narrative kernels will be pursued in his aphorisms and they will also be traced in his diaries and letters, his microfiction, short stories, novellas, and novels. Kafka’s writing invites diverse explorations of the connections and differences between these different genres of expression.

These works will be contemplated vis-à-vis 20th Century narrative conventions and modernist ruptures, with an emphasis on questions about existential issues, freedom, power, and modern societal manifestations. The challenges of transporting the characteristics of Kafka´s writing between languages will also be of concern, for most readers of Kafka get to know his work in translation. This course is aimed at both graduate and advanced undergraduate students. Students could possibly work on aspects of translation, on creative writing projects, or on comparative projects also pertaining to the works of other writers.

This Course will undertake a study of Epics around the world, ancient, medieval, and modern. It will establish certain common themes and narrative strategies in an attempt to define the nature of the epic as a genre. In particular, it will focus the emphasis on war and civilizational definitions, the memorialization of cultural minutiae, and the valorizing of unique individual virtues and traits, which are seen as constituting a particular civilization at a unique point of time. The Course will chart the connections between the ancient epics and more modern ones, noting the differences and contextualizing them politically, culturally, and socially.

This seminar deals with the Nordic literature of modern times. The history of literature of Nordic countries will be told, spanning from the end of 19th century to today. Various texts and different literary genres will be read, among them novels, plays and poetry. Writers like Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Edith Södergran, Tove Ditlevsen, Inger Christensen, Jon Fosse and other contemporary authors will be read. Ideas and topics that have been prominent during modernism are analysed and placed in the context of the literary works. Works from all Nordic countries will be analysed. Works will be read both in Icelandic translation and in the original language as they should be easily accessible to students. Theoretical texts will be used as tools to analyse literary works and tendencies in Nordic literature of modern times, but could also be applied in broader perspective.

In this directed studies students can work on a specific project in connection to the course FRA434G French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment,

A survey of French literature in the 18th and 19th centuries. The course will examine the main literary trends of the period, i.e. the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Realism, as they appear in various literary forms; the novel, autobiography and poetry. Special attention will be paid to the great changes that occurred in this period in the wake of the revolution and industrialisation and its effect on the development of French literature. Among the authors are Voltaire, Rousseau, Stendhal, Balzac, Georges Sand, Flaubert, Rimbaud, and Baudelaire.

Fairy tales (Fr. conte féerique) have been an important part of French literature from the 12th century, as can be seen, for instance, in the Lays of Marie de France. In the late 17th century early modern audiences enjoyed the tales of Mme d‘Aulnoy, Charles Perrault, Mlle L‘Héritier de Villandon and many others, and shortly afterwards Antoine Galland published his translation of Thousand and one Night which further increased the interest in this literary genre. The story of the Beauty and the Beast by Mme de Villeneuve was published in 1740 and was one of the tales that were rewritten and adapted to children in Mme Leprince de Beaumont‘s Le Magasin des enfants, first published in London in 1756. In this course, fairy tales by various authors will be read and examined with regard to their social and cultural context (literary salons) and their characteristics. The main focus will be on fairy tales authored by women, collections, frame narratives and fairy tales in children‘s literature in the second half of the 18th century. Icelandic translations of French fairy tales will also be examined.

The course will be taught in Icelandic, with one weekly extra hour in French for the students of the Department of French Studies.

Students can also enroll in FRA505G Directed study: French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment 4e.

BA-thesis in Comparative Literature

By reading a selection of various literary text an attempt will be made to give a survey covering more than two millennia of literature in Latin from ancient Rome to seventeenth-century Scandinavia. Texts will be read in Icelandic translation, if available.

An overview of Icelandic literary history from the beginning to the end of the 19th century. Novelties and changes in Icelandic literature will be placed in context with contemporary currents in European literature.

From folktales to modern book series, the Western literary world has shown a fascination for those beings that inhabit the plains of the supernatural. This course explores a varied corpus of texts, from the Lais of Marie de France to Tolkien’s The Hobbit, and engages with them in light of their fantastical characters. Throughout the lessons, we will engage with major theoretical approaches to fairies, monsters, and dragons, and discover the roles that these beings have within and outside of literary works in the Western world.

This course entails a study of a number of literary works from recent years, in the Icelandic original or in translation, including works published in 2020. Contemporary currents will be discussed, with an emphasis on Icelandic literary culture, including its windows to the wider world. But we shall also ask what „literary culture“ is, and what „contemporary“ means and how it manifests itself in writing and in culture generally. How, from this perspective, do we understand tradition and innovation, originality and popularity – and what concepts and paradigms are prevalent in utterances about contemporary literature, both in scholarly and critical discourses and in the broader cultural environment? The course will be in „live“ connection with what is going on around it on the Icelandic literary scene, and writers/translators will pay a visit.

Franz Kafka is among the best-known modern writers of the Western world. His oeuvre is often thought to be cryptic and hard to interpret, and yet many seem to think that it home to a very distinct meaning which can be summarized with the attribute “Kafkaesque”. Some claim that he stages mankind in dark times; others find humour and comic elements to be prominent in his texts. The course will tackle these paradoxes by exploring Kafka´s narrative world from various angles and in all its variety. Narrative kernels will be pursued in his aphorisms and they will also be traced in his diaries and letters, his microfiction, short stories, novellas, and novels. Kafka’s writing invites diverse explorations of the connections and differences between these different genres of expression.

These works will be contemplated vis-à-vis 20th Century narrative conventions and modernist ruptures, with an emphasis on questions about existential issues, freedom, power, and modern societal manifestations. The challenges of transporting the characteristics of Kafka´s writing between languages will also be of concern, for most readers of Kafka get to know his work in translation. This course is aimed at both graduate and advanced undergraduate students. Students could possibly work on aspects of translation, on creative writing projects, or on comparative projects also pertaining to the works of other writers.

BA-thesis in Comparative Literature

Survey of literary history, currents and themes in the 19th century. Russian literature in social and cultural context. Selected texts and works of major writers (such as Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov) will be read in Icelandic or English translation. 

The course is taught in Icelandic.

This course provides an introduction to the study of folk narrative as a particular genre within the overall field of folkloristics. Students will be introduced to the main theories concerning the origins, features and distribution of folk tales, their role in society, their collection, methods of classification and means of preservation. Among others, students will be introduced to the work of Antti Aarne, Inger M. Boberg, Bruno Bettleheim, Linda Dégh, Stith Thompson, Timothy Tangherlini and Alan Dundes. Particular attention will be laid to the main forms of oral narrative, particular attention being paid to the form and analysis of legends and fairy tales from the viewpoint of the main arguments concerning these aspects of study, among others the work of Algirdas Greimas, Bengt Holbek, Max Lüthi, Axel Olrik and Vladimir Propp.

The legend tradition will be examined in detail in this course, in the light of both earlier and more recent academic theory concerning this subject. The concentration will be placed on Icelandic legends, how they have come about, been passed from person to person, living and developing in the oral tradition. Particular attention will be paid to what these legends tell us about folk belief in Iceland. From this viewpoint, particular attention will be paid to memorats, their source value, and the degree to which the narrative tradition shapes new narratives. Close attention will also be paid to Icelandic migratory legends, their means of transmission, their distribution, and they way in which they have been shaped and influenced by local narrative traditions and beliefs. In this context, attention will also be drawn to individual legendary motifs, and research that has been undertaken into them. 

Both fixed and relative, lived and imagined, the North has been a reservoir of imaginary potential. In this potentiality, modern subjects -- local and distant -- might regenerate and reinvigorate. The North contains apparent contradictions: beautiful and terrifying, invigorating and deadly. The imagery of such an imagined and real north, read through history, folklore, literature, film, is the subject of this course. Comparative, interdisciplinary, and multi-sited, our investigations focus on the ways in which the construction of the North has been a contested field representing different agendas and offering divergent outcomes.

Teacher of the course: JoAnn Conrad

The course looks at how identities and images of Icelanders and other nations have been shaped and they use traditions in each case. We examine Icelandic experiences and images in relation to neighbouring countries and how narratives, traditions and material culture shape nations, from national museums to midwinter festivals in London, from a wee dram of whiskey (in Scotland) to Viking sagas (in Scandinavia), with a quick stop at Up Helly Aa (in the Shetland Islands) and Olavsvaka (in the Faroe Islands); we look at a fashion show in Nuuk Center (Greenland), Nordic settlements in the New World and then we’ll post it all on social media.

We explore films and music, festivals, games and political spectacles. In particular we will analyse how national images unite and divide different groups of people. In that context we look at men and women, rural and urban communities, mobile people, racism and gender. We’ll study these images as dynamics and ideals, resources and matters of dispute, that are used for various purposes by different people in different places, by demagogues and greens, government institutions and banks, scholars and students.

Discussion of various approaches to writing about literature and film (from research papers to reviews, polemical essays, and informal articles). Students will be trained in the various aspects of composition: locating and organizing material, using sources, building arguments, revising, and editing. This includes analyzing different critical discourses, as well as the implied reader and other relevant theoretical issues. This is a required course for students majoring in Comparative Literature and first-year students are urged to register for it.

Literary Methods & Concepts This is the introductory course and forms the basis for other courses in Comparative Literature. The aim is to acquaint the students with the main literary concepts and methodological foundations and to give them some experience in analysing texts. In addition to lectures there are small group discussion periods in connection with required essays. This course is to be taken during the first term.

This Course will undertake a study of Epics around the world, ancient, medieval, and modern. It will establish certain common themes and narrative strategies in an attempt to define the nature of the epic as a genre. In particular, it will focus the emphasis on war and civilizational definitions, the memorialization of cultural minutiae, and the valorizing of unique individual virtues and traits, which are seen as constituting a particular civilization at a unique point of time. The Course will chart the connections between the ancient epics and more modern ones, noting the differences and contextualizing them politically, culturally, and socially.

This seminar deals with the Nordic literature of modern times. The history of literature of Nordic countries will be told, spanning from the end of 19th century to today. Various texts and different literary genres will be read, among them novels, plays and poetry. Writers like Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Edith Södergran, Tove Ditlevsen, Inger Christensen, Jon Fosse and other contemporary authors will be read. Ideas and topics that have been prominent during modernism are analysed and placed in the context of the literary works. Works from all Nordic countries will be analysed. Works will be read both in Icelandic translation and in the original language as they should be easily accessible to students. Theoretical texts will be used as tools to analyse literary works and tendencies in Nordic literature of modern times, but could also be applied in broader perspective.

In this directed studies students can work on a specific project in connection to the course FRA434G French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment,

A survey of French literature in the 18th and 19th centuries. The course will examine the main literary trends of the period, i.e. the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Realism, as they appear in various literary forms; the novel, autobiography and poetry. Special attention will be paid to the great changes that occurred in this period in the wake of the revolution and industrialisation and its effect on the development of French literature. Among the authors are Voltaire, Rousseau, Stendhal, Balzac, Georges Sand, Flaubert, Rimbaud, and Baudelaire.

Fairy tales (Fr. conte féerique) have been an important part of French literature from the 12th century, as can be seen, for instance, in the Lays of Marie de France. In the late 17th century early modern audiences enjoyed the tales of Mme d‘Aulnoy, Charles Perrault, Mlle L‘Héritier de Villandon and many others, and shortly afterwards Antoine Galland published his translation of Thousand and one Night which further increased the interest in this literary genre. The story of the Beauty and the Beast by Mme de Villeneuve was published in 1740 and was one of the tales that were rewritten and adapted to children in Mme Leprince de Beaumont‘s Le Magasin des enfants, first published in London in 1756. In this course, fairy tales by various authors will be read and examined with regard to their social and cultural context (literary salons) and their characteristics. The main focus will be on fairy tales authored by women, collections, frame narratives and fairy tales in children‘s literature in the second half of the 18th century. Icelandic translations of French fairy tales will also be examined.

The course will be taught in Icelandic, with one weekly extra hour in French for the students of the Department of French Studies.

Students can also enroll in FRA505G Directed study: French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment 4e.

By reading a selection of various literary text an attempt will be made to give a survey covering more than two millennia of literature in Latin from ancient Rome to seventeenth-century Scandinavia. Texts will be read in Icelandic translation, if available.

An overview of Icelandic literary history from the beginning to the end of the 19th century. Novelties and changes in Icelandic literature will be placed in context with contemporary currents in European literature.

The aim of this survey course is to sample the literary history of the last four millennia by reading a number of world masterpieces from Africa, Asia and Europe. All texts will be read in Icelandic translations. 

An interdisciplinary and introductory course entailing a dialogue between the academic fields of the department, i.e. comparative literature, film studies, gender studies, art studies, linguistics, cultural studies, sign language and interpreting studies and translation studies. The latest international developments in the field of humanities will be examined and questions asked about the relationship of academic studies and our world view(s). We will analyse the semiotic system of language, inquiring whether it can serve as the basis for our understanding of other semiotic systems. We will ask about the connection and relationship between different languages and linguistic worlds. What is "multiculture"? How are spoken language, written language and visual language interconnected within society? What constitutes cultural literacy? Literature, art, film and other visual material will be examined in both a national and international context, with a view to how these semiotic systems influence the borderlines of gender, race, class, nation, and different world cultures. The study materials include theoretical and critical writings, literary works, visual art and images, and films, as well as some current media coverage. Evaluation is based on four assignments and a written exam.

From folktales to modern book series, the Western literary world has shown a fascination for those beings that inhabit the plains of the supernatural. This course explores a varied corpus of texts, from the Lais of Marie de France to Tolkien’s The Hobbit, and engages with them in light of their fantastical characters. Throughout the lessons, we will engage with major theoretical approaches to fairies, monsters, and dragons, and discover the roles that these beings have within and outside of literary works in the Western world.

This course entails a study of a number of literary works from recent years, in the Icelandic original or in translation, including works published in 2020. Contemporary currents will be discussed, with an emphasis on Icelandic literary culture, including its windows to the wider world. But we shall also ask what „literary culture“ is, and what „contemporary“ means and how it manifests itself in writing and in culture generally. How, from this perspective, do we understand tradition and innovation, originality and popularity – and what concepts and paradigms are prevalent in utterances about contemporary literature, both in scholarly and critical discourses and in the broader cultural environment? The course will be in „live“ connection with what is going on around it on the Icelandic literary scene, and writers/translators will pay a visit.

This Course will undertake a study of Epics around the world, ancient, medieval, and modern. It will establish certain common themes and narrative strategies in an attempt to define the nature of the epic as a genre. In particular, it will focus the emphasis on war and civilizational definitions, the memorialization of cultural minutiae, and the valorizing of unique individual virtues and traits, which are seen as constituting a particular civilization at a unique point of time. The Course will chart the connections between the ancient epics and more modern ones, noting the differences and contextualizing them politically, culturally, and socially.

This seminar deals with the Nordic literature of modern times. The history of literature of Nordic countries will be told, spanning from the end of 19th century to today. Various texts and different literary genres will be read, among them novels, plays and poetry. Writers like Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Edith Södergran, Tove Ditlevsen, Inger Christensen, Jon Fosse and other contemporary authors will be read. Ideas and topics that have been prominent during modernism are analysed and placed in the context of the literary works. Works from all Nordic countries will be analysed. Works will be read both in Icelandic translation and in the original language as they should be easily accessible to students. Theoretical texts will be used as tools to analyse literary works and tendencies in Nordic literature of modern times, but could also be applied in broader perspective.

In this directed studies students can work on a specific project in connection to the course FRA434G French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment,

A survey of French literature in the 18th and 19th centuries. The course will examine the main literary trends of the period, i.e. the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Realism, as they appear in various literary forms; the novel, autobiography and poetry. Special attention will be paid to the great changes that occurred in this period in the wake of the revolution and industrialisation and its effect on the development of French literature. Among the authors are Voltaire, Rousseau, Stendhal, Balzac, Georges Sand, Flaubert, Rimbaud, and Baudelaire.

Fairy tales (Fr. conte féerique) have been an important part of French literature from the 12th century, as can be seen, for instance, in the Lays of Marie de France. In the late 17th century early modern audiences enjoyed the tales of Mme d‘Aulnoy, Charles Perrault, Mlle L‘Héritier de Villandon and many others, and shortly afterwards Antoine Galland published his translation of Thousand and one Night which further increased the interest in this literary genre. The story of the Beauty and the Beast by Mme de Villeneuve was published in 1740 and was one of the tales that were rewritten and adapted to children in Mme Leprince de Beaumont‘s Le Magasin des enfants, first published in London in 1756. In this course, fairy tales by various authors will be read and examined with regard to their social and cultural context (literary salons) and their characteristics. The main focus will be on fairy tales authored by women, collections, frame narratives and fairy tales in children‘s literature in the second half of the 18th century. Icelandic translations of French fairy tales will also be examined.

The course will be taught in Icelandic, with one weekly extra hour in French for the students of the Department of French Studies.

Students can also enroll in FRA505G Directed study: French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment 4e.

Historical overview of the development of literary theory. The main emphasis is on twentieth and twenty-first century trends and methods. In addition to lectures there are small group discussion periods.

By reading a selection of various literary text an attempt will be made to give a survey covering more than two millennia of literature in Latin from ancient Rome to seventeenth-century Scandinavia. Texts will be read in Icelandic translation, if available.

An overview of Icelandic literary history from the beginning to the end of the 19th century. Novelties and changes in Icelandic literature will be placed in context with contemporary currents in European literature.

From folktales to modern book series, the Western literary world has shown a fascination for those beings that inhabit the plains of the supernatural. This course explores a varied corpus of texts, from the Lais of Marie de France to Tolkien’s The Hobbit, and engages with them in light of their fantastical characters. Throughout the lessons, we will engage with major theoretical approaches to fairies, monsters, and dragons, and discover the roles that these beings have within and outside of literary works in the Western world.

This course entails a study of a number of literary works from recent years, in the Icelandic original or in translation, including works published in 2020. Contemporary currents will be discussed, with an emphasis on Icelandic literary culture, including its windows to the wider world. But we shall also ask what „literary culture“ is, and what „contemporary“ means and how it manifests itself in writing and in culture generally. How, from this perspective, do we understand tradition and innovation, originality and popularity – and what concepts and paradigms are prevalent in utterances about contemporary literature, both in scholarly and critical discourses and in the broader cultural environment? The course will be in „live“ connection with what is going on around it on the Icelandic literary scene, and writers/translators will pay a visit.

Franz Kafka is among the best-known modern writers of the Western world. His oeuvre is often thought to be cryptic and hard to interpret, and yet many seem to think that it home to a very distinct meaning which can be summarized with the attribute “Kafkaesque”. Some claim that he stages mankind in dark times; others find humour and comic elements to be prominent in his texts. The course will tackle these paradoxes by exploring Kafka´s narrative world from various angles and in all its variety. Narrative kernels will be pursued in his aphorisms and they will also be traced in his diaries and letters, his microfiction, short stories, novellas, and novels. Kafka’s writing invites diverse explorations of the connections and differences between these different genres of expression.

These works will be contemplated vis-à-vis 20th Century narrative conventions and modernist ruptures, with an emphasis on questions about existential issues, freedom, power, and modern societal manifestations. The challenges of transporting the characteristics of Kafka´s writing between languages will also be of concern, for most readers of Kafka get to know his work in translation. This course is aimed at both graduate and advanced undergraduate students. Students could possibly work on aspects of translation, on creative writing projects, or on comparative projects also pertaining to the works of other writers.

This Course will undertake a study of Epics around the world, ancient, medieval, and modern. It will establish certain common themes and narrative strategies in an attempt to define the nature of the epic as a genre. In particular, it will focus the emphasis on war and civilizational definitions, the memorialization of cultural minutiae, and the valorizing of unique individual virtues and traits, which are seen as constituting a particular civilization at a unique point of time. The Course will chart the connections between the ancient epics and more modern ones, noting the differences and contextualizing them politically, culturally, and socially.

This seminar deals with the Nordic literature of modern times. The history of literature of Nordic countries will be told, spanning from the end of 19th century to today. Various texts and different literary genres will be read, among them novels, plays and poetry. Writers like Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Edith Södergran, Tove Ditlevsen, Inger Christensen, Jon Fosse and other contemporary authors will be read. Ideas and topics that have been prominent during modernism are analysed and placed in the context of the literary works. Works from all Nordic countries will be analysed. Works will be read both in Icelandic translation and in the original language as they should be easily accessible to students. Theoretical texts will be used as tools to analyse literary works and tendencies in Nordic literature of modern times, but could also be applied in broader perspective.

In this directed studies students can work on a specific project in connection to the course FRA434G French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment,

A survey of French literature in the 18th and 19th centuries. The course will examine the main literary trends of the period, i.e. the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Realism, as they appear in various literary forms; the novel, autobiography and poetry. Special attention will be paid to the great changes that occurred in this period in the wake of the revolution and industrialisation and its effect on the development of French literature. Among the authors are Voltaire, Rousseau, Stendhal, Balzac, Georges Sand, Flaubert, Rimbaud, and Baudelaire.

Fairy tales (Fr. conte féerique) have been an important part of French literature from the 12th century, as can be seen, for instance, in the Lays of Marie de France. In the late 17th century early modern audiences enjoyed the tales of Mme d‘Aulnoy, Charles Perrault, Mlle L‘Héritier de Villandon and many others, and shortly afterwards Antoine Galland published his translation of Thousand and one Night which further increased the interest in this literary genre. The story of the Beauty and the Beast by Mme de Villeneuve was published in 1740 and was one of the tales that were rewritten and adapted to children in Mme Leprince de Beaumont‘s Le Magasin des enfants, first published in London in 1756. In this course, fairy tales by various authors will be read and examined with regard to their social and cultural context (literary salons) and their characteristics. The main focus will be on fairy tales authored by women, collections, frame narratives and fairy tales in children‘s literature in the second half of the 18th century. Icelandic translations of French fairy tales will also be examined.

The course will be taught in Icelandic, with one weekly extra hour in French for the students of the Department of French Studies.

Students can also enroll in FRA505G Directed study: French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment 4e.

BA-thesis in Comparative Literature

By reading a selection of various literary text an attempt will be made to give a survey covering more than two millennia of literature in Latin from ancient Rome to seventeenth-century Scandinavia. Texts will be read in Icelandic translation, if available.

An overview of Icelandic literary history from the beginning to the end of the 19th century. Novelties and changes in Icelandic literature will be placed in context with contemporary currents in European literature.

From folktales to modern book series, the Western literary world has shown a fascination for those beings that inhabit the plains of the supernatural. This course explores a varied corpus of texts, from the Lais of Marie de France to Tolkien’s The Hobbit, and engages with them in light of their fantastical characters. Throughout the lessons, we will engage with major theoretical approaches to fairies, monsters, and dragons, and discover the roles that these beings have within and outside of literary works in the Western world.

This course entails a study of a number of literary works from recent years, in the Icelandic original or in translation, including works published in 2020. Contemporary currents will be discussed, with an emphasis on Icelandic literary culture, including its windows to the wider world. But we shall also ask what „literary culture“ is, and what „contemporary“ means and how it manifests itself in writing and in culture generally. How, from this perspective, do we understand tradition and innovation, originality and popularity – and what concepts and paradigms are prevalent in utterances about contemporary literature, both in scholarly and critical discourses and in the broader cultural environment? The course will be in „live“ connection with what is going on around it on the Icelandic literary scene, and writers/translators will pay a visit.

Franz Kafka is among the best-known modern writers of the Western world. His oeuvre is often thought to be cryptic and hard to interpret, and yet many seem to think that it home to a very distinct meaning which can be summarized with the attribute “Kafkaesque”. Some claim that he stages mankind in dark times; others find humour and comic elements to be prominent in his texts. The course will tackle these paradoxes by exploring Kafka´s narrative world from various angles and in all its variety. Narrative kernels will be pursued in his aphorisms and they will also be traced in his diaries and letters, his microfiction, short stories, novellas, and novels. Kafka’s writing invites diverse explorations of the connections and differences between these different genres of expression.

These works will be contemplated vis-à-vis 20th Century narrative conventions and modernist ruptures, with an emphasis on questions about existential issues, freedom, power, and modern societal manifestations. The challenges of transporting the characteristics of Kafka´s writing between languages will also be of concern, for most readers of Kafka get to know his work in translation. This course is aimed at both graduate and advanced undergraduate students. Students could possibly work on aspects of translation, on creative writing projects, or on comparative projects also pertaining to the works of other writers.

BA-thesis in Comparative Literature

Survey of literary history, currents and themes in the 19th century. Russian literature in social and cultural context. Selected texts and works of major writers (such as Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov) will be read in Icelandic or English translation. 

The course is taught in Icelandic.

This course provides an introduction to the study of folk narrative as a particular genre within the overall field of folkloristics. Students will be introduced to the main theories concerning the origins, features and distribution of folk tales, their role in society, their collection, methods of classification and means of preservation. Among others, students will be introduced to the work of Antti Aarne, Inger M. Boberg, Bruno Bettleheim, Linda Dégh, Stith Thompson, Timothy Tangherlini and Alan Dundes. Particular attention will be laid to the main forms of oral narrative, particular attention being paid to the form and analysis of legends and fairy tales from the viewpoint of the main arguments concerning these aspects of study, among others the work of Algirdas Greimas, Bengt Holbek, Max Lüthi, Axel Olrik and Vladimir Propp.

The legend tradition will be examined in detail in this course, in the light of both earlier and more recent academic theory concerning this subject. The concentration will be placed on Icelandic legends, how they have come about, been passed from person to person, living and developing in the oral tradition. Particular attention will be paid to what these legends tell us about folk belief in Iceland. From this viewpoint, particular attention will be paid to memorats, their source value, and the degree to which the narrative tradition shapes new narratives. Close attention will also be paid to Icelandic migratory legends, their means of transmission, their distribution, and they way in which they have been shaped and influenced by local narrative traditions and beliefs. In this context, attention will also be drawn to individual legendary motifs, and research that has been undertaken into them. 

Both fixed and relative, lived and imagined, the North has been a reservoir of imaginary potential. In this potentiality, modern subjects -- local and distant -- might regenerate and reinvigorate. The North contains apparent contradictions: beautiful and terrifying, invigorating and deadly. The imagery of such an imagined and real north, read through history, folklore, literature, film, is the subject of this course. Comparative, interdisciplinary, and multi-sited, our investigations focus on the ways in which the construction of the North has been a contested field representing different agendas and offering divergent outcomes.

Teacher of the course: JoAnn Conrad

The course looks at how identities and images of Icelanders and other nations have been shaped and they use traditions in each case. We examine Icelandic experiences and images in relation to neighbouring countries and how narratives, traditions and material culture shape nations, from national museums to midwinter festivals in London, from a wee dram of whiskey (in Scotland) to Viking sagas (in Scandinavia), with a quick stop at Up Helly Aa (in the Shetland Islands) and Olavsvaka (in the Faroe Islands); we look at a fashion show in Nuuk Center (Greenland), Nordic settlements in the New World and then we’ll post it all on social media.

We explore films and music, festivals, games and political spectacles. In particular we will analyse how national images unite and divide different groups of people. In that context we look at men and women, rural and urban communities, mobile people, racism and gender. We’ll study these images as dynamics and ideals, resources and matters of dispute, that are used for various purposes by different people in different places, by demagogues and greens, government institutions and banks, scholars and students.