HUMANS,THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT AND THE ANIMAL OTHER IN SCANDINAVIAN LITERATURE

[LMH110] Humans, The Natural Environment and The Animal Other in Scandinavian Literature is offered at the Second year of the Master Degree in Environmental Humanities, and, being one of the Environmental Cultures-courses, it is an Interdisciplinary activity (type C). The course can also be attended as a freely chosen subject by students of the Master Degree in Environmental Humanities, of the MA-programme in Language Sciences and of the other MA-programmes (European, American and Postcolonial Languages and Literature, Comparative International Relations).

This course will examine the relationship between man and the natural environment, with a special focus on the relationship between man and other animals in Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Icelandic Modern and Contemporary Literature.
Students are expected to be able to comment and discuss four great classics of Scandinavian literature (by Strindberg, Hamsun, Vesaas and Enquist) from a philosophical and theoretical perspective focusing on the relationship between man and the natural environment, and especially between man and other animals. Concepts such as speciesism, racialization and metamorphosis will be taken into account.
The course is meant to develop the individual orienting and summarising ability with regards to the addressed subject, as well as the understanding of how this subject can relate to the aesthetic, social, existential and environmental issues of our time.
Students will be required to expose their knowledge and their considerations on the texts using the proper terminology during examinations as well as in class.
Students are expected to have the appropriate skills to take notes and potentially to share them as well as to critically consult the reference bibliography.

No pre-requirements are expected for [LMH110] HUMANS, THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT AND THE ANIMAL OTHER IN SCANDINAVIAN LITERATURE

This course examines the relationship between man and the natural environment, and especially between man and other animals.
Cues will be taken from the tools of contemporary philosophical reflection: from Becoming-Animal by Deleuze and Guattari and The Open by Agamben to post humanist theories and Eco critical sources, especially Scandinavian ones. These critical tools will be applied to the reading of four great classics of Scandinavian literature, in order to track those changes in man's relation to the natural environment that, since the 19th Century to present day, both follow and inspire the mutation of man's self perception.
Images of man dominating the natural environment (such as farmers, breeders and scientists) keep fading in the course of a progressive and problematic discussion over the border between the human self and the animal other, often conveyed by the literary theme of metamorphosis.

Most materials will be provided by the professor.

August Strindberg, Tchandala (1889)
August Strindberg, Blomstermålningar och djurstycke (1888, Flowers and animals)
Knut Hamsun, Markens grøde (1917, Growth of the Soil)
Knut Hamsun, Pan (1894)
Tarjei Vesaas, Fuglane (1957, The birds)
Per Olov Enquist, Liknelseboken. En kärleksroman (2013, The parable book)

Giorgio Agamben, L’aperto. L’uomo e l’animale, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2002
R. Braidotti, Nomadic Theory: The Portable Rosi Braidotti, New York, Columbia University Press, 2011.
Rosi Braidotti, Posthuman Humanities, European Educational Research Journal, Volume 12, n. 1, 2013
Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, Capitalisme et Schizophrénie 2, Mille plateaux, Les éditions de minuit, Paris 1980 (eng.)
Jacques Derrida, L’animal que donc je suis, Paris, ed. M.L. Mallet, 2006 (eng.)
Michel Foucault, Les mots et les choses. Une archéologie des sciences humaines, Paris, Gallimard, 1966
Linda Haverty Rugg, Strindberg’s Modern Ecological Subject: «Swedish Nature» Viewed from a train in Spaces in-Between: Cultural and Political Perspectives on Environmental Discourse, ed. by Mark Luccarelli – Sigurd Bergmann, Brill Rodopi, Leiden-Boston 2015
David Livingstone Smith, Less Than Human. Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others, St. Martin’s Griffin, New York 2011
Michael Lundblad (ed.), Animalities. Literary and Cultural Studies Beyond the Human, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2017.
Ann-Sofie Lönngren, Following the Animal: Power, Agency and Animal Transformations in Modern, Northern-European Literature, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Thyne 2015
Christopher Peterson, Bestial Traces. Race, Sexuality, Animality, Fordham University Press, New York 2013
Arne Næss, Introduzione all’ecologia, Edizione ETS, Pisa, 2015

Students will sit an oral exam, in English, lasting approximately 20 minutes. The exam will focus on some of the works presented during the course. Students will have to show a thorough knowledge of the course topics, as well as the ability to present them in an appropriate form and to easily relate the specific texts to their context. Students at an advanced level of Swedish language might be asked to translate, contextualize and analyse short passages from the original texts.
Non-attending students must complete the learning material with additional studies and come to office hours at least once before sitting the exam.

The course offers both frontal lectures and interactive lessons, with moments of voluntary participatory learning. Students may also present in class one of the works included in the syllabus.
Though the course will be held in English, some texts can be partially presented in their original language (i.e. Swedish, Danish or Norwegian), depending on the audience.

English

If you have any questions or need further explanations, please write to sara.culeddu@unive.it.
Booking office hours with the professor by email is highly recommended (a weekly timetable will be provided).
Student who cannot attend the course must contact the teacher in order to discuss supplementary learning material.

oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Natural capital and environmental quality" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development