Scandinavian (SCAN)
Courses
SCAN 1202 (3) Tolkien's Nordic Sources and the Lord of the Rings
Examines the Nordic aspect of J.R.R. Tolkien's work, especially The Lord of the Rings. Concentrates on the Nordic saga tradition, mythology, folklore and fairy tales Tolkien used as his sources. Students will explore the transformations of these sources from prehistoric times to contemporary cinematic adaptations, while paying special attention to cultural appropriations, national revisions and political alterations. Taught in English.
Additional Information: Arts Sci Core Curr: Literature and the Arts
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities
Departmental Category: Nordic Studies Courses Taught in English
SCAN 1900 (1-6) Independent Study
Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 6.00 total credit hours. Allows multiple enrollment in term.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: Nordic Studies Courses Taught in English
SCAN 2201 (3) Introduction to Modern Nordic Culture and Society
Provides a comprehensive introduction to modern Nordic culture and society. Surveys the history of Nordic countries and examines their culture using art, architecture, literature, and film. Studies social issues, environmental concerns, and political patterns. In profiling aspects of culture and society unique to Nordic countries, students arrive at a conception of a collective Nordic identity. Taught in English.
Additional Information: Arts Sci Core Curr: Contemporary Societies
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Social Sciences
Departmental Category: Nordic Studies Courses Taught in English
SCAN 2202 (3) The Viking Age
Examines the social, political, technological, spiritual, and artistic background to the Viking Age, asking how Scandinavian society functioned in the Viking Age, why the Scandinavian expansion occurred, and what its lasting effects have been on the global stage. Taught in English.
Additional Information: Arts Sci Core Curr: Historical Context
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities
Departmental Category: Nordic Studies Courses Taught in English
SCAN 2241 (3) Death and the Undead in Slavic and Nordic Cultures
Focuses on the study of beliefs and practices related to the dead as represented in popular culture. This interdisciplinary course will introduce students to representations of the vampire/revenant and other denizens of the undead in Icelandic sagas, Russian epic song, folktales, folklore, literature, and film from the medieval period through contemporary popular culture. Through close analysis of these various sources, this course will focus on the metaphoric usefulness of the ¿restless undead¿ in explaining its relentless appearance in cultural artifacts, and pursue the question of why the vampire will not ¿die,¿ but instead continues to appeal to modern and post-modern imaginations. Taught in English.
Equivalent - Duplicate Degree Credit Not Granted: REES 2241
Additional Information: Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities
SCAN 2900 (1-6) Independent Study
Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 6.00 total credit hours. Allows multiple enrollment in term.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: Nordic Studies Courses Taught in English
SCAN 3020 (3) Advanced Readings in Scandinavian
Develops the type of advanced reading knowledge of the four closely related Scandinavian languages (Swedish, Danish and the two Norwegian standards) that will prepare students for their senior thesis and for possible graduate work. Readings will help students see relationships and connections operating across national and linguistic borders within the Nordic region. Department enforced prerequisites: NORW 2120 and NORW 3900 or SWED 3900 (all minimum grade C-).
Additional Information: Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities
Departmental Category: Norwegian
Departmental Category: Swedish
SCAN 3101 (3) Global Seminar: Identity, Arts & Ethics in Contemporary Norway
Explores contemporary Norwegian society from an interdisciplinary, global perspective. Norway is recognized throughout the world for a high standard of living, ethical business culture, and rich art, literature, and cinema. We will examine how Norwegian society has adapted to its recent transformation from being one of the poorest countries in Europe to being one of the richest in the world. Offered through Education Abroad. Taught abroad only.
Additional Information: Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities
SCAN 3102 (3) Global Seminar: Scandinavian Witchcraft and Magic in Iceland and Denmark
Examines witchcraft and magic in the broad perspective of Scandinavian cultural history. Explores folk culture and customs of Scandinavia's Viking Age and medieval past including visits to historical sites in Iceland and Denmark. Offered through Education Abroad. Taught abroad only.
SCAN 3110 (3) Topics in Contemporary Nordic Society and Culture
Provides insight into cultural adaptations, political struggles and social transformations taking place in the contemporary Nordic world. Subjects treated vary according to current developments in the region, student interest and faculty availability.
Additional Information: Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities
Departmental Category: Nordic Studies Courses Taught in English
SCAN 3201 (3) Contemporary Nordic Society and Culture
Explores contemporary Nordic culture and society with special focus on Iceland. Emphasis is on the relationship between historical, geographic, artistic, and political forces in Iceland and their effects on culture and society. Provides insight into the life and attitudes of contemporary Icelanders and stresses their place in the global culture of today. Taught in English.
Recommended: Prerequisite SCAN 2201.
Additional Information: Arts Sci Core Curr: Contemporary Societies
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities
Departmental Category: Nordic Studies Courses Taught in English
SCAN 3202 (3) Old Norse Mythology
Presents Old Norse mythology as it is represented in medieval Nordic literature. Discusses strategies for analyzing Old Norse mythology as medieval literature that reflects social narratives in Scandinavia in the period 500-1300 AD. Interprets and contextualizes Old Norse mythology in relation to its codification in literature. Students will gain insight into the historical development and the complexity of transmission of Old Norse mythology in medieval literature and its subsequent reception in the global public. Taught in English.
Additional Information: Arts Sci Core Curr: Literature and the Arts
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities
Departmental Category: Nordic Studies Courses Taught in English
SCAN 3203 (3) 19th & 20th Century Nordic Literature
Examines the Nordic region's influence on social realism, expressionism, and postwar literature, including such themes as women in society, nature and industrialization, and identity and angst. May include works by Ibsen, Strindberg, Dinesen, and Nobel Prize winners Lagerlof, Hamsun, Undset, and Lagerkvist. Taught in English.
Additional Information: Arts Sci Core Curr: Literature and the Arts
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities
Departmental Category: Nordic Studies Courses Taught in English
SCAN 3204 (3) Medieval Icelandic Sagas
Advanced introduction to medieval Icelandic saga with readings in the family, outlaw, skald, and legendary sagas as well as the main scholarly approaches to this unique literature. Topics include honor, blood feud, fate, sexuality/gender, oral composition, and legend. Taught in English.
Additional Information: Arts Sci Core Curr: Literature and the Arts
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities
Departmental Category: Nordic Studies Courses Taught in English
SCAN 3205 (3) Scandinavian Folk Narrative
Introduces the rich tradition of Scandinavian oral narrative. Looks at relationships between the various genres of oral narrative and their historical, social, and cultural contexts. Genres studied may include ballad, fairy tale, rural legend, and urban legend. Explores various interpretive methodologies. Taught in English.
Additional Information: Arts Sci Core Curr: Literature and the Arts
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities
Departmental Category: Nordic Studies Courses Taught in English
SCAN 3206 (3) Nordic Colonial History and Legacy
Examines Nordic colonial enterprise and the relationship between the Scandinavian center and colonial peripheries from the Arctic to the Caribbean, Africa, and India. Studies colonial and postcolonial cultures, and postcolonial criticism and theory. Taught in English.
Additional Information: Arts Sci Core Curr: Human Diversity
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Diversity-Global Perspective
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Social Sciences
Departmental Category: Nordic Studies Courses Taught in English
SCAN 3207 (3) Beyond Middle Earth: Tolkien¿s Nordic Sources II
Explores beyond The Lord of the Rings and reads Tolkien¿s sources for material in the Silmarillion as well as his re-imaginings of Nordic literature such as The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, The Story of Kullervo, and Old English elegiac and battle poems. Students will apply source criticism to Tolkien¿s inspirations, to his academic work and works of fiction. Students will gain insight into Tolkien¿s goals in his re-working of sources, and consider how Tolkien¿s work re-contextualizes the original texts for his contemporaries and for modern society. Taught in English.
Additional Information: Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities
SCAN 3208 (3) Women in Nordic Society: Modern States of Welfare
Examines the role and status of women and marginalized social classes in the Nordic countries, whose societies have been heralded as egalitarian models since the twentieth century. Texts include a variety of media, from literature to sociological works to artifacts of political and popular culture. Taught in English.
Equivalent - Duplicate Degree Credit Not Granted: WGST 3208
Additional Information: Arts Sci Core Curr: Human Diversity
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Diversity-Global Perspective
Departmental Category: Nordic Studies Courses Taught in English
SCAN 3209 (3) Contemporary Nordic Literature and Film
Advanced introduction to contemporary Nordic literature and film. Readings/screenings of recent translated Nordic texts and films, presenting a broad spectrum of contemporary issues, along with current critique and theoretical approaches. Topics: history, culture, translation, gender/sexuality, nationalidentity, minority issues, etc. Taught in English.
Additional Information: Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities
Departmental Category: Nordic Studies Courses Taught in English
SCAN 3251 (3) Arctic Thrillers: Environment, Landscape and Literature of the Far North
Explores 19th- and 20th-century Russian and Nordic literature, film and television with a special emphasis on the role of extremes of geography and climate and physical space on the development of plot and character. Taught in English.
Equivalent - Duplicate Degree Credit Not Granted: REES 3251
Additional Information: Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities
SCAN 3301 (3) Radical Nationalism in Contemporary Northern Europe
Examines the current rise of National Socialists, white supremacists, ethnic separatists, anti-Islam activists and social and cultural ultraconservatives in northern Europe. Treats extremist nationalism as a social, cultural, aesthetic, intellectual and political movement. Consults scholarship from sociology, criminology and political science, as well as music, literature, art and film. Taught in English.
Equivalent - Duplicate Degree Credit Not Granted: IAFS 3630
Additional Information: Arts Sci Core Curr: Ideals and Values
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Social Sciences
Departmental Category: Nordic Studies Courses Taught in English
SCAN 3302 (3) Witchcraft and Magic in Scandinavia
Investigates witchcraft and magic in Scandinavian cultures from the Viking Age to the Burning Age. The class examines witchcraft and magic in the broad perspective of Scandinavian cultural history, tracing traditions of magic from the earliest sources in runes to film and literature in the modern era. We will investigate the styles of magic and cultural attitudes to it in Iceland, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden.
Additional Information: Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities
SCAN 3303 (3) Norse Paganism: Contemporary Nordic-Germanic Neopagan Movements in America
This course introduces to the contemporary neopagan movement in North America known as Norse paganism or Ásatrú. It surveys the historical development of the movement, its attachment to Scandinavian pre-history, and the major socio-cultural components of its identity constructions. We will investigate the movement's attitudes and conceptualizations of modern Nordic-based spirituality in light of gender, race, ethnicity, and its ecosocial ethoses.
SCAN 3506 (3) Scandinavian Drama
Examines the many contributions of Scandinavian dramatists to world theater from the 18th century to the present. With emphasis on Holberg, Bjornson, Ibsen, Strindberg, and Bjorneboe, surveys Enlightenment comedy, national romanticism, realism, naturalism, symbolism, expressionism, and Brechtian epic theater. Taught in English.
Additional Information: Arts Sci Core Curr: Literature and the Arts
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities
Departmental Category: Nordic Studies Courses Taught in English
SCAN 3631 (3) Arctic Society and Culture
Investigates representations of the Arctic in literature, art, cinema, media and scientific, and geographical writing over the past century and a half, spanning material from North America, Britain, continental Europe and the Nordic region. Interpretive approaches include ecocriticism; post-colonialism; literary studies; indigenous studies; visual, film and media theory; Cold War studies.
Equivalent - Duplicate Degree Credit Not Granted: IAFS 3631
Requisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Juniors or Seniors).
Additional Information: Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Social Sciences
Departmental Category: Nordic Studies Courses Taught in English
SCAN 3632 (3) Scandinavia and the European Union
Examining the role that the EU plays in the Nordic region, this course is an introduction to the complex relationship between the Nordic nation states and the European project. We explore how the EU is perceived in the Nordic countries and investigate why the Nordic region is reluctant in its relation to the European Union.
Equivalent - Duplicate Degree Credit Not Granted: IAFS 3632
SCAN 3900 (1-6) Independent Study
Repeatable: Repeatable for up to 6.00 total credit hours. Allows multiple enrollment in term.
Additional Information: Departmental Category: Nordic Studies Courses Taught in English