This is an overview course that introduces major theories of second language acquisition and how they influence language instruction. We will examine research on the cognitive, linguistic, individual, social and educational factors that affect the language learning process and language attainment. The role of input on language learning will be examined as well as the development of reading and writing skills in a second language. 

This seminar engages with theories on culture, narrative, and mediation. Active class participation is required.

All MA students in English are required to complete this seminar where they discuss relevant approaches to theory and research, their own research projects, preparing to introduce their findings at conferences and whorkshops, in Iceland or abroad. Evaluation is by participation: 2 short assignments and a presentation of a paper related to the student's coursework or final essay.

This course concerns the diverse connections between culture and language, as seen from the perspective of cultural history, social sciences and linguistics. Ancient and modern world languages will be introduced and their origins, influence and effects investigated. Written and spoken language will be discussed: what sorts of things are written, why and how? Rules and alternate perspectives on the nature of langauge will be considered, raising the question of how we understand man with respect to thought and language.

The enchanted worlds that Scottish writer J. M. Barrie created for Peter Pan, “the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up,” have been variously transformed by the author and others – not least the Disney Company and translations into most of the world’s languages. In this course we will examine some of the changes that Barrie’s characters and places have undergone through the passage of time through the prism of basic ideas and terms from adaptation theory. This is an intensive 6-week course with continuous assessment.

This course elucidates the early Chinese philosophy of education in the broadest sense of the term. During the fall semester, the focus will be on Confucian philosophy, beginning with the discussion of education and personal cultivation in the Confucian Analects. We will then move to selected parts of other important Confucian writings, such as the Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean), Daxue (The Great Learning), the Xueji (Records of Learning), the Mengzi and the Xunzi. Primary notions of the Chinese philosophy of education will be introduced and explained, including jiao 教 (teaching), xue 学 (study/emulation), xiuji 修己 and xiushen 修身 (cultivating onself), li 礼 (rituals), xing 性 (natural dispositions), and junzi 君子 (exemplary people), among others. We will also investigate the importance of role models in Confucian education.

In addition to these positive notions, we will explore some of their opposites as well, including phrases such as “rotten wood cannot be carved” (xiumu buke diao ye 朽木不可雕也), and descriptions of “petty people (xiao ren 小人),” or those who have not learned much. We will also look at descriptions of people who merely imitate but do not cultivate themselves, or pretenders. Exploring those who do not educate themselves properly helps define the contours of what education means.

Goals

Some of the main questions that will be raised (and possibly answered) are: How is education understood in early Chinese culture? What are its primary aims? What happens when education fails? Can education be bad or dangerous? What social and what “individualist” aspects do education and personal cultivation entail? How does one’s education influence others? What role do others play in education? Are role models necessary? What sort of roles do tradition and emulation play as methods of learning in Confucianism? And, finally, can tradition and emulation be overemphasized? What status does education generally play in Confucian philosophy?  

Approach and readings

We will mainly focus on the primary texts, namely, Analects, Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean), Daxue (The Great Learning), the Xueji (Records of Learning), the Mengzi and the Xunzi. Students may follow along with any translation (in English or their native language) of these classics. During the class we will likely read directly from the original, students may refer to ctext.org for all the abovementioned texts. The course is co-taught with Paul J. D’Ambrosio and his students at East China Normal University. No prior knowledge of Chinese philosophy is expected.

This course will examine the ways in which medieval literature has influenced modern English Literature & Culture and how that influence is being adapted in the digital age. The course will focus on Norse Mythology and investigate how these narratives have become entwined in the fabric of modern western culture. From JRR Tolkien and Neil Gaiman to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

This course is a review and examination of the developing field of ecocriticism in literary studies, and how ecocriticism itself as a way of examining environmental narration and imaginative literature is facing a crisis of its own.

We will look into the notion of “environment” and how literary texts portray and work with environments for narrative purposes.  We will consider environments in a  broadened sense, including not only  the purely physical, but also the digital environment and other non-physical environments such as  light, time, the human psyche and language itself.  How do writers navigate the relationship between narration and environment in its various manifestations.

We are likely to read fiction that allows us to explore the nature of storytelling in the midst of environmental crisis.  These works may include Elif Shafak’s The Island of Missing Trees; Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang; James Bradley’s Clade; as well as Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice; Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk; Memory of Water by Emmi Igtaranta; Oil on Water by Helon Habila; and Bangkok Wakes to Rain by Pitchaya Sudbanthad.  We may also read essays in the anthology Solastalgia, edited by Paul Bogard; a collection of short creative works by thirty four writers on our emotions in the face of disappearing worlds.

We may also read some theory and philosophy now being written on the subject as applied to literature; books such as The Crisis of Narration by Byung-Chul Han; Facing Gaia by Bruno Latour; as well as tracts on the environmental crises such as The Darkness Manifesto by Johan Eklöf and A Forest Journey: The Role of Trees in The Fate of Civilization by John Perlin, as well as essays by theorists Donna Haraway and Hito Steyerl. 

The final reading list will be posted later.

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 FRA022F Directed study: French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment 4e.

This project is for those students who are registered in FRA501F French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment and want to get more advanced knowledge of the subject matter. 

Conventional sociological or historical accounts tend to portray human life as if objects either are irrelevant or at best, passive and inert. This course follows the ‘material turn’ that has occurred in the social sciences and the humanities in the past 20 years and explores the importance of things for understanding human society and history. Drawing on examples from a wide range of disciplines from design history to archaeology, each week a different object is taken for study, illustrating the various disciplinary and theoretical approaches that have been taken to material culture in recent years. The course will be organized around weekly lectures, reading and discussion. The course will be taught in english.

This research project is directly associated with the methodological seminar on emotions. The associated seminar will run in the first half of term, followed by a research break in the second half of term where students will work on their own projects utilising the methodological approach or the theory of emotions in history or literature to analyse a work or several works of their own choice. This gives students the opportunity to do in-depth work on a text or set of texts that they may be interested in for their thesis, for instance.
It is not a requirement to attend the seminar for participation in the research project and so students familiar with (or interested in) emotion studies may take the research project independently.
Evaluation criteria is based on a single research paper due at the end of term. The topic selection is due after mid-term. Papers can be written in either English or Icelandic.

This methodological seminar focuses on the recent and rapidly expanding field of the history of emotion while seeking to apply emotion theory to literature. It traces the development of the ‘history of emotion’ across the multiple different fields, including psychology, neurology and history, followed by an in-depth critical work on emotion theory and its applicability to literature. It tackles questions such as what are literary emotions? Where are they located? How can they be defined and what is the relationship between historical and literary emotionality?

The seminar will expand widely across the theoretical background of emotion studies, presenting and discussing its major terminologies and theories. We will then shift to close reading of selected texts for the sake of reinforcing the methodological approach as a skill set to deepen the students’ understanding of the critical parameters and their application. Ultimately, we will seek to encourage and foster the independent critical work of the students on their own chosen texts, utilising the skill sets that they have acquired throughout the seminar to expand on texts of their own choice.

The seminar will run in the first half of term. The final set of classes will be held at the end of term where students will present their research projects (for those taking the associated 5 credit research project) or a potential research project or paper (for those interesting in attending solely the seminar). Readings will include both theoretical texts and literary works. The seminar will take place in English.

What does Sunset Boulevard, double entendres, self-censorship, the Coen Brothers, and #metoo have in common? They all reveal that Hollywood is not quite the fantasy it poses to be.

A very real place and industry within Los Angeles, California, Hollywood has led in film production since the beginning of narrative film, yet its magic is created within the bland and sometimes devastating concrete lots, sound stages and offices of producers and agents.

This course aims to explore the reality of Hollywood and how it has functioned over time, to examine and critique its presentation and reputation through film and media. The course includes critical viewings of films that are based on both the myth and reality of Hollywood as well as critical readings on historical context, news/gossip, and the history of American narrative film.

Only 35 seats are available for ENS352M. Once the course is filled please contact Nikkita (nhp1@hi.is) to be added onto a waiting list in case a spot opens up.

This research project is linked to the course ENS506G From Gothic Beginnings to Twentieth Century Fantasy and Romance: The British Historical Novel 1764 to 1950.

The course introduces students to the development of the British historical novel up to the middle of the 20th century. Its origins will be traced back to what is seen as the first Gothic novel as well as examining in some detail Walter Scott’s Waverley, which generally is referred to as the first historical novel. The course then outlines the development of the historical novel up to the middle of the 20th century and students read selected texts from this time period. Within this framework, the course explores the way that history has been used by writers across a variety of genres, such as romance and adventure. The course will also include discussions of history in television and film where relevant, along with discussions of relevant theories by both historians and cultural theorists.

The research project involves writing a research paper of 6500-7500 words (75%) and a short essay of 1800-2500 words (25%) OR writing a longer research essay of 8000-10000 words (see below on course assessment). For the short essay, students choose from a list of essay topics given out to students in ENS506G (or come up with their own topic, see below). For the research paper, students choose a topic of their own (or with the teacher’s help); please note that the teacher needs to approve your topic of choice.

The teacher will meet with the students registered for this course on a regular basis to discuss the research paper. Dates to be confirmed.

This seminar provides a historical and cross-cultural overview on the main linguistic and cultural areas of the Americas.

This course covers the nature of vocabulary acquisition: how vocabulary develops, is learned and taught. Various factors will be analyzed in detail, including, the role of pronunciation, word frequency, various learning strategies for vocabulary growth and considerable attention will be drawn to current research methodology in Vocabulary Acquisition. Students will review research as well as conduct a mini study.

Taught on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 am (2. and 3. year students only)

You are the perfect candidate if you have a burning desire to write fiction or poetry, and enjoy reading good books.

Aims include:

1. To sharpen awareness and improve skills through exercises in writing, and especially through revision

2. To provide practical criticism of work-in-progress in a workshop setting, along with advice about revisions and improvisation.

In addition to invoking the muse, students will learn practical writing skills such as organization, structure, characterization and dialogue. The course will also involve the examination of the work of key novel and short story writers, and poets. Throughout the course, students will develop their own work as well as improving their critical skills. Students will complete a short story or a small collection of poems by the end of the course.

Attendance requirement is 100% - you must attend one 1-hour presentation and one 2-hour workshop session per week. Not suitable for distance students.

Students who fulfil the prerequisites will be signed up. Sign up is on first come first served bases and there are 6 seats reserved for MA students and 6 seats reserved for BA students. Any unfilled seats for the course on August 30th will be offered to students on the waiting list. 

Training in various aspects of the writing and editing of scientific texts. Various kinds of texts (non-fiction) examined and evaluated. Training in reviewing and commenting on scientific texts and in other aspects of editorial work. The main emphasis will be on the writing of articles, but other kinds of texts will also be considered, both shorter (conference abstracts, reviews) and longer (theses, books), as well as research proposals. Discussion of guidelines for the preparation of manuscripts. Types of plagiarism and how to avoid them and find them. Texts on different subjects will be used as examples, especially writings in linguistics, literature and history. The book Skrifaðu bæði skýrt og rétt will be used as a textbook (Höskuldur Þráinsson 2015).

This course is open to students of many MA programmes in the School of Humanities, cf. the regulations of the individual subjects. Students in the MA programmes in Icelandic literature, Icelandic linguistics, Icelandic studies and Icelandic teaching can take the course as part of the MA course requirements in Icelandic literature or Icelandic linguistics. Students in the MA programme in Icelandic teaching can, however, not have this course as the only linguistics or literature course in their MA.

The European intellectual tradition is characterized by the strong links between academia and society. Many of the most important European thinkers of the 19th and 20th Centuries worked outside of the universities – and many of those who did pursue an ordinary academic career also were public commentators frequently intervening in political discussion of the day and in some cases gaining considerable influence. In this course we present a selection of European thinkers who have been important both as scholars and as public intellectuals. We read and discuss samples of their work and look at critical discussion of their ideas. We also reflect on the time and place of the "European" – to what extent their work is quinessentially Eurocentric and to what extent awareness of cultural contingency emerges.

This class will focus on film and television adaptations, with scripts derived from short stories, canonical works, popular and pulp fiction, as well as graphic novels and comics.

In this course we will focus on various literary works and corresponding adaptation theories relating to film adaptations and current television series. Key issues and concepts in this course  will be taught in relation to Modernism/Postmodernism and Origin/Intertextual play in Adaptation Theory and Cinema semiotics.

Course requirement:
Apart from the obligatory course text Adaptations and Appropriation by Julie Sanders, we will read significant articles on adaptation as well as selected short stories (provided by the tutor) that have undergone the transition process and been adapted to into films. Students are encouraged to participate in discussions in class.

The subjects of the course are images of Iceland as they are constructed and presented in popular contemporary cultural, i.e., pop music, films, and television. The seminar will explore the notion that these images are created, sustained, and enacted in each contemporary culture. The images of Iceland and the North are also placed in the context of historical research in the field of imagology. In this way, students are encouraged to critically examine and analyze how images of the country and the nation are created, shaped, and practiced in an active interplay of internal and external influences.

