SCANDINAVIAN LITERATURE 2 MOD. 2

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

Scandinavian Literature 2 module 2 is offered to students of Swedish at the second year of their BA-programme in Foreign Languages, Literatures and Cultures, literary-cultural curriculum. Scandinavian Literature 2 (12 ects) is divided into two modules; module 1 is held by professor Culeddu, while module 2 is held by professor Ciaravolo, both in the autumn semester.
Scandinavian Literature 2 (12 ects) can be a freely chosen course for Swedish language students of the other curricula who wish to go deeper into Scandinavian Studies.

History of Scandinavian Culture (6 ects) is offered to students of Swedish at the second year of their BA-programme in Foreign Languages, Literatures and Cultures, international-political curriculum. History of Swedish Culture is also included in the literary-cultural curriculum at the third year, and as a freely chosen course it is also available to students of the linguistic-philological curriculum, being recommended to students who wish to go deeper into Scandinavian Studies.

Expected results

Scandinavian Literature 2 module 2 / History of Scandinavian Culture presents, in the first part of the course, the social, political and cultural history of the North, focusing on the last two centuries in order to outline the evolution towards modernity and democracy. The second part of the course focuses on the political and cultural construction of the Scandinavian welfare state from the 1930s to present time; on the critical aspects of it as highlighted by writers; on the reasons of its crisis in connection with neoliberalism in the latest decades; finally, on the nostalgia that its dismantling evokes, again in literary works.
The aim of the course is to enable students to connect their knowledge of the social, political and cultural historey of Scandinavia with the analysis of the proposed literary works, in order to reflect upon Nordic modernity

Prerequisites

The course is available to the students of the three curricula at Foreign Languages, Literatures and Cultures, who have already attended Scandinavian Literature 1. Skills in Swedish language will allow the more advanced students to work with the original texts. The study of the texts in the original language is possible but not mandatory; the proposed texts exist in Italian or English translation.

Contents

The construction and crisis of the Scandinavian welfare state (approximately from 1930s to present time). The writers’ voice.

What cultural and historical preconditions does the Scandinavian model of democratic welfare state originate from? How is it represented by international observers already in the 1930s, the decade of totalitarianism and dictatorship? And why did writers, before others, on the other hand discern critical aspects in this societal model?
Already in the 1930s and 1940s the Norwegian novelist Aksel Sandemose and the Swedish poet Gunnar Ekelöf saw this reality as a homologating nightmare. In the 1970s the model showed clearer signs of crisis, and the Swedish writers Ivar Lo-Johansson and Astrid Lindgren criticised the nihilistic apathy and the oppressive fiscal policy respectively, although they had always supported the idea of the welfare state. In Carl-Henning Wijkmark’s dystopia, the increasing elderly part of the population becomes a merely economical factor. In the same decade the Danish liberal writer Henrik Stangerup depicts a dystopic Copenhagen, dominated by the soft, suffocating dictatorship of the social workers. In the 1980s the Norwegian communist writer Dag Solstad observes “the great absence” from the viewpoint of a new town near Oslo, in fact built with the purpose of giving the Norwegian working class a high standard of living. And yet, in spite of the critique, that model originated from a social, democratic and inclusive vision, which the latest decades’ neoliberalist dominance has questioned. Therefore literature, as in Swedish Sara Stridsberg’s novel (2014), can make us feel the sense of loss and the nostalgia it evokes.

References

1) General part: Cultural and literary history

Massimo Ciaravolo 2025, Profilo di storia culturale, sociale e politica del Nord (pdf file on Moodle)

from Massimo Ciaravolo (ed.) 2019, Storia delle letterature scandinave, Milano: Iperborea 2019:

- The introductions to the eight chapters (1.1: 19-29; 2.1: 105-12; 3.1: 161-4; 4.1: 207-13; 5.1: 281-4; 6.1: 385-90; 7.1: 533-41; 8.1: 621-9).


- the pages dedicated to the following authors: Aksel Sandemose, Ivar Lo-Johansson, Gunnar Ekelöf, Astrid Lindgren, Henrik Stangerup, Carl-Henning Wijkmark, Dag Solstad e Sara Stridsberg: 451-453; 475-489; 594-597; 637-639; 657-658; 663-668; 753-754.

2) Literary works to be studied for the examination:
Selection of texts by Gunnar Ekelöf, Aksel Sandemose, Ivar Lo-Johansson (on Moodle)
Henrik Stangerup 1973, L’uomo che voleva essere colpevole, Milano, Iperborea, 2017 / Manden der ville være skyldig, København, Lindhardt og Ringhof, 1990

Astrid Lindgren 1976, “Pomperipossa di Monismania” / “Pomperipossan i Monismanien, Expressen”, 10/03/1976 (on Moodle, with Italian translation)
Carl-Henning Wijkmark 1978, La morte moderna, Milano, Iperborea, 2008 / Den moderna döden, Lund, Cavefors, 1978
Dag Solstad 1984, Tentativo di descrivere l’impenetrabile, Milano, Iperborea, 2007 / Forsøk på å beskrive det ugjennomtrengelige, Oslo, Oktober, 2001
Sara Strindsberg 2014, La gravità dell’amore, Milano, Mondadori, 2016 / Beckomberga: ode till min familj, Stockholm, Bonniers, 2015
3) Critical studies

Elisabeth Åsbrink 2018, Made in Sweden. Le parole che hanno fatto la Svezia, Milano: Iperborea 2021 / Orden som formade Sverige

Students not attending the course are asked to meet the professor at office hours in order to agree on the syllabus.

Assessment

The examination is oral, generally in Italian, and lasts approximately 30 minutes. Two questions deal with the cultural, social and political history of the North: one more general question is about one period from the origins to the Enlightenment, and one more specific question is about the last two centuries and the progress towards modernity and democracy. Two more questions will discuss some of the literary works presented at the course, connecting them to their historical, cultural and social contexts, and to the secondary sources included in the syllabus.

oral

Grading scales

28-30 cum laude: the student masters the topics presented in the course and in the assigned readings and is capable of ordering information and making use of a convenient terminology;
26-27: the student has a good knowledge of the topics presented in the course and - to a lesser extent - in the assigned readings; he/she generally succeeds in ordering information and is familiar with terminology;
24-25: the student does not fully master the topics presented in the course and in the assigned readings; his/her oral presentation is clear, although concepts are not always expressed through a convenient terminology;
22-23: the student has a rather superficial knowledge of the topics presented in the course and in the assigned readings; his/her oral presentation is not always clear and generally lacks terminