SCANDINAVIAN LITERATURE

Locating the subject within the study plan of the MA-programme

Scandinavian Literature is offered at the first year of the MA-programme in Language Sciences (Scienze del Linguaggio) to students who choose Swedish as their language of specialization at this level.
At present, Scandinavian literature is not included in the other MA-programmes (European, American and Postcolonial Languages and Literature, Comparative International Relations), but it is available as a freely chosen subject to students attending these programmes, who have previously studied Scandinavian languages, culture and literature at BA-level.

Expected results

The course “Polyphony and choral voice in modern and contemporary Scandinavian prose” proposes the analysis of literary works and the study of literary criticism in Swedish, as well as in Norwegian, Danish, Italian and English. It aims at an in-depth knowledge of the examined works, of their themes, structure and style, as well as at the ability to analyse them, comment on them, relate them to their historically and culturally most relevant contexts.

Prerequisites

The course is addressed to former students of Scandinavian studies at BA-level and is held in Swedish. Texts will be read in the original language. The professor will assist the students when reading texts in Norwegian and Danish; these texts will be excerpts, whereas students will be allowed to read the corresponding whole works in translation.

Contents

Polyphony and choral voice in modern and contemporary Scandinavian prose – Flerstämmighet och kör i modern och samtida skandinavisk prosa

The course builds upon some fundamental contributions in literary criticism of the first half of the 20th century, in particular by Russian Michail Bachtin and Austrian Leo Spitzer in the fields of narratology and stylistics. They have reflected on the ways in which voice is organized and modulated in narrative texts, or better, voices are moulded in their plural, polyphonic and choral quality. The narrator’s voice manifests itself as the place where the different voices acting in the narrative are gathered and directed; it includes the protagonists’ voices, and therefore their opinions and worldviews, as well as the “voices” (opinions, representations) of the social and historical world at large in which the story is set. The great artist’s secret, as a narrator, is to keep her/his own voice while using many of them, as Bachtin observes. Spitzer identifies in “free indirect speech” (Erlebe Rede) the typical space of interference, in which the narrator’s voice conveys the plurality of the voices of the represented world.
This type of choral quality acquires traits that criticism has also defined “scenic” (when diegesis is reduced, showing prevails on telling, the characters are the main speakers, and the narrative text reminds of the dramatic text in its dialogues and structure), or “impressionistic” (the many characters’ speeches seem unconnected, but they become consistent when the narrative is considered as a whole).
Even Mimesis by Erich Auerbach proves to be useful, especially in the analysis of Torgny Lindgren’s work. Lindgren creates a linguistic universe that is deeply influenced by the Bible, and whose characters belong to a humble and rural world: how do the humble language, and the colloquial register of every day’s life express the highest existential issues? This is Auerbach’s question, and it can shed light upon Lindgren’s short stories.
Modern and contemporary Scandinavian prose has retained a strong sense of community and collectivity, especially when narratives are set in smaller social contexts: the small town or the country village. Following the leitmotiv of polyphonic and choral quality, the evolution of Scandinavian narrative prose writing during approximately a century will be examined: through the novel Ved Vejen (As Trains Pass By. Katinka) by the Danish writer Herman Bang (1886), the novel Markurells i Wadköping (The Markurells of Wadköping) by the Swedish writer Hjalmar Bergman (1919), the novel Kranes konditori (Krane’s Café) by the Norwegian writer Cora Sandel (1945), and the short stories in Merabs skönhet (Merab’s Beauty and Other Stories) by the Swedish writer Torgny Lindgren (1983).

References

Primary sources

Herman Bang 1886, Ved vejen, in Id., Værker i Mindeudgave, vol. 1, Kjøbenhavn: Gyldendal 1912, s. 6-164, Arkiv for dansk litteratur, URL https://tekster.kb.dk/text/adl-texts-bang01val-root / Lungo la strada, Torino: Libreria Le Corti 2019.

Hjalmar Bergman 1919, Markurells i Wadköping, Stockholm: Bonniers 1919, Litteraturbanken.se, URL https://litteraturbanken.se/f%C3%B6rfattare/BergmanHj/titlar/MarkurellsIWadk%C3%B6ping/sida/3/etext / I Markurell a Wadköping, Saluzzo, Le corti 2017.

Cora Sandel 1945, Kranes konditori, in Ead., Sandels beste, Oslo: Gyldendal 2007, s. 237-343 / Caffè Krane, Varese: Giano 2002.

Torgny Lindgren 1983, Merabs skönhet, Stockholm: Norstedts 1983 / La bellezza di Merab, Milano: Iperborea 1990.

The two works in Swedish must be studied in the original version. The Danish work and the Norwegian work can be studied in translation, while the excerpts that are analysed in the course must be studied in Danish and Norwegian.


Secondary sources: criticism and history of literature

Michail Bachtin, “La parola nel romanzo”, in Id., Estetica e romanzo, Torino: Einaudi 1979, pp. 67-230.

Erich Auerbach, capp. “La cicatrice d’Ulisse“ + “Fortunata” in Mimesis. Il realismo nella letteratura occidentale, vol. 1, Torino: Einaudi 2000, pp. 3-57.

Leo Spitzer, “L’originalità della narrazione nei Malavoglia”, in Id., Studi italiani, Milano: Vita e pensiero 1976, pp. 293-316.

From Massimo Ciaravolo (ed.), Storia delle letterature scandinave, Milano: Iperborea 2019, pp. 285-97 (by Bruno Berni), 399-404 (by Camilla Storskog), 445-58 (by Sara Culeddu), 643-61 (by Massimo Ciaravolo).

Camilla Storskog, “Herman Bang’s poetics of impressionism: den fremstillede Roman”, in Ead., Literary Impressionisms. Resonances of Impressionism in Swedish and Finland-Swedish Prose 1880-1900, Milano, Ledizioni 2018, pp. 48-57.

From Erik Hjalmar Linder, Kärlek och fadershus farväl. Hjalmar Bergmans liv och diktning från Markurells i Wadköping till Farmor och Vår Herre, Stockholm: Bonniers 1973, pp. 53-76, OBS! only the yellow-marked parts in the pdf.

Ellen Rees, ”Escape from the Novel. Cora Sandel’s Kranes konditori”, Scandinavian Studies, 72:2 (2000), pp. 181-197.

Torgny Lindgren i samtal med Kaj Schueler, Torgny om Lindgren, Stockholm: Norstedts 2013, pp. 26-33, 222-223.

Additional syllabus for students not attending the course

Students not attending the course must agree upon additional materials at the professor’s office hours. A visit by these students is, in this case, mandatory.

Assessment

The examination is oral, it lasts about 40 minutes and it is in Swedish (unless otherwise agreed upon, according to the needs). Some of the works dealt with in the course are analysed and discussed and they are referred to their significant biographical, cultural and literary contexts. One question may include reading and translating from Swedish / Scandinavian a passage from one of the works in the syllabus.
The students who have not attended the course must study the additional materials that will be indicated. They must come and talk to the professor at least once before the oral examination.

The course offers mainly frontal lectures, but with moments of participatory learning, as students may, on a voluntary basis, present and discuss in class one of the works included in the syllabus. If a student presents a work in class, she/he will not have to prepare it again for the examination. Text will be mainly used in original version in class. Swedish will be the language normally used in teaching and in class intercourse. The professor will guide the students in reading and understanding the excerpts in Norwegian and Danish.

Italian

If you have questions or need further explanations, please write to massimo.ciaravolo@unive.it. Booking time with an e-mail is recommended if you want to meet the professor. Student who cannot attend the course must contact the teacher in order to discuss the syllabus with the supplementary reading.

oral

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