Daoist thinkers, notably the authors of the Daodejing 道德经 and the Zhuangzi 庄子, reacted critically to some aspects of the Confucian philosophy of education, often arguing that it is likely to lead to dogmatism and hypocrisy. Instead, they suggest a less socially bound and more independent kind of learning or cultivation that takes seriously the “way of the world,” or the general cosmological tendency and how to align with it. They speak, for instance, of unlearning and diminishing the self. As an alternative to concentrating on learning from classics and others, Daoist texts advocate being more natural, acting in ziran 自然 (self-so) and wuwei 无为 (non-action) manners.  

After focusing on Daoism for the approximately first half of the semester, we will move to Xuanxue 玄学 philosophy, sometimes translated as “Neo-Daoism,” where the relationship between Daoism and Confucianism is critically reimagined. Neo-Daoist thinkers often found creative ways to intertwin the arguments of early Confucian texts with Daoist ones. Here we find new meanings of important terms such as xing 性 (human nature) and xue 学 and reimaged understandings of role models. While early Daoist classics such as the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi might be read as coming down very harshly on any form of imitation or study of past models favoring being self-so and practicing non-action instead, Xuanxue thinkers find an alternative way to think about learning. According to prominent Xuanxue thinkers Daoist ideas of self-so and non-action are actually commensurable with studying. Rather than learn the content of what others have done, one can learn how to do what they do, which involves being self-so and practicing non-action. This is a third perspective on learning, which critically reimagines the relationship between classical Confucian and Daoist views on education.

Goals

Some of the main questions that will be raised (and possibly answered) are: How is education understood in early Chinese culture? What are its primary aims? What happens when education fails? Can education be bad or dangerous? What social and what “individualist” aspects do education and personal cultivation entail? How does one’s education influence others? What role do others play in education? Are role models necessary? What sort of roles do tradition and emulation play as methods of learning in Confucianism? And, can tradition and emulation be overemphasized? What status does education generally play in Confucian philosophy?  

Approach and readings

We will mainly focus on the primary texts, namely, Daodejing, Zhuangzi and Neo-Daoist writings. Students may follow along with any translation (in English or their native language) of these classics. During the class we will likely read directly from the original, students may refer to ctext.org for most of the abovementioned texts. The course is co-taught with Paul J. D’Ambrosio and his students at East China Normal University. No prior knowledge of Chinese philosophy is expected, but students who do not take the prior course on Confucianism (autumn 2024) are encouraged to watch recordings from that course, which will be made available.

Why are we terrified and fascinated by monsters? Why do they disgust us and at the same time excite our desire? What does monstrosity as the ultimate form of otherness teach us about human identity and society? How do cultural ideas about race, gender, sexuality, nationhood, and class spawn our notions of monstrosity? In this course we will grapple with these questions by looking at a sampling of grotesque, transgressive, hybridized, disfigured, and otherwise hideous forms of being in Middle English literature: monstrous races, werewolves, ghosts, giants, demons, gods, and fantastic beasts. We will read widely across genres, including chivalric romance, travel writing, fables, hagiography, religious texts, lyric poetry and more. Critical readings will be drawn from a variety of perspectives (deconstruction, post-humanism, psychoanalysis, gender criticism, ecocritical theory) to reflect the complex and multidisciplinary nature of the topic.

The course deals with interconnections between political radicalism, culture, tradition and power. We will focus on contemporary representations of dissent in particular, look at the discourse of democracy and cultural difference, reactions to and criticism of protest in the Western political tradition and dissent in more repressive political systems. The role of intellectuals and writers will be explored as well as the function of artistic expression and design in transforming cultural and social environments. We will also discuss media and social media discourse in connection with an attempt to understand the various and sometimes contradictory objectives of public institutions. A few points of conflict will be discussed that to some extent expose fundamental conflicts in liberal democratic societies such as questions about the wisdom and ignorance of publics, reactions to climate change, inequality and extreme poverty. Finally corruption and power will be discussed as well as social and cultural expression, the possibilities and limitations of freedom of speech, the use and abuse of information, disinformation, secrecy, fake and “fake news”.

MA students are permitted to complete a total of 15 credits in supervised research projects. A project is selected in consultation with a teacher at the MA level, and that teacher must approve the sudent's research plans before he or she is permitted to register for a study of this kind. Research projects should either be an extension of a course or courses that students have already completed in the MA program or be within their special field of interest.

Long before contemporary analyses of human-induced environmental degradation, Indigenous and feminist authors wrote stories that resisted hierarchies of the human over other lifeworlds. This course will use the themes, "feminism" and "environment" to study the works of women writers such as Leslie Marmon Silko, bell hooks, Willa Cather, Maria Lugones and Muriel Rukeyser whose writings deepen and problematize both terms. 

Together we will ask, how have colonial histories impacted which authors are seen as "environmental" or "feminist"?  How does environmental protection materialize in the works of these authors? Further, what does environmental literature mean and how could debates in feminist theory help us answer such questions?

Filled with suspense, murder, and mayhem as well as macabre beings and strange events, Gothic fiction emerged in the later part of the eighteenth century. Despite increasing criticism of the genre in the early nineteenth century, Gothic fiction morphed and proliferated during the Victorian Era, both in England and America, with aspects of it cropping up in various subgenres of literature during this period. Sometimes controversial, it has remained popular, owing largely to its unsettling plots and terrifying-- or terrified-- characters. Making the familiar strange and the strange stranger, this writing explores topics such as alienation, technology, taboo, human psychology, romance, and religion, to name a few. It also examines “Otherness” by depicting beings, groups, or identities that society wishes to repress or disavow, thus forcing readers to confront and occasionally even to challenge their fears. In this course, we will delve into the afore-mentioned subjects by focusing on select Gothic texts of the Romantic Period by British novelists such as Ann Radcliffe (The Italian), Jane Austen (Northanger Abbey), and Mary Shelley (Frankenstein), and by American writers such as Washington Irving (“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”) and Edgar Allan Poe (“The Fall of the House of Usher”).  

A favourite author of and inspiration to Jane Austen and keeper of the robes to Queen Charlotte, Frances Burney (1752-1840) was an eighteenth-century English novelist and playwright who is also known as Fanny Burney. Burney lived in France during the Napoleonic Wars and her French husband Alexander D’Arblay had supported the French Revolution, a political theme covered in her novel The Wanderer. Her novel Camilla (1796), sold as a subscription, earned her an incredibly large sum that enabled her to buy a house for her family. Throughout her life, Burney kept journals that serve as a record of her time in the eighteenth-century court, eighteenth-century artistic and intellectual high society, and of her time in France. Burney’s work engages with issues of class, inheritance, charity, and political struggles in France and Britain. We will read Burney’s novels and extracts from her letters and diaries. This course will cover the social, political, economic, and protofeminist commentary in Burney’s work, her narrative style, details of her life, and her influence on other novelists, such as Austen.

Recent years have seen an increased focus on data collection and statistical analysis within the humanities. This is particularly apparent in growing branches such as psycholinguistics, cognitive literary studies and experimental philosophy, to name a few. The push towards quantitative methods occurs at a time where the validity and reliability of well-established statistical methods are called into question in other fields, with increased demands of replicability and open access as well as data protection and responsibility. In this course, students explore the value of quantitative methods in their field while getting training in the collection and analysis of data. A diverse set of research methods will be introduced, ranging from surveys to corpus analysis and experiments in which participants’ response to stimuli (such as words, texts or audio-visual materials) is quantified. Basic concepts in statistics will be reviewed, enabling students to know the difference between descriptive and inferential statistics, understand statistical significance and interpret visual representations of data in graphs. The course will be largely practical and students are expected to apply their knowledge of data collection and analysis under the instructor’s guidance. Students will work on a project within their own discipline but will also explore the possibility of cross-disciplinary work. Open source tools such as R Studio will be used for all assignments but no prior knowledge of the software or statistics in general is required. The course is suitable for all students within the humanities who want to collect quantitative data to answer interesting questions and could therefore be a useful preparation for a BA or MA project.

This seminar provides a historical and cross-cultural overview on main trends in literature and film in different parts of the Americas.

This is an overview course that introduces major research methods in second language acquisition and teaching. Qualitative and quantitative research methods will be explored and their role in interpreting second language development. Student will examine real studies, develop a research plan, and conduct a pilot study. 

Following up on The British Historical Novel 1764-1950, this course (though also independent of the previous course) traces the development of the British historical novel from the second half of the 20th century to the present day. It explores the way that history has been used by writers of the period across a variety of genres. Historical theory by historians and cultural theorists is also looked at in some detail, where relevant.

NB. The course is linked to the undergraduate course ENS607G The British Historical Novel since 1950; students in ENS225F attend classes in ENS607G. Also, the teacher will meet with the students registered for this course two or three times during the term (online if necessary) to discuss the research paper and students’ progress. 

The course deals with autobiographies, life writings and texts of memory from the second half of the 20th century and early 21st century in France and other French-speaking countries, such as Senegal, Algeria and Morocco.  What will be explored is to what degree core elements of the autobiography  – the self, the live story and history – come together or collide in the works of different authors. The emphasis will be on autobiographical writings based on memories of social, cultural, and political experiences and conditions.  A key focus will be on the roles of memory and forgetting as well on the boundaries between fiction ad reality in autobiographical narratives.  

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

Students of the course can take a 4 ECTS Directed Study alongside it, FRA026F, and must contact the teacher to enroll before October 1 to sign up for it. 

Students can take this 4 ECTS directed study alongside the course FRA402F Autobiographies where they can conduct an individual research on an aspect of the course.

Students must contact the supervisor to request registration into the project no later than October 1, 2024.

This is an overview course that introduces major theories of second language acquisition and how they influence language instruction. We will examine research on the cognitive, linguistic, individual, social and educational factors that affect the language learning process and language attainment. The role of input on language learning will be examined as well as the development of reading and writing skills in a second language. 

All MA students in English are required to complete this seminar where they discuss relevant approaches to theory and research, their own research projects, preparing to introduce their findings at conferences and whorkshops, in Iceland or abroad. Evaluation is by participation: 2 short assignments and a presentation of a paper related to the student's coursework or final essay.

The enchanted worlds that Scottish writer J. M. Barrie created for Peter Pan, “the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up,” have been variously transformed by the author and others – not least the Disney Company and translations into most of the world’s languages. In this course we will examine some of the changes that Barrie’s characters and places have undergone through the passage of time through the prism of basic ideas and terms from adaptation theory. This is an intensive 6-week course with continuous assessment.

This course elucidates the early Chinese philosophy of education in the broadest sense of the term. During the fall semester, the focus will be on Confucian philosophy, beginning with the discussion of education and personal cultivation in the Confucian Analects. We will then move to selected parts of other important Confucian writings, such as the Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean), Daxue (The Great Learning), the Xueji (Records of Learning), the Mengzi and the Xunzi. Primary notions of the Chinese philosophy of education will be introduced and explained, including jiao 教 (teaching), xue 学 (study/emulation), xiuji 修己 and xiushen 修身 (cultivating onself), li 礼 (rituals), xing 性 (natural dispositions), and junzi 君子 (exemplary people), among others. We will also investigate the importance of role models in Confucian education.

In addition to these positive notions, we will explore some of their opposites as well, including phrases such as “rotten wood cannot be carved” (xiumu buke diao ye 朽木不可雕也), and descriptions of “petty people (xiao ren 小人),” or those who have not learned much. We will also look at descriptions of people who merely imitate but do not cultivate themselves, or pretenders. Exploring those who do not educate themselves properly helps define the contours of what education means.

Goals

Some of the main questions that will be raised (and possibly answered) are: How is education understood in early Chinese culture? What are its primary aims? What happens when education fails? Can education be bad or dangerous? What social and what “individualist” aspects do education and personal cultivation entail? How does one’s education influence others? What role do others play in education? Are role models necessary? What sort of roles do tradition and emulation play as methods of learning in Confucianism? And, finally, can tradition and emulation be overemphasized? What status does education generally play in Confucian philosophy?  

Approach and readings

We will mainly focus on the primary texts, namely, Analects, Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean), Daxue (The Great Learning), the Xueji (Records of Learning), the Mengzi and the Xunzi. Students may follow along with any translation (in English or their native language) of these classics. During the class we will likely read directly from the original, students may refer to ctext.org for all the abovementioned texts. The course is co-taught with Paul J. D’Ambrosio and his students at East China Normal University. No prior knowledge of Chinese philosophy is expected.

This course will examine the ways in which medieval literature has influenced modern English Literature & Culture and how that influence is being adapted in the digital age. The course will focus on Norse Mythology and investigate how these narratives have become entwined in the fabric of modern western culture. From JRR Tolkien and Neil Gaiman to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

This course is a review and examination of the developing field of ecocriticism in literary studies, and how ecocriticism itself as a way of examining environmental narration and imaginative literature is facing a crisis of its own.

We will look into the notion of “environment” and how literary texts portray and work with environments for narrative purposes.  We will consider environments in a  broadened sense, including not only  the purely physical, but also the digital environment and other non-physical environments such as  light, time, the human psyche and language itself.  How do writers navigate the relationship between narration and environment in its various manifestations.

We are likely to read fiction that allows us to explore the nature of storytelling in the midst of environmental crisis.  These works may include Elif Shafak’s The Island of Missing Trees; Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang; James Bradley’s Clade; as well as Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice; Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk; Memory of Water by Emmi Igtaranta; Oil on Water by Helon Habila; and Bangkok Wakes to Rain by Pitchaya Sudbanthad.  We may also read essays in the anthology Solastalgia, edited by Paul Bogard; a collection of short creative works by thirty four writers on our emotions in the face of disappearing worlds.

We may also read some theory and philosophy now being written on the subject as applied to literature; books such as The Crisis of Narration by Byung-Chul Han; Facing Gaia by Bruno Latour; as well as tracts on the environmental crises such as The Darkness Manifesto by Johan Eklöf and A Forest Journey: The Role of Trees in The Fate of Civilization by John Perlin, as well as essays by theorists Donna Haraway and Hito Steyerl. 

The final reading list will be posted later.

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 FRA022F Directed study: French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment 4e.

This project is for those students who are registered in FRA501F French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment and want to get more advanced knowledge of the subject matter. 

Conventional sociological or historical accounts tend to portray human life as if objects either are irrelevant or at best, passive and inert. This course follows the ‘material turn’ that has occurred in the social sciences and the humanities in the past 20 years and explores the importance of things for understanding human society and history. Drawing on examples from a wide range of disciplines from design history to archaeology, each week a different object is taken for study, illustrating the various disciplinary and theoretical approaches that have been taken to material culture in recent years. The course will be organized around weekly lectures, reading and discussion. The course will be taught in english.

This research project is directly associated with the methodological seminar on emotions. The associated seminar will run in the first half of term, followed by a research break in the second half of term where students will work on their own projects utilising the methodological approach or the theory of emotions in history or literature to analyse a work or several works of their own choice. This gives students the opportunity to do in-depth work on a text or set of texts that they may be interested in for their thesis, for instance.
It is not a requirement to attend the seminar for participation in the research project and so students familiar with (or interested in) emotion studies may take the research project independently.
Evaluation criteria is based on a single research paper due at the end of term. The topic selection is due after mid-term. Papers can be written in either English or Icelandic.

This methodological seminar focuses on the recent and rapidly expanding field of the history of emotion while seeking to apply emotion theory to literature. It traces the development of the ‘history of emotion’ across the multiple different fields, including psychology, neurology and history, followed by an in-depth critical work on emotion theory and its applicability to literature. It tackles questions such as what are literary emotions? Where are they located? How can they be defined and what is the relationship between historical and literary emotionality?

The seminar will expand widely across the theoretical background of emotion studies, presenting and discussing its major terminologies and theories. We will then shift to close reading of selected texts for the sake of reinforcing the methodological approach as a skill set to deepen the students’ understanding of the critical parameters and their application. Ultimately, we will seek to encourage and foster the independent critical work of the students on their own chosen texts, utilising the skill sets that they have acquired throughout the seminar to expand on texts of their own choice.

The seminar will run in the first half of term. The final set of classes will be held at the end of term where students will present their research projects (for those taking the associated 5 credit research project) or a potential research project or paper (for those interesting in attending solely the seminar). Readings will include both theoretical texts and literary works. The seminar will take place in English.

What does Sunset Boulevard, double entendres, self-censorship, the Coen Brothers, and #metoo have in common? They all reveal that Hollywood is not quite the fantasy it poses to be.

A very real place and industry within Los Angeles, California, Hollywood has led in film production since the beginning of narrative film, yet its magic is created within the bland and sometimes devastating concrete lots, sound stages and offices of producers and agents.

This course aims to explore the reality of Hollywood and how it has functioned over time, to examine and critique its presentation and reputation through film and media. The course includes critical viewings of films that are based on both the myth and reality of Hollywood as well as critical readings on historical context, news/gossip, and the history of American narrative film.

Only 35 seats are available for ENS352M. Once the course is filled please contact Nikkita (nhp1@hi.is) to be added onto a waiting list in case a spot opens up.

This research project is linked to the course ENS506G From Gothic Beginnings to Twentieth Century Fantasy and Romance: The British Historical Novel 1764 to 1950.

The course introduces students to the development of the British historical novel up to the middle of the 20th century. Its origins will be traced back to what is seen as the first Gothic novel as well as examining in some detail Walter Scott’s Waverley, which generally is referred to as the first historical novel. The course then outlines the development of the historical novel up to the middle of the 20th century and students read selected texts from this time period. Within this framework, the course explores the way that history has been used by writers across a variety of genres, such as romance and adventure. The course will also include discussions of history in television and film where relevant, along with discussions of relevant theories by both historians and cultural theorists.

The research project involves writing a research paper of 6500-7500 words (75%) and a short essay of 1800-2500 words (25%) OR writing a longer research essay of 8000-10000 words (see below on course assessment). For the short essay, students choose from a list of essay topics given out to students in ENS506G (or come up with their own topic, see below). For the research paper, students choose a topic of their own (or with the teacher’s help); please note that the teacher needs to approve your topic of choice.

The teacher will meet with the students registered for this course on a regular basis to discuss the research paper. Dates to be confirmed.

This seminar provides a historical and cross-cultural overview on the main linguistic and cultural areas of the Americas.

This course covers the nature of vocabulary acquisition: how vocabulary develops, is learned and taught. Various factors will be analyzed in detail, including, the role of pronunciation, word frequency, various learning strategies for vocabulary growth and considerable attention will be drawn to current research methodology in Vocabulary Acquisition. Students will review research as well as conduct a mini study.

Taught on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 am (2. and 3. year students only)

You are the perfect candidate if you have a burning desire to write fiction or poetry, and enjoy reading good books.

Aims include:

1. To sharpen awareness and improve skills through exercises in writing, and especially through revision

2. To provide practical criticism of work-in-progress in a workshop setting, along with advice about revisions and improvisation.

In addition to invoking the muse, students will learn practical writing skills such as organization, structure, characterization and dialogue. The course will also involve the examination of the work of key novel and short story writers, and poets. Throughout the course, students will develop their own work as well as improving their critical skills. Students will complete a short story or a small collection of poems by the end of the course.

Attendance requirement is 100% - you must attend one 1-hour presentation and one 2-hour workshop session per week. Not suitable for distance students.

Students who fulfil the prerequisites will be signed up. Sign up is on first come first served bases and there are 6 seats reserved for MA students and 6 seats reserved for BA students. Any unfilled seats for the course on August 30th will be offered to students on the waiting list. 

Training in various aspects of the writing and editing of scientific texts. Various kinds of texts (non-fiction) examined and evaluated. Training in reviewing and commenting on scientific texts and in other aspects of editorial work. The main emphasis will be on the writing of articles, but other kinds of texts will also be considered, both shorter (conference abstracts, reviews) and longer (theses, books), as well as research proposals. Discussion of guidelines for the preparation of manuscripts. Types of plagiarism and how to avoid them and find them. Texts on different subjects will be used as examples, especially writings in linguistics, literature and history. The book Skrifaðu bæði skýrt og rétt will be used as a textbook (Höskuldur Þráinsson 2015).

This course is open to students of many MA programmes in the School of Humanities, cf. the regulations of the individual subjects. Students in the MA programmes in Icelandic literature, Icelandic linguistics, Icelandic studies and Icelandic teaching can take the course as part of the MA course requirements in Icelandic literature or Icelandic linguistics. Students in the MA programme in Icelandic teaching can, however, not have this course as the only linguistics or literature course in their MA.

MA-thesis in Literature, Culture and Media.

The European intellectual tradition is characterized by the strong links between academia and society. Many of the most important European thinkers of the 19th and 20th Centuries worked outside of the universities – and many of those who did pursue an ordinary academic career also were public commentators frequently intervening in political discussion of the day and in some cases gaining considerable influence. In this course we present a selection of European thinkers who have been important both as scholars and as public intellectuals. We read and discuss samples of their work and look at critical discussion of their ideas. We also reflect on the time and place of the "European" – to what extent their work is quinessentially Eurocentric and to what extent awareness of cultural contingency emerges.

The subjects of the course are images of Iceland as they are constructed and presented in popular contemporary cultural, i.e., pop music, films, and television. The seminar will explore the notion that these images are created, sustained, and enacted in each contemporary culture. The images of Iceland and the North are also placed in the context of historical research in the field of imagology. In this way, students are encouraged to critically examine and analyze how images of the country and the nation are created, shaped, and practiced in an active interplay of internal and external influences.

Daoist thinkers, notably the authors of the Daodejing 道德经 and the Zhuangzi 庄子, reacted critically to some aspects of the Confucian philosophy of education, often arguing that it is likely to lead to dogmatism and hypocrisy. Instead, they suggest a less socially bound and more independent kind of learning or cultivation that takes seriously the “way of the world,” or the general cosmological tendency and how to align with it. They speak, for instance, of unlearning and diminishing the self. As an alternative to concentrating on learning from classics and others, Daoist texts advocate being more natural, acting in ziran 自然 (self-so) and wuwei 无为 (non-action) manners.  

After focusing on Daoism for the approximately first half of the semester, we will move to Xuanxue 玄学 philosophy, sometimes translated as “Neo-Daoism,” where the relationship between Daoism and Confucianism is critically reimagined. Neo-Daoist thinkers often found creative ways to intertwin the arguments of early Confucian texts with Daoist ones. Here we find new meanings of important terms such as xing 性 (human nature) and xue 学 and reimaged understandings of role models. While early Daoist classics such as the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi might be read as coming down very harshly on any form of imitation or study of past models favoring being self-so and practicing non-action instead, Xuanxue thinkers find an alternative way to think about learning. According to prominent Xuanxue thinkers Daoist ideas of self-so and non-action are actually commensurable with studying. Rather than learn the content of what others have done, one can learn how to do what they do, which involves being self-so and practicing non-action. This is a third perspective on learning, which critically reimagines the relationship between classical Confucian and Daoist views on education.

Goals

Some of the main questions that will be raised (and possibly answered) are: How is education understood in early Chinese culture? What are its primary aims? What happens when education fails? Can education be bad or dangerous? What social and what “individualist” aspects do education and personal cultivation entail? How does one’s education influence others? What role do others play in education? Are role models necessary? What sort of roles do tradition and emulation play as methods of learning in Confucianism? And, can tradition and emulation be overemphasized? What status does education generally play in Confucian philosophy?  

Approach and readings

We will mainly focus on the primary texts, namely, Daodejing, Zhuangzi and Neo-Daoist writings. Students may follow along with any translation (in English or their native language) of these classics. During the class we will likely read directly from the original, students may refer to ctext.org for most of the abovementioned texts. The course is co-taught with Paul J. D’Ambrosio and his students at East China Normal University. No prior knowledge of Chinese philosophy is expected, but students who do not take the prior course on Confucianism (autumn 2024) are encouraged to watch recordings from that course, which will be made available.

Why are we terrified and fascinated by monsters? Why do they disgust us and at the same time excite our desire? What does monstrosity as the ultimate form of otherness teach us about human identity and society? How do cultural ideas about race, gender, sexuality, nationhood, and class spawn our notions of monstrosity? In this course we will grapple with these questions by looking at a sampling of grotesque, transgressive, hybridized, disfigured, and otherwise hideous forms of being in Middle English literature: monstrous races, werewolves, ghosts, giants, demons, gods, and fantastic beasts. We will read widely across genres, including chivalric romance, travel writing, fables, hagiography, religious texts, lyric poetry and more. Critical readings will be drawn from a variety of perspectives (deconstruction, post-humanism, psychoanalysis, gender criticism, ecocritical theory) to reflect the complex and multidisciplinary nature of the topic.

The course deals with interconnections between political radicalism, culture, tradition and power. We will focus on contemporary representations of dissent in particular, look at the discourse of democracy and cultural difference, reactions to and criticism of protest in the Western political tradition and dissent in more repressive political systems. The role of intellectuals and writers will be explored as well as the function of artistic expression and design in transforming cultural and social environments. We will also discuss media and social media discourse in connection with an attempt to understand the various and sometimes contradictory objectives of public institutions. A few points of conflict will be discussed that to some extent expose fundamental conflicts in liberal democratic societies such as questions about the wisdom and ignorance of publics, reactions to climate change, inequality and extreme poverty. Finally corruption and power will be discussed as well as social and cultural expression, the possibilities and limitations of freedom of speech, the use and abuse of information, disinformation, secrecy, fake and “fake news”.

MA students are permitted to complete a total of 15 credits in supervised research projects. A project is selected in consultation with a teacher at the MA level, and that teacher must approve the sudent's research plans before he or she is permitted to register for a study of this kind. Research projects should either be an extension of a course or courses that students have already completed in the MA program or be within their special field of interest.

Long before contemporary analyses of human-induced environmental degradation, Indigenous and feminist authors wrote stories that resisted hierarchies of the human over other lifeworlds. This course will use the themes, "feminism" and "environment" to study the works of women writers such as Leslie Marmon Silko, bell hooks, Willa Cather, Maria Lugones and Muriel Rukeyser whose writings deepen and problematize both terms. 

Together we will ask, how have colonial histories impacted which authors are seen as "environmental" or "feminist"?  How does environmental protection materialize in the works of these authors? Further, what does environmental literature mean and how could debates in feminist theory help us answer such questions?

Filled with suspense, murder, and mayhem as well as macabre beings and strange events, Gothic fiction emerged in the later part of the eighteenth century. Despite increasing criticism of the genre in the early nineteenth century, Gothic fiction morphed and proliferated during the Victorian Era, both in England and America, with aspects of it cropping up in various subgenres of literature during this period. Sometimes controversial, it has remained popular, owing largely to its unsettling plots and terrifying-- or terrified-- characters. Making the familiar strange and the strange stranger, this writing explores topics such as alienation, technology, taboo, human psychology, romance, and religion, to name a few. It also examines “Otherness” by depicting beings, groups, or identities that society wishes to repress or disavow, thus forcing readers to confront and occasionally even to challenge their fears. In this course, we will delve into the afore-mentioned subjects by focusing on select Gothic texts of the Romantic Period by British novelists such as Ann Radcliffe (The Italian), Jane Austen (Northanger Abbey), and Mary Shelley (Frankenstein), and by American writers such as Washington Irving (“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”) and Edgar Allan Poe (“The Fall of the House of Usher”).  

A favourite author of and inspiration to Jane Austen and keeper of the robes to Queen Charlotte, Frances Burney (1752-1840) was an eighteenth-century English novelist and playwright who is also known as Fanny Burney. Burney lived in France during the Napoleonic Wars and her French husband Alexander D’Arblay had supported the French Revolution, a political theme covered in her novel The Wanderer. Her novel Camilla (1796), sold as a subscription, earned her an incredibly large sum that enabled her to buy a house for her family. Throughout her life, Burney kept journals that serve as a record of her time in the eighteenth-century court, eighteenth-century artistic and intellectual high society, and of her time in France. Burney’s work engages with issues of class, inheritance, charity, and political struggles in France and Britain. We will read Burney’s novels and extracts from her letters and diaries. This course will cover the social, political, economic, and protofeminist commentary in Burney’s work, her narrative style, details of her life, and her influence on other novelists, such as Austen.

Recent years have seen an increased focus on data collection and statistical analysis within the humanities. This is particularly apparent in growing branches such as psycholinguistics, cognitive literary studies and experimental philosophy, to name a few. The push towards quantitative methods occurs at a time where the validity and reliability of well-established statistical methods are called into question in other fields, with increased demands of replicability and open access as well as data protection and responsibility. In this course, students explore the value of quantitative methods in their field while getting training in the collection and analysis of data. A diverse set of research methods will be introduced, ranging from surveys to corpus analysis and experiments in which participants’ response to stimuli (such as words, texts or audio-visual materials) is quantified. Basic concepts in statistics will be reviewed, enabling students to know the difference between descriptive and inferential statistics, understand statistical significance and interpret visual representations of data in graphs. The course will be largely practical and students are expected to apply their knowledge of data collection and analysis under the instructor’s guidance. Students will work on a project within their own discipline but will also explore the possibility of cross-disciplinary work. Open source tools such as R Studio will be used for all assignments but no prior knowledge of the software or statistics in general is required. The course is suitable for all students within the humanities who want to collect quantitative data to answer interesting questions and could therefore be a useful preparation for a BA or MA project.

This seminar provides a historical and cross-cultural overview on main trends in literature and film in different parts of the Americas.

This is an overview course that introduces major research methods in second language acquisition and teaching. Qualitative and quantitative research methods will be explored and their role in interpreting second language development. Student will examine real studies, develop a research plan, and conduct a pilot study. 

Following up on The British Historical Novel 1764-1950, this course (though also independent of the previous course) traces the development of the British historical novel from the second half of the 20th century to the present day. It explores the way that history has been used by writers of the period across a variety of genres. Historical theory by historians and cultural theorists is also looked at in some detail, where relevant.

NB. The course is linked to the undergraduate course ENS607G The British Historical Novel since 1950; students in ENS225F attend classes in ENS607G. Also, the teacher will meet with the students registered for this course two or three times during the term (online if necessary) to discuss the research paper and students’ progress. 

The course deals with autobiographies, life writings and texts of memory from the second half of the 20th century and early 21st century in France and other French-speaking countries, such as Senegal, Algeria and Morocco.  What will be explored is to what degree core elements of the autobiography  – the self, the live story and history – come together or collide in the works of different authors. The emphasis will be on autobiographical writings based on memories of social, cultural, and political experiences and conditions.  A key focus will be on the roles of memory and forgetting as well on the boundaries between fiction ad reality in autobiographical narratives.  

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

Students of the course can take a 4 ECTS Directed Study alongside it, FRA026F, and must contact the teacher to enroll before October 1 to sign up for it. 

Students can take this 4 ECTS directed study alongside the course FRA402F Autobiographies where they can conduct an individual research on an aspect of the course.

Students must contact the supervisor to request registration into the project no later than October 1, 2024.

MA-thesis in Literature, Culture and Media.

In the courses Communication channels I and Communication channels II, the basics of methods for the dissemination of cultural material in the humanities and social sciences are presented. Communication channels I is in the fall semester, while Communication channels II is in the spring semester. 

In Communication channels I, the students are working with a) text and images in the first half of the semester and b) short documentaries in the second half of the course. Each subject weighs 50% in the course. Concerning a) Students will receive training in article writing and discourse analysis on the one hand and use of images and image analysis on the other.  Concerning b) Students work on making short documentaries. It includes basic training in screenwriting, shooting and editing, and students work in groups on a documentary, according to a specific theme. 

There are no exams in the course. Instead, students work on projects, individual and group projects. They are the following:

1. Analysis of texts and images
2. An article with an image on a specific theme for publication, about 800 words.
3. A group project where students work on a short documentary that is shown at the end of the course. Emphasis is placed on common themes and group work in the course. The course is not taught remotely.

In the course Communication channels II during the spring semester the students work with the following communication methods: a) oral presentation and b) exhibitions of cultural and historical material. Digital communication will be integrated into both aspects.

The students will work with the basics of oral presentation and practice in smaller and larger groups. Basic issues regarding the organization of conferences and seminars and their management will also be reviewed and a conference is held where all students present their projects. Digital communication will also be integrated into this section. Following is a section about exhibitions with connection to digital communication. The basics of exhibitions and different ways of presentation will be discussed.  The basics of digital communication will be covered, what are the main channels, advantages and disadvantages, and what rules apply to the presentation of texts on the web.

There are no exams in the course. Instead, students work on projects, individual and group projects. They are the following:

1. Lecture at a conference and other projects in that context
2. Exhibition analysis and a practical project in connection with exhibitions organized by the City History Museum (Borgarsögusafn)
3. Digital communication will be integrated into both aspects. Emphasis is placed on common themes and group work in the course.

The course is not taught remotely.

This is an overview course that introduces major theories of second language acquisition and how they influence language instruction. We will examine research on the cognitive, linguistic, individual, social and educational factors that affect the language learning process and language attainment. The role of input on language learning will be examined as well as the development of reading and writing skills in a second language. 

This seminar engages with theories on culture, narrative, and mediation. Active class participation is required.

All MA students in English are required to complete this seminar where they discuss relevant approaches to theory and research, their own research projects, preparing to introduce their findings at conferences and whorkshops, in Iceland or abroad. Evaluation is by participation: 2 short assignments and a presentation of a paper related to the student's coursework or final essay.

This course concerns the diverse connections between culture and language, as seen from the perspective of cultural history, social sciences and linguistics. Ancient and modern world languages will be introduced and their origins, influence and effects investigated. Written and spoken language will be discussed: what sorts of things are written, why and how? Rules and alternate perspectives on the nature of langauge will be considered, raising the question of how we understand man with respect to thought and language.

The enchanted worlds that Scottish writer J. M. Barrie created for Peter Pan, “the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up,” have been variously transformed by the author and others – not least the Disney Company and translations into most of the world’s languages. In this course we will examine some of the changes that Barrie’s characters and places have undergone through the passage of time through the prism of basic ideas and terms from adaptation theory. This is an intensive 6-week course with continuous assessment.

This course elucidates the early Chinese philosophy of education in the broadest sense of the term. During the fall semester, the focus will be on Confucian philosophy, beginning with the discussion of education and personal cultivation in the Confucian Analects. We will then move to selected parts of other important Confucian writings, such as the Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean), Daxue (The Great Learning), the Xueji (Records of Learning), the Mengzi and the Xunzi. Primary notions of the Chinese philosophy of education will be introduced and explained, including jiao 教 (teaching), xue 学 (study/emulation), xiuji 修己 and xiushen 修身 (cultivating onself), li 礼 (rituals), xing 性 (natural dispositions), and junzi 君子 (exemplary people), among others. We will also investigate the importance of role models in Confucian education.

In addition to these positive notions, we will explore some of their opposites as well, including phrases such as “rotten wood cannot be carved” (xiumu buke diao ye 朽木不可雕也), and descriptions of “petty people (xiao ren 小人),” or those who have not learned much. We will also look at descriptions of people who merely imitate but do not cultivate themselves, or pretenders. Exploring those who do not educate themselves properly helps define the contours of what education means.

Goals

Some of the main questions that will be raised (and possibly answered) are: How is education understood in early Chinese culture? What are its primary aims? What happens when education fails? Can education be bad or dangerous? What social and what “individualist” aspects do education and personal cultivation entail? How does one’s education influence others? What role do others play in education? Are role models necessary? What sort of roles do tradition and emulation play as methods of learning in Confucianism? And, finally, can tradition and emulation be overemphasized? What status does education generally play in Confucian philosophy?  

Approach and readings

We will mainly focus on the primary texts, namely, Analects, Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean), Daxue (The Great Learning), the Xueji (Records of Learning), the Mengzi and the Xunzi. Students may follow along with any translation (in English or their native language) of these classics. During the class we will likely read directly from the original, students may refer to ctext.org for all the abovementioned texts. The course is co-taught with Paul J. D’Ambrosio and his students at East China Normal University. No prior knowledge of Chinese philosophy is expected.

This course will examine the ways in which medieval literature has influenced modern English Literature & Culture and how that influence is being adapted in the digital age. The course will focus on Norse Mythology and investigate how these narratives have become entwined in the fabric of modern western culture. From JRR Tolkien and Neil Gaiman to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

This course is a review and examination of the developing field of ecocriticism in literary studies, and how ecocriticism itself as a way of examining environmental narration and imaginative literature is facing a crisis of its own.

We will look into the notion of “environment” and how literary texts portray and work with environments for narrative purposes.  We will consider environments in a  broadened sense, including not only  the purely physical, but also the digital environment and other non-physical environments such as  light, time, the human psyche and language itself.  How do writers navigate the relationship between narration and environment in its various manifestations.

We are likely to read fiction that allows us to explore the nature of storytelling in the midst of environmental crisis.  These works may include Elif Shafak’s The Island of Missing Trees; Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang; James Bradley’s Clade; as well as Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice; Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk; Memory of Water by Emmi Igtaranta; Oil on Water by Helon Habila; and Bangkok Wakes to Rain by Pitchaya Sudbanthad.  We may also read essays in the anthology Solastalgia, edited by Paul Bogard; a collection of short creative works by thirty four writers on our emotions in the face of disappearing worlds.

We may also read some theory and philosophy now being written on the subject as applied to literature; books such as The Crisis of Narration by Byung-Chul Han; Facing Gaia by Bruno Latour; as well as tracts on the environmental crises such as The Darkness Manifesto by Johan Eklöf and A Forest Journey: The Role of Trees in The Fate of Civilization by John Perlin, as well as essays by theorists Donna Haraway and Hito Steyerl. 

The final reading list will be posted later.

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 FRA022F Directed study: French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment 4e.

This project is for those students who are registered in FRA501F French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment and want to get more advanced knowledge of the subject matter. 

Conventional sociological or historical accounts tend to portray human life as if objects either are irrelevant or at best, passive and inert. This course follows the ‘material turn’ that has occurred in the social sciences and the humanities in the past 20 years and explores the importance of things for understanding human society and history. Drawing on examples from a wide range of disciplines from design history to archaeology, each week a different object is taken for study, illustrating the various disciplinary and theoretical approaches that have been taken to material culture in recent years. The course will be organized around weekly lectures, reading and discussion. The course will be taught in english.

This research project is directly associated with the methodological seminar on emotions. The associated seminar will run in the first half of term, followed by a research break in the second half of term where students will work on their own projects utilising the methodological approach or the theory of emotions in history or literature to analyse a work or several works of their own choice. This gives students the opportunity to do in-depth work on a text or set of texts that they may be interested in for their thesis, for instance.
It is not a requirement to attend the seminar for participation in the research project and so students familiar with (or interested in) emotion studies may take the research project independently.
Evaluation criteria is based on a single research paper due at the end of term. The topic selection is due after mid-term. Papers can be written in either English or Icelandic.

This methodological seminar focuses on the recent and rapidly expanding field of the history of emotion while seeking to apply emotion theory to literature. It traces the development of the ‘history of emotion’ across the multiple different fields, including psychology, neurology and history, followed by an in-depth critical work on emotion theory and its applicability to literature. It tackles questions such as what are literary emotions? Where are they located? How can they be defined and what is the relationship between historical and literary emotionality?

The seminar will expand widely across the theoretical background of emotion studies, presenting and discussing its major terminologies and theories. We will then shift to close reading of selected texts for the sake of reinforcing the methodological approach as a skill set to deepen the students’ understanding of the critical parameters and their application. Ultimately, we will seek to encourage and foster the independent critical work of the students on their own chosen texts, utilising the skill sets that they have acquired throughout the seminar to expand on texts of their own choice.

The seminar will run in the first half of term. The final set of classes will be held at the end of term where students will present their research projects (for those taking the associated 5 credit research project) or a potential research project or paper (for those interesting in attending solely the seminar). Readings will include both theoretical texts and literary works. The seminar will take place in English.

What does Sunset Boulevard, double entendres, self-censorship, the Coen Brothers, and #metoo have in common? They all reveal that Hollywood is not quite the fantasy it poses to be.

A very real place and industry within Los Angeles, California, Hollywood has led in film production since the beginning of narrative film, yet its magic is created within the bland and sometimes devastating concrete lots, sound stages and offices of producers and agents.

This course aims to explore the reality of Hollywood and how it has functioned over time, to examine and critique its presentation and reputation through film and media. The course includes critical viewings of films that are based on both the myth and reality of Hollywood as well as critical readings on historical context, news/gossip, and the history of American narrative film.

Only 35 seats are available for ENS352M. Once the course is filled please contact Nikkita (nhp1@hi.is) to be added onto a waiting list in case a spot opens up.

This research project is linked to the course ENS506G From Gothic Beginnings to Twentieth Century Fantasy and Romance: The British Historical Novel 1764 to 1950.

The course introduces students to the development of the British historical novel up to the middle of the 20th century. Its origins will be traced back to what is seen as the first Gothic novel as well as examining in some detail Walter Scott’s Waverley, which generally is referred to as the first historical novel. The course then outlines the development of the historical novel up to the middle of the 20th century and students read selected texts from this time period. Within this framework, the course explores the way that history has been used by writers across a variety of genres, such as romance and adventure. The course will also include discussions of history in television and film where relevant, along with discussions of relevant theories by both historians and cultural theorists.

The research project involves writing a research paper of 6500-7500 words (75%) and a short essay of 1800-2500 words (25%) OR writing a longer research essay of 8000-10000 words (see below on course assessment). For the short essay, students choose from a list of essay topics given out to students in ENS506G (or come up with their own topic, see below). For the research paper, students choose a topic of their own (or with the teacher’s help); please note that the teacher needs to approve your topic of choice.

The teacher will meet with the students registered for this course on a regular basis to discuss the research paper. Dates to be confirmed.

This seminar provides a historical and cross-cultural overview on the main linguistic and cultural areas of the Americas.

This course covers the nature of vocabulary acquisition: how vocabulary develops, is learned and taught. Various factors will be analyzed in detail, including, the role of pronunciation, word frequency, various learning strategies for vocabulary growth and considerable attention will be drawn to current research methodology in Vocabulary Acquisition. Students will review research as well as conduct a mini study.

Taught on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 am (2. and 3. year students only)

You are the perfect candidate if you have a burning desire to write fiction or poetry, and enjoy reading good books.

Aims include:

1. To sharpen awareness and improve skills through exercises in writing, and especially through revision

2. To provide practical criticism of work-in-progress in a workshop setting, along with advice about revisions and improvisation.

In addition to invoking the muse, students will learn practical writing skills such as organization, structure, characterization and dialogue. The course will also involve the examination of the work of key novel and short story writers, and poets. Throughout the course, students will develop their own work as well as improving their critical skills. Students will complete a short story or a small collection of poems by the end of the course.

Attendance requirement is 100% - you must attend one 1-hour presentation and one 2-hour workshop session per week. Not suitable for distance students.

Students who fulfil the prerequisites will be signed up. Sign up is on first come first served bases and there are 6 seats reserved for MA students and 6 seats reserved for BA students. Any unfilled seats for the course on August 30th will be offered to students on the waiting list. 

Training in various aspects of the writing and editing of scientific texts. Various kinds of texts (non-fiction) examined and evaluated. Training in reviewing and commenting on scientific texts and in other aspects of editorial work. The main emphasis will be on the writing of articles, but other kinds of texts will also be considered, both shorter (conference abstracts, reviews) and longer (theses, books), as well as research proposals. Discussion of guidelines for the preparation of manuscripts. Types of plagiarism and how to avoid them and find them. Texts on different subjects will be used as examples, especially writings in linguistics, literature and history. The book Skrifaðu bæði skýrt og rétt will be used as a textbook (Höskuldur Þráinsson 2015).

This course is open to students of many MA programmes in the School of Humanities, cf. the regulations of the individual subjects. Students in the MA programmes in Icelandic literature, Icelandic linguistics, Icelandic studies and Icelandic teaching can take the course as part of the MA course requirements in Icelandic literature or Icelandic linguistics. Students in the MA programme in Icelandic teaching can, however, not have this course as the only linguistics or literature course in their MA.

The European intellectual tradition is characterized by the strong links between academia and society. Many of the most important European thinkers of the 19th and 20th Centuries worked outside of the universities – and many of those who did pursue an ordinary academic career also were public commentators frequently intervening in political discussion of the day and in some cases gaining considerable influence. In this course we present a selection of European thinkers who have been important both as scholars and as public intellectuals. We read and discuss samples of their work and look at critical discussion of their ideas. We also reflect on the time and place of the "European" – to what extent their work is quinessentially Eurocentric and to what extent awareness of cultural contingency emerges.

This class will focus on film and television adaptations, with scripts derived from short stories, canonical works, popular and pulp fiction, as well as graphic novels and comics.

In this course we will focus on various literary works and corresponding adaptation theories relating to film adaptations and current television series. Key issues and concepts in this course  will be taught in relation to Modernism/Postmodernism and Origin/Intertextual play in Adaptation Theory and Cinema semiotics.

Course requirement:
Apart from the obligatory course text Adaptations and Appropriation by Julie Sanders, we will read significant articles on adaptation as well as selected short stories (provided by the tutor) that have undergone the transition process and been adapted to into films. Students are encouraged to participate in discussions in class.

The subjects of the course are images of Iceland as they are constructed and presented in popular contemporary cultural, i.e., pop music, films, and television. The seminar will explore the notion that these images are created, sustained, and enacted in each contemporary culture. The images of Iceland and the North are also placed in the context of historical research in the field of imagology. In this way, students are encouraged to critically examine and analyze how images of the country and the nation are created, shaped, and practiced in an active interplay of internal and external influences.

Daoist thinkers, notably the authors of the Daodejing 道德经 and the Zhuangzi 庄子, reacted critically to some aspects of the Confucian philosophy of education, often arguing that it is likely to lead to dogmatism and hypocrisy. Instead, they suggest a less socially bound and more independent kind of learning or cultivation that takes seriously the “way of the world,” or the general cosmological tendency and how to align with it. They speak, for instance, of unlearning and diminishing the self. As an alternative to concentrating on learning from classics and others, Daoist texts advocate being more natural, acting in ziran 自然 (self-so) and wuwei 无为 (non-action) manners.  

After focusing on Daoism for the approximately first half of the semester, we will move to Xuanxue 玄学 philosophy, sometimes translated as “Neo-Daoism,” where the relationship between Daoism and Confucianism is critically reimagined. Neo-Daoist thinkers often found creative ways to intertwin the arguments of early Confucian texts with Daoist ones. Here we find new meanings of important terms such as xing 性 (human nature) and xue 学 and reimaged understandings of role models. While early Daoist classics such as the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi might be read as coming down very harshly on any form of imitation or study of past models favoring being self-so and practicing non-action instead, Xuanxue thinkers find an alternative way to think about learning. According to prominent Xuanxue thinkers Daoist ideas of self-so and non-action are actually commensurable with studying. Rather than learn the content of what others have done, one can learn how to do what they do, which involves being self-so and practicing non-action. This is a third perspective on learning, which critically reimagines the relationship between classical Confucian and Daoist views on education.

Goals

Some of the main questions that will be raised (and possibly answered) are: How is education understood in early Chinese culture? What are its primary aims? What happens when education fails? Can education be bad or dangerous? What social and what “individualist” aspects do education and personal cultivation entail? How does one’s education influence others? What role do others play in education? Are role models necessary? What sort of roles do tradition and emulation play as methods of learning in Confucianism? And, can tradition and emulation be overemphasized? What status does education generally play in Confucian philosophy?  

Approach and readings

We will mainly focus on the primary texts, namely, Daodejing, Zhuangzi and Neo-Daoist writings. Students may follow along with any translation (in English or their native language) of these classics. During the class we will likely read directly from the original, students may refer to ctext.org for most of the abovementioned texts. The course is co-taught with Paul J. D’Ambrosio and his students at East China Normal University. No prior knowledge of Chinese philosophy is expected, but students who do not take the prior course on Confucianism (autumn 2024) are encouraged to watch recordings from that course, which will be made available.

Why are we terrified and fascinated by monsters? Why do they disgust us and at the same time excite our desire? What does monstrosity as the ultimate form of otherness teach us about human identity and society? How do cultural ideas about race, gender, sexuality, nationhood, and class spawn our notions of monstrosity? In this course we will grapple with these questions by looking at a sampling of grotesque, transgressive, hybridized, disfigured, and otherwise hideous forms of being in Middle English literature: monstrous races, werewolves, ghosts, giants, demons, gods, and fantastic beasts. We will read widely across genres, including chivalric romance, travel writing, fables, hagiography, religious texts, lyric poetry and more. Critical readings will be drawn from a variety of perspectives (deconstruction, post-humanism, psychoanalysis, gender criticism, ecocritical theory) to reflect the complex and multidisciplinary nature of the topic.

The course deals with interconnections between political radicalism, culture, tradition and power. We will focus on contemporary representations of dissent in particular, look at the discourse of democracy and cultural difference, reactions to and criticism of protest in the Western political tradition and dissent in more repressive political systems. The role of intellectuals and writers will be explored as well as the function of artistic expression and design in transforming cultural and social environments. We will also discuss media and social media discourse in connection with an attempt to understand the various and sometimes contradictory objectives of public institutions. A few points of conflict will be discussed that to some extent expose fundamental conflicts in liberal democratic societies such as questions about the wisdom and ignorance of publics, reactions to climate change, inequality and extreme poverty. Finally corruption and power will be discussed as well as social and cultural expression, the possibilities and limitations of freedom of speech, the use and abuse of information, disinformation, secrecy, fake and “fake news”.

MA students are permitted to complete a total of 15 credits in supervised research projects. A project is selected in consultation with a teacher at the MA level, and that teacher must approve the sudent's research plans before he or she is permitted to register for a study of this kind. Research projects should either be an extension of a course or courses that students have already completed in the MA program or be within their special field of interest.

Long before contemporary analyses of human-induced environmental degradation, Indigenous and feminist authors wrote stories that resisted hierarchies of the human over other lifeworlds. This course will use the themes, "feminism" and "environment" to study the works of women writers such as Leslie Marmon Silko, bell hooks, Willa Cather, Maria Lugones and Muriel Rukeyser whose writings deepen and problematize both terms. 

Together we will ask, how have colonial histories impacted which authors are seen as "environmental" or "feminist"?  How does environmental protection materialize in the works of these authors? Further, what does environmental literature mean and how could debates in feminist theory help us answer such questions?

Filled with suspense, murder, and mayhem as well as macabre beings and strange events, Gothic fiction emerged in the later part of the eighteenth century. Despite increasing criticism of the genre in the early nineteenth century, Gothic fiction morphed and proliferated during the Victorian Era, both in England and America, with aspects of it cropping up in various subgenres of literature during this period. Sometimes controversial, it has remained popular, owing largely to its unsettling plots and terrifying-- or terrified-- characters. Making the familiar strange and the strange stranger, this writing explores topics such as alienation, technology, taboo, human psychology, romance, and religion, to name a few. It also examines “Otherness” by depicting beings, groups, or identities that society wishes to repress or disavow, thus forcing readers to confront and occasionally even to challenge their fears. In this course, we will delve into the afore-mentioned subjects by focusing on select Gothic texts of the Romantic Period by British novelists such as Ann Radcliffe (The Italian), Jane Austen (Northanger Abbey), and Mary Shelley (Frankenstein), and by American writers such as Washington Irving (“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”) and Edgar Allan Poe (“The Fall of the House of Usher”).  

A favourite author of and inspiration to Jane Austen and keeper of the robes to Queen Charlotte, Frances Burney (1752-1840) was an eighteenth-century English novelist and playwright who is also known as Fanny Burney. Burney lived in France during the Napoleonic Wars and her French husband Alexander D’Arblay had supported the French Revolution, a political theme covered in her novel The Wanderer. Her novel Camilla (1796), sold as a subscription, earned her an incredibly large sum that enabled her to buy a house for her family. Throughout her life, Burney kept journals that serve as a record of her time in the eighteenth-century court, eighteenth-century artistic and intellectual high society, and of her time in France. Burney’s work engages with issues of class, inheritance, charity, and political struggles in France and Britain. We will read Burney’s novels and extracts from her letters and diaries. This course will cover the social, political, economic, and protofeminist commentary in Burney’s work, her narrative style, details of her life, and her influence on other novelists, such as Austen.

Recent years have seen an increased focus on data collection and statistical analysis within the humanities. This is particularly apparent in growing branches such as psycholinguistics, cognitive literary studies and experimental philosophy, to name a few. The push towards quantitative methods occurs at a time where the validity and reliability of well-established statistical methods are called into question in other fields, with increased demands of replicability and open access as well as data protection and responsibility. In this course, students explore the value of quantitative methods in their field while getting training in the collection and analysis of data. A diverse set of research methods will be introduced, ranging from surveys to corpus analysis and experiments in which participants’ response to stimuli (such as words, texts or audio-visual materials) is quantified. Basic concepts in statistics will be reviewed, enabling students to know the difference between descriptive and inferential statistics, understand statistical significance and interpret visual representations of data in graphs. The course will be largely practical and students are expected to apply their knowledge of data collection and analysis under the instructor’s guidance. Students will work on a project within their own discipline but will also explore the possibility of cross-disciplinary work. Open source tools such as R Studio will be used for all assignments but no prior knowledge of the software or statistics in general is required. The course is suitable for all students within the humanities who want to collect quantitative data to answer interesting questions and could therefore be a useful preparation for a BA or MA project.

This seminar provides a historical and cross-cultural overview on main trends in literature and film in different parts of the Americas.

This is an overview course that introduces major research methods in second language acquisition and teaching. Qualitative and quantitative research methods will be explored and their role in interpreting second language development. Student will examine real studies, develop a research plan, and conduct a pilot study. 

Following up on The British Historical Novel 1764-1950, this course (though also independent of the previous course) traces the development of the British historical novel from the second half of the 20th century to the present day. It explores the way that history has been used by writers of the period across a variety of genres. Historical theory by historians and cultural theorists is also looked at in some detail, where relevant.

NB. The course is linked to the undergraduate course ENS607G The British Historical Novel since 1950; students in ENS225F attend classes in ENS607G. Also, the teacher will meet with the students registered for this course two or three times during the term (online if necessary) to discuss the research paper and students’ progress. 

The course deals with autobiographies, life writings and texts of memory from the second half of the 20th century and early 21st century in France and other French-speaking countries, such as Senegal, Algeria and Morocco.  What will be explored is to what degree core elements of the autobiography  – the self, the live story and history – come together or collide in the works of different authors. The emphasis will be on autobiographical writings based on memories of social, cultural, and political experiences and conditions.  A key focus will be on the roles of memory and forgetting as well on the boundaries between fiction ad reality in autobiographical narratives.  

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

Students of the course can take a 4 ECTS Directed Study alongside it, FRA026F, and must contact the teacher to enroll before October 1 to sign up for it. 

Students can take this 4 ECTS directed study alongside the course FRA402F Autobiographies where they can conduct an individual research on an aspect of the course.

Students must contact the supervisor to request registration into the project no later than October 1, 2024.

This is an overview course that introduces major theories of second language acquisition and how they influence language instruction. We will examine research on the cognitive, linguistic, individual, social and educational factors that affect the language learning process and language attainment. The role of input on language learning will be examined as well as the development of reading and writing skills in a second language. 

All MA students in English are required to complete this seminar where they discuss relevant approaches to theory and research, their own research projects, preparing to introduce their findings at conferences and whorkshops, in Iceland or abroad. Evaluation is by participation: 2 short assignments and a presentation of a paper related to the student's coursework or final essay.

The enchanted worlds that Scottish writer J. M. Barrie created for Peter Pan, “the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up,” have been variously transformed by the author and others – not least the Disney Company and translations into most of the world’s languages. In this course we will examine some of the changes that Barrie’s characters and places have undergone through the passage of time through the prism of basic ideas and terms from adaptation theory. This is an intensive 6-week course with continuous assessment.

This course elucidates the early Chinese philosophy of education in the broadest sense of the term. During the fall semester, the focus will be on Confucian philosophy, beginning with the discussion of education and personal cultivation in the Confucian Analects. We will then move to selected parts of other important Confucian writings, such as the Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean), Daxue (The Great Learning), the Xueji (Records of Learning), the Mengzi and the Xunzi. Primary notions of the Chinese philosophy of education will be introduced and explained, including jiao 教 (teaching), xue 学 (study/emulation), xiuji 修己 and xiushen 修身 (cultivating onself), li 礼 (rituals), xing 性 (natural dispositions), and junzi 君子 (exemplary people), among others. We will also investigate the importance of role models in Confucian education.

In addition to these positive notions, we will explore some of their opposites as well, including phrases such as “rotten wood cannot be carved” (xiumu buke diao ye 朽木不可雕也), and descriptions of “petty people (xiao ren 小人),” or those who have not learned much. We will also look at descriptions of people who merely imitate but do not cultivate themselves, or pretenders. Exploring those who do not educate themselves properly helps define the contours of what education means.

Goals

Some of the main questions that will be raised (and possibly answered) are: How is education understood in early Chinese culture? What are its primary aims? What happens when education fails? Can education be bad or dangerous? What social and what “individualist” aspects do education and personal cultivation entail? How does one’s education influence others? What role do others play in education? Are role models necessary? What sort of roles do tradition and emulation play as methods of learning in Confucianism? And, finally, can tradition and emulation be overemphasized? What status does education generally play in Confucian philosophy?  

Approach and readings

We will mainly focus on the primary texts, namely, Analects, Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean), Daxue (The Great Learning), the Xueji (Records of Learning), the Mengzi and the Xunzi. Students may follow along with any translation (in English or their native language) of these classics. During the class we will likely read directly from the original, students may refer to ctext.org for all the abovementioned texts. The course is co-taught with Paul J. D’Ambrosio and his students at East China Normal University. No prior knowledge of Chinese philosophy is expected.

This course will examine the ways in which medieval literature has influenced modern English Literature & Culture and how that influence is being adapted in the digital age. The course will focus on Norse Mythology and investigate how these narratives have become entwined in the fabric of modern western culture. From JRR Tolkien and Neil Gaiman to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

This course is a review and examination of the developing field of ecocriticism in literary studies, and how ecocriticism itself as a way of examining environmental narration and imaginative literature is facing a crisis of its own.

We will look into the notion of “environment” and how literary texts portray and work with environments for narrative purposes.  We will consider environments in a  broadened sense, including not only  the purely physical, but also the digital environment and other non-physical environments such as  light, time, the human psyche and language itself.  How do writers navigate the relationship between narration and environment in its various manifestations.

We are likely to read fiction that allows us to explore the nature of storytelling in the midst of environmental crisis.  These works may include Elif Shafak’s The Island of Missing Trees; Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang; James Bradley’s Clade; as well as Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice; Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk; Memory of Water by Emmi Igtaranta; Oil on Water by Helon Habila; and Bangkok Wakes to Rain by Pitchaya Sudbanthad.  We may also read essays in the anthology Solastalgia, edited by Paul Bogard; a collection of short creative works by thirty four writers on our emotions in the face of disappearing worlds.

We may also read some theory and philosophy now being written on the subject as applied to literature; books such as The Crisis of Narration by Byung-Chul Han; Facing Gaia by Bruno Latour; as well as tracts on the environmental crises such as The Darkness Manifesto by Johan Eklöf and A Forest Journey: The Role of Trees in The Fate of Civilization by John Perlin, as well as essays by theorists Donna Haraway and Hito Steyerl. 

The final reading list will be posted later.

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 FRA022F Directed study: French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment 4e.

This project is for those students who are registered in FRA501F French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment and want to get more advanced knowledge of the subject matter. 

Conventional sociological or historical accounts tend to portray human life as if objects either are irrelevant or at best, passive and inert. This course follows the ‘material turn’ that has occurred in the social sciences and the humanities in the past 20 years and explores the importance of things for understanding human society and history. Drawing on examples from a wide range of disciplines from design history to archaeology, each week a different object is taken for study, illustrating the various disciplinary and theoretical approaches that have been taken to material culture in recent years. The course will be organized around weekly lectures, reading and discussion. The course will be taught in english.

This research project is directly associated with the methodological seminar on emotions. The associated seminar will run in the first half of term, followed by a research break in the second half of term where students will work on their own projects utilising the methodological approach or the theory of emotions in history or literature to analyse a work or several works of their own choice. This gives students the opportunity to do in-depth work on a text or set of texts that they may be interested in for their thesis, for instance.
It is not a requirement to attend the seminar for participation in the research project and so students familiar with (or interested in) emotion studies may take the research project independently.
Evaluation criteria is based on a single research paper due at the end of term. The topic selection is due after mid-term. Papers can be written in either English or Icelandic.

This methodological seminar focuses on the recent and rapidly expanding field of the history of emotion while seeking to apply emotion theory to literature. It traces the development of the ‘history of emotion’ across the multiple different fields, including psychology, neurology and history, followed by an in-depth critical work on emotion theory and its applicability to literature. It tackles questions such as what are literary emotions? Where are they located? How can they be defined and what is the relationship between historical and literary emotionality?

The seminar will expand widely across the theoretical background of emotion studies, presenting and discussing its major terminologies and theories. We will then shift to close reading of selected texts for the sake of reinforcing the methodological approach as a skill set to deepen the students’ understanding of the critical parameters and their application. Ultimately, we will seek to encourage and foster the independent critical work of the students on their own chosen texts, utilising the skill sets that they have acquired throughout the seminar to expand on texts of their own choice.

The seminar will run in the first half of term. The final set of classes will be held at the end of term where students will present their research projects (for those taking the associated 5 credit research project) or a potential research project or paper (for those interesting in attending solely the seminar). Readings will include both theoretical texts and literary works. The seminar will take place in English.

What does Sunset Boulevard, double entendres, self-censorship, the Coen Brothers, and #metoo have in common? They all reveal that Hollywood is not quite the fantasy it poses to be.

A very real place and industry within Los Angeles, California, Hollywood has led in film production since the beginning of narrative film, yet its magic is created within the bland and sometimes devastating concrete lots, sound stages and offices of producers and agents.

This course aims to explore the reality of Hollywood and how it has functioned over time, to examine and critique its presentation and reputation through film and media. The course includes critical viewings of films that are based on both the myth and reality of Hollywood as well as critical readings on historical context, news/gossip, and the history of American narrative film.

Only 35 seats are available for ENS352M. Once the course is filled please contact Nikkita (nhp1@hi.is) to be added onto a waiting list in case a spot opens up.

This research project is linked to the course ENS506G From Gothic Beginnings to Twentieth Century Fantasy and Romance: The British Historical Novel 1764 to 1950.

The course introduces students to the development of the British historical novel up to the middle of the 20th century. Its origins will be traced back to what is seen as the first Gothic novel as well as examining in some detail Walter Scott’s Waverley, which generally is referred to as the first historical novel. The course then outlines the development of the historical novel up to the middle of the 20th century and students read selected texts from this time period. Within this framework, the course explores the way that history has been used by writers across a variety of genres, such as romance and adventure. The course will also include discussions of history in television and film where relevant, along with discussions of relevant theories by both historians and cultural theorists.

The research project involves writing a research paper of 6500-7500 words (75%) and a short essay of 1800-2500 words (25%) OR writing a longer research essay of 8000-10000 words (see below on course assessment). For the short essay, students choose from a list of essay topics given out to students in ENS506G (or come up with their own topic, see below). For the research paper, students choose a topic of their own (or with the teacher’s help); please note that the teacher needs to approve your topic of choice.

The teacher will meet with the students registered for this course on a regular basis to discuss the research paper. Dates to be confirmed.

This seminar provides a historical and cross-cultural overview on the main linguistic and cultural areas of the Americas.

This course covers the nature of vocabulary acquisition: how vocabulary develops, is learned and taught. Various factors will be analyzed in detail, including, the role of pronunciation, word frequency, various learning strategies for vocabulary growth and considerable attention will be drawn to current research methodology in Vocabulary Acquisition. Students will review research as well as conduct a mini study.

Taught on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 am (2. and 3. year students only)

You are the perfect candidate if you have a burning desire to write fiction or poetry, and enjoy reading good books.

Aims include:

1. To sharpen awareness and improve skills through exercises in writing, and especially through revision

2. To provide practical criticism of work-in-progress in a workshop setting, along with advice about revisions and improvisation.

In addition to invoking the muse, students will learn practical writing skills such as organization, structure, characterization and dialogue. The course will also involve the examination of the work of key novel and short story writers, and poets. Throughout the course, students will develop their own work as well as improving their critical skills. Students will complete a short story or a small collection of poems by the end of the course.

Attendance requirement is 100% - you must attend one 1-hour presentation and one 2-hour workshop session per week. Not suitable for distance students.

Students who fulfil the prerequisites will be signed up. Sign up is on first come first served bases and there are 6 seats reserved for MA students and 6 seats reserved for BA students. Any unfilled seats for the course on August 30th will be offered to students on the waiting list. 

Training in various aspects of the writing and editing of scientific texts. Various kinds of texts (non-fiction) examined and evaluated. Training in reviewing and commenting on scientific texts and in other aspects of editorial work. The main emphasis will be on the writing of articles, but other kinds of texts will also be considered, both shorter (conference abstracts, reviews) and longer (theses, books), as well as research proposals. Discussion of guidelines for the preparation of manuscripts. Types of plagiarism and how to avoid them and find them. Texts on different subjects will be used as examples, especially writings in linguistics, literature and history. The book Skrifaðu bæði skýrt og rétt will be used as a textbook (Höskuldur Þráinsson 2015).

This course is open to students of many MA programmes in the School of Humanities, cf. the regulations of the individual subjects. Students in the MA programmes in Icelandic literature, Icelandic linguistics, Icelandic studies and Icelandic teaching can take the course as part of the MA course requirements in Icelandic literature or Icelandic linguistics. Students in the MA programme in Icelandic teaching can, however, not have this course as the only linguistics or literature course in their MA.

MA-thesis in Literature, Culture and Media.

The European intellectual tradition is characterized by the strong links between academia and society. Many of the most important European thinkers of the 19th and 20th Centuries worked outside of the universities – and many of those who did pursue an ordinary academic career also were public commentators frequently intervening in political discussion of the day and in some cases gaining considerable influence. In this course we present a selection of European thinkers who have been important both as scholars and as public intellectuals. We read and discuss samples of their work and look at critical discussion of their ideas. We also reflect on the time and place of the "European" – to what extent their work is quinessentially Eurocentric and to what extent awareness of cultural contingency emerges.

The subjects of the course are images of Iceland as they are constructed and presented in popular contemporary cultural, i.e., pop music, films, and television. The seminar will explore the notion that these images are created, sustained, and enacted in each contemporary culture. The images of Iceland and the North are also placed in the context of historical research in the field of imagology. In this way, students are encouraged to critically examine and analyze how images of the country and the nation are created, shaped, and practiced in an active interplay of internal and external influences.

Daoist thinkers, notably the authors of the Daodejing 道德经 and the Zhuangzi 庄子, reacted critically to some aspects of the Confucian philosophy of education, often arguing that it is likely to lead to dogmatism and hypocrisy. Instead, they suggest a less socially bound and more independent kind of learning or cultivation that takes seriously the “way of the world,” or the general cosmological tendency and how to align with it. They speak, for instance, of unlearning and diminishing the self. As an alternative to concentrating on learning from classics and others, Daoist texts advocate being more natural, acting in ziran 自然 (self-so) and wuwei 无为 (non-action) manners.  

After focusing on Daoism for the approximately first half of the semester, we will move to Xuanxue 玄学 philosophy, sometimes translated as “Neo-Daoism,” where the relationship between Daoism and Confucianism is critically reimagined. Neo-Daoist thinkers often found creative ways to intertwin the arguments of early Confucian texts with Daoist ones. Here we find new meanings of important terms such as xing 性 (human nature) and xue 学 and reimaged understandings of role models. While early Daoist classics such as the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi might be read as coming down very harshly on any form of imitation or study of past models favoring being self-so and practicing non-action instead, Xuanxue thinkers find an alternative way to think about learning. According to prominent Xuanxue thinkers Daoist ideas of self-so and non-action are actually commensurable with studying. Rather than learn the content of what others have done, one can learn how to do what they do, which involves being self-so and practicing non-action. This is a third perspective on learning, which critically reimagines the relationship between classical Confucian and Daoist views on education.

Goals

Some of the main questions that will be raised (and possibly answered) are: How is education understood in early Chinese culture? What are its primary aims? What happens when education fails? Can education be bad or dangerous? What social and what “individualist” aspects do education and personal cultivation entail? How does one’s education influence others? What role do others play in education? Are role models necessary? What sort of roles do tradition and emulation play as methods of learning in Confucianism? And, can tradition and emulation be overemphasized? What status does education generally play in Confucian philosophy?  

Approach and readings

We will mainly focus on the primary texts, namely, Daodejing, Zhuangzi and Neo-Daoist writings. Students may follow along with any translation (in English or their native language) of these classics. During the class we will likely read directly from the original, students may refer to ctext.org for most of the abovementioned texts. The course is co-taught with Paul J. D’Ambrosio and his students at East China Normal University. No prior knowledge of Chinese philosophy is expected, but students who do not take the prior course on Confucianism (autumn 2024) are encouraged to watch recordings from that course, which will be made available.

Why are we terrified and fascinated by monsters? Why do they disgust us and at the same time excite our desire? What does monstrosity as the ultimate form of otherness teach us about human identity and society? How do cultural ideas about race, gender, sexuality, nationhood, and class spawn our notions of monstrosity? In this course we will grapple with these questions by looking at a sampling of grotesque, transgressive, hybridized, disfigured, and otherwise hideous forms of being in Middle English literature: monstrous races, werewolves, ghosts, giants, demons, gods, and fantastic beasts. We will read widely across genres, including chivalric romance, travel writing, fables, hagiography, religious texts, lyric poetry and more. Critical readings will be drawn from a variety of perspectives (deconstruction, post-humanism, psychoanalysis, gender criticism, ecocritical theory) to reflect the complex and multidisciplinary nature of the topic.

The course deals with interconnections between political radicalism, culture, tradition and power. We will focus on contemporary representations of dissent in particular, look at the discourse of democracy and cultural difference, reactions to and criticism of protest in the Western political tradition and dissent in more repressive political systems. The role of intellectuals and writers will be explored as well as the function of artistic expression and design in transforming cultural and social environments. We will also discuss media and social media discourse in connection with an attempt to understand the various and sometimes contradictory objectives of public institutions. A few points of conflict will be discussed that to some extent expose fundamental conflicts in liberal democratic societies such as questions about the wisdom and ignorance of publics, reactions to climate change, inequality and extreme poverty. Finally corruption and power will be discussed as well as social and cultural expression, the possibilities and limitations of freedom of speech, the use and abuse of information, disinformation, secrecy, fake and “fake news”.

MA students are permitted to complete a total of 15 credits in supervised research projects. A project is selected in consultation with a teacher at the MA level, and that teacher must approve the sudent's research plans before he or she is permitted to register for a study of this kind. Research projects should either be an extension of a course or courses that students have already completed in the MA program or be within their special field of interest.

Long before contemporary analyses of human-induced environmental degradation, Indigenous and feminist authors wrote stories that resisted hierarchies of the human over other lifeworlds. This course will use the themes, "feminism" and "environment" to study the works of women writers such as Leslie Marmon Silko, bell hooks, Willa Cather, Maria Lugones and Muriel Rukeyser whose writings deepen and problematize both terms. 

Together we will ask, how have colonial histories impacted which authors are seen as "environmental" or "feminist"?  How does environmental protection materialize in the works of these authors? Further, what does environmental literature mean and how could debates in feminist theory help us answer such questions?

Filled with suspense, murder, and mayhem as well as macabre beings and strange events, Gothic fiction emerged in the later part of the eighteenth century. Despite increasing criticism of the genre in the early nineteenth century, Gothic fiction morphed and proliferated during the Victorian Era, both in England and America, with aspects of it cropping up in various subgenres of literature during this period. Sometimes controversial, it has remained popular, owing largely to its unsettling plots and terrifying-- or terrified-- characters. Making the familiar strange and the strange stranger, this writing explores topics such as alienation, technology, taboo, human psychology, romance, and religion, to name a few. It also examines “Otherness” by depicting beings, groups, or identities that society wishes to repress or disavow, thus forcing readers to confront and occasionally even to challenge their fears. In this course, we will delve into the afore-mentioned subjects by focusing on select Gothic texts of the Romantic Period by British novelists such as Ann Radcliffe (The Italian), Jane Austen (Northanger Abbey), and Mary Shelley (Frankenstein), and by American writers such as Washington Irving (“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”) and Edgar Allan Poe (“The Fall of the House of Usher”).  

A favourite author of and inspiration to Jane Austen and keeper of the robes to Queen Charlotte, Frances Burney (1752-1840) was an eighteenth-century English novelist and playwright who is also known as Fanny Burney. Burney lived in France during the Napoleonic Wars and her French husband Alexander D’Arblay had supported the French Revolution, a political theme covered in her novel The Wanderer. Her novel Camilla (1796), sold as a subscription, earned her an incredibly large sum that enabled her to buy a house for her family. Throughout her life, Burney kept journals that serve as a record of her time in the eighteenth-century court, eighteenth-century artistic and intellectual high society, and of her time in France. Burney’s work engages with issues of class, inheritance, charity, and political struggles in France and Britain. We will read Burney’s novels and extracts from her letters and diaries. This course will cover the social, political, economic, and protofeminist commentary in Burney’s work, her narrative style, details of her life, and her influence on other novelists, such as Austen.

Recent years have seen an increased focus on data collection and statistical analysis within the humanities. This is particularly apparent in growing branches such as psycholinguistics, cognitive literary studies and experimental philosophy, to name a few. The push towards quantitative methods occurs at a time where the validity and reliability of well-established statistical methods are called into question in other fields, with increased demands of replicability and open access as well as data protection and responsibility. In this course, students explore the value of quantitative methods in their field while getting training in the collection and analysis of data. A diverse set of research methods will be introduced, ranging from surveys to corpus analysis and experiments in which participants’ response to stimuli (such as words, texts or audio-visual materials) is quantified. Basic concepts in statistics will be reviewed, enabling students to know the difference between descriptive and inferential statistics, understand statistical significance and interpret visual representations of data in graphs. The course will be largely practical and students are expected to apply their knowledge of data collection and analysis under the instructor’s guidance. Students will work on a project within their own discipline but will also explore the possibility of cross-disciplinary work. Open source tools such as R Studio will be used for all assignments but no prior knowledge of the software or statistics in general is required. The course is suitable for all students within the humanities who want to collect quantitative data to answer interesting questions and could therefore be a useful preparation for a BA or MA project.

This seminar provides a historical and cross-cultural overview on main trends in literature and film in different parts of the Americas.

This is an overview course that introduces major research methods in second language acquisition and teaching. Qualitative and quantitative research methods will be explored and their role in interpreting second language development. Student will examine real studies, develop a research plan, and conduct a pilot study. 

Following up on The British Historical Novel 1764-1950, this course (though also independent of the previous course) traces the development of the British historical novel from the second half of the 20th century to the present day. It explores the way that history has been used by writers of the period across a variety of genres. Historical theory by historians and cultural theorists is also looked at in some detail, where relevant.

NB. The course is linked to the undergraduate course ENS607G The British Historical Novel since 1950; students in ENS225F attend classes in ENS607G. Also, the teacher will meet with the students registered for this course two or three times during the term (online if necessary) to discuss the research paper and students’ progress. 

The course deals with autobiographies, life writings and texts of memory from the second half of the 20th century and early 21st century in France and other French-speaking countries, such as Senegal, Algeria and Morocco.  What will be explored is to what degree core elements of the autobiography  – the self, the live story and history – come together or collide in the works of different authors. The emphasis will be on autobiographical writings based on memories of social, cultural, and political experiences and conditions.  A key focus will be on the roles of memory and forgetting as well on the boundaries between fiction ad reality in autobiographical narratives.  

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

Students of the course can take a 4 ECTS Directed Study alongside it, FRA026F, and must contact the teacher to enroll before October 1 to sign up for it. 

Students can take this 4 ECTS directed study alongside the course FRA402F Autobiographies where they can conduct an individual research on an aspect of the course.

Students must contact the supervisor to request registration into the project no later than October 1, 2024.

MA-thesis in Literature, Culture and Media.

In the courses Communication channels I and Communication channels II, the basics of methods for the dissemination of cultural material in the humanities and social sciences are presented. Communication channels I is in the fall semester, while Communication channels II is in the spring semester. 

In Communication channels I, the students are working with a) text and images in the first half of the semester and b) short documentaries in the second half of the course. Each subject weighs 50% in the course. Concerning a) Students will receive training in article writing and discourse analysis on the one hand and use of images and image analysis on the other.  Concerning b) Students work on making short documentaries. It includes basic training in screenwriting, shooting and editing, and students work in groups on a documentary, according to a specific theme. 

There are no exams in the course. Instead, students work on projects, individual and group projects. They are the following:

1. Analysis of texts and images
2. An article with an image on a specific theme for publication, about 800 words.
3. A group project where students work on a short documentary that is shown at the end of the course. Emphasis is placed on common themes and group work in the course. The course is not taught remotely.

In the course Communication channels II during the spring semester the students work with the following communication methods: a) oral presentation and b) exhibitions of cultural and historical material. Digital communication will be integrated into both aspects.

The students will work with the basics of oral presentation and practice in smaller and larger groups. Basic issues regarding the organization of conferences and seminars and their management will also be reviewed and a conference is held where all students present their projects. Digital communication will also be integrated into this section. Following is a section about exhibitions with connection to digital communication. The basics of exhibitions and different ways of presentation will be discussed.  The basics of digital communication will be covered, what are the main channels, advantages and disadvantages, and what rules apply to the presentation of texts on the web.

There are no exams in the course. Instead, students work on projects, individual and group projects. They are the following:

1. Lecture at a conference and other projects in that context
2. Exhibition analysis and a practical project in connection with exhibitions organized by the City History Museum (Borgarsögusafn)
3. Digital communication will be integrated into both aspects. Emphasis is placed on common themes and group work in the course.

The course is not taught remotely.

This is an overview course that introduces major theories of second language acquisition and how they influence language instruction. We will examine research on the cognitive, linguistic, individual, social and educational factors that affect the language learning process and language attainment. The role of input on language learning will be examined as well as the development of reading and writing skills in a second language. 

This seminar engages with theories on culture, narrative, and mediation. Active class participation is required.

All MA students in English are required to complete this seminar where they discuss relevant approaches to theory and research, their own research projects, preparing to introduce their findings at conferences and whorkshops, in Iceland or abroad. Evaluation is by participation: 2 short assignments and a presentation of a paper related to the student's coursework or final essay.

This course concerns the diverse connections between culture and language, as seen from the perspective of cultural history, social sciences and linguistics. Ancient and modern world languages will be introduced and their origins, influence and effects investigated. Written and spoken language will be discussed: what sorts of things are written, why and how? Rules and alternate perspectives on the nature of langauge will be considered, raising the question of how we understand man with respect to thought and language.

The enchanted worlds that Scottish writer J. M. Barrie created for Peter Pan, “the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up,” have been variously transformed by the author and others – not least the Disney Company and translations into most of the world’s languages. In this course we will examine some of the changes that Barrie’s characters and places have undergone through the passage of time through the prism of basic ideas and terms from adaptation theory. This is an intensive 6-week course with continuous assessment.

This course elucidates the early Chinese philosophy of education in the broadest sense of the term. During the fall semester, the focus will be on Confucian philosophy, beginning with the discussion of education and personal cultivation in the Confucian Analects. We will then move to selected parts of other important Confucian writings, such as the Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean), Daxue (The Great Learning), the Xueji (Records of Learning), the Mengzi and the Xunzi. Primary notions of the Chinese philosophy of education will be introduced and explained, including jiao 教 (teaching), xue 学 (study/emulation), xiuji 修己 and xiushen 修身 (cultivating onself), li 礼 (rituals), xing 性 (natural dispositions), and junzi 君子 (exemplary people), among others. We will also investigate the importance of role models in Confucian education.

In addition to these positive notions, we will explore some of their opposites as well, including phrases such as “rotten wood cannot be carved” (xiumu buke diao ye 朽木不可雕也), and descriptions of “petty people (xiao ren 小人),” or those who have not learned much. We will also look at descriptions of people who merely imitate but do not cultivate themselves, or pretenders. Exploring those who do not educate themselves properly helps define the contours of what education means.

Goals

Some of the main questions that will be raised (and possibly answered) are: How is education understood in early Chinese culture? What are its primary aims? What happens when education fails? Can education be bad or dangerous? What social and what “individualist” aspects do education and personal cultivation entail? How does one’s education influence others? What role do others play in education? Are role models necessary? What sort of roles do tradition and emulation play as methods of learning in Confucianism? And, finally, can tradition and emulation be overemphasized? What status does education generally play in Confucian philosophy?  

Approach and readings

We will mainly focus on the primary texts, namely, Analects, Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean), Daxue (The Great Learning), the Xueji (Records of Learning), the Mengzi and the Xunzi. Students may follow along with any translation (in English or their native language) of these classics. During the class we will likely read directly from the original, students may refer to ctext.org for all the abovementioned texts. The course is co-taught with Paul J. D’Ambrosio and his students at East China Normal University. No prior knowledge of Chinese philosophy is expected.

This course will examine the ways in which medieval literature has influenced modern English Literature & Culture and how that influence is being adapted in the digital age. The course will focus on Norse Mythology and investigate how these narratives have become entwined in the fabric of modern western culture. From JRR Tolkien and Neil Gaiman to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

This course is a review and examination of the developing field of ecocriticism in literary studies, and how ecocriticism itself as a way of examining environmental narration and imaginative literature is facing a crisis of its own.

We will look into the notion of “environment” and how literary texts portray and work with environments for narrative purposes.  We will consider environments in a  broadened sense, including not only  the purely physical, but also the digital environment and other non-physical environments such as  light, time, the human psyche and language itself.  How do writers navigate the relationship between narration and environment in its various manifestations.

We are likely to read fiction that allows us to explore the nature of storytelling in the midst of environmental crisis.  These works may include Elif Shafak’s The Island of Missing Trees; Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang; James Bradley’s Clade; as well as Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice; Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk; Memory of Water by Emmi Igtaranta; Oil on Water by Helon Habila; and Bangkok Wakes to Rain by Pitchaya Sudbanthad.  We may also read essays in the anthology Solastalgia, edited by Paul Bogard; a collection of short creative works by thirty four writers on our emotions in the face of disappearing worlds.

We may also read some theory and philosophy now being written on the subject as applied to literature; books such as The Crisis of Narration by Byung-Chul Han; Facing Gaia by Bruno Latour; as well as tracts on the environmental crises such as The Darkness Manifesto by Johan Eklöf and A Forest Journey: The Role of Trees in The Fate of Civilization by John Perlin, as well as essays by theorists Donna Haraway and Hito Steyerl. 

The final reading list will be posted later.

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 FRA022F Directed study: French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment 4e.

This project is for those students who are registered in FRA501F French fairy tales: from Marie de France to the Enlightenment and want to get more advanced knowledge of the subject matter. 

Conventional sociological or historical accounts tend to portray human life as if objects either are irrelevant or at best, passive and inert. This course follows the ‘material turn’ that has occurred in the social sciences and the humanities in the past 20 years and explores the importance of things for understanding human society and history. Drawing on examples from a wide range of disciplines from design history to archaeology, each week a different object is taken for study, illustrating the various disciplinary and theoretical approaches that have been taken to material culture in recent years. The course will be organized around weekly lectures, reading and discussion. The course will be taught in english.

This research project is directly associated with the methodological seminar on emotions. The associated seminar will run in the first half of term, followed by a research break in the second half of term where students will work on their own projects utilising the methodological approach or the theory of emotions in history or literature to analyse a work or several works of their own choice. This gives students the opportunity to do in-depth work on a text or set of texts that they may be interested in for their thesis, for instance.
It is not a requirement to attend the seminar for participation in the research project and so students familiar with (or interested in) emotion studies may take the research project independently.
Evaluation criteria is based on a single research paper due at the end of term. The topic selection is due after mid-term. Papers can be written in either English or Icelandic.

This methodological seminar focuses on the recent and rapidly expanding field of the history of emotion while seeking to apply emotion theory to literature. It traces the development of the ‘history of emotion’ across the multiple different fields, including psychology, neurology and history, followed by an in-depth critical work on emotion theory and its applicability to literature. It tackles questions such as what are literary emotions? Where are they located? How can they be defined and what is the relationship between historical and literary emotionality?

The seminar will expand widely across the theoretical background of emotion studies, presenting and discussing its major terminologies and theories. We will then shift to close reading of selected texts for the sake of reinforcing the methodological approach as a skill set to deepen the students’ understanding of the critical parameters and their application. Ultimately, we will seek to encourage and foster the independent critical work of the students on their own chosen texts, utilising the skill sets that they have acquired throughout the seminar to expand on texts of their own choice.

The seminar will run in the first half of term. The final set of classes will be held at the end of term where students will present their research projects (for those taking the associated 5 credit research project) or a potential research project or paper (for those interesting in attending solely the seminar). Readings will include both theoretical texts and literary works. The seminar will take place in English.

What does Sunset Boulevard, double entendres, self-censorship, the Coen Brothers, and #metoo have in common? They all reveal that Hollywood is not quite the fantasy it poses to be.

A very real place and industry within Los Angeles, California, Hollywood has led in film production since the beginning of narrative film, yet its magic is created within the bland and sometimes devastating concrete lots, sound stages and offices of producers and agents.

This course aims to explore the reality of Hollywood and how it has functioned over time, to examine and critique its presentation and reputation through film and media. The course includes critical viewings of films that are based on both the myth and reality of Hollywood as well as critical readings on historical context, news/gossip, and the history of American narrative film.

Only 35 seats are available for ENS352M. Once the course is filled please contact Nikkita (nhp1@hi.is) to be added onto a waiting list in case a spot opens up.

This research project is linked to the course ENS506G From Gothic Beginnings to Twentieth Century Fantasy and Romance: The British Historical Novel 1764 to 1950.

The course introduces students to the development of the British historical novel up to the middle of the 20th century. Its origins will be traced back to what is seen as the first Gothic novel as well as examining in some detail Walter Scott’s Waverley, which generally is referred to as the first historical novel. The course then outlines the development of the historical novel up to the middle of the 20th century and students read selected texts from this time period. Within this framework, the course explores the way that history has been used by writers across a variety of genres, such as romance and adventure. The course will also include discussions of history in television and film where relevant, along with discussions of relevant theories by both historians and cultural theorists.

The research project involves writing a research paper of 6500-7500 words (75%) and a short essay of 1800-2500 words (25%) OR writing a longer research essay of 8000-10000 words (see below on course assessment). For the short essay, students choose from a list of essay topics given out to students in ENS506G (or come up with their own topic, see below). For the research paper, students choose a topic of their own (or with the teacher’s help); please note that the teacher needs to approve your topic of choice.

The teacher will meet with the students registered for this course on a regular basis to discuss the research paper. Dates to be confirmed.

This seminar provides a historical and cross-cultural overview on the main linguistic and cultural areas of the Americas.

This course covers the nature of vocabulary acquisition: how vocabulary develops, is learned and taught. Various factors will be analyzed in detail, including, the role of pronunciation, word frequency, various learning strategies for vocabulary growth and considerable attention will be drawn to current research methodology in Vocabulary Acquisition. Students will review research as well as conduct a mini study.

Taught on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 am (2. and 3. year students only)

You are the perfect candidate if you have a burning desire to write fiction or poetry, and enjoy reading good books.

Aims include:

1. To sharpen awareness and improve skills through exercises in writing, and especially through revision

2. To provide practical criticism of work-in-progress in a workshop setting, along with advice about revisions and improvisation.

In addition to invoking the muse, students will learn practical writing skills such as organization, structure, characterization and dialogue. The course will also involve the examination of the work of key novel and short story writers, and poets. Throughout the course, students will develop their own work as well as improving their critical skills. Students will complete a short story or a small collection of poems by the end of the course.

Attendance requirement is 100% - you must attend one 1-hour presentation and one 2-hour workshop session per week. Not suitable for distance students.

Students who fulfil the prerequisites will be signed up. Sign up is on first come first served bases and there are 6 seats reserved for MA students and 6 seats reserved for BA students. Any unfilled seats for the course on August 30th will be offered to students on the waiting list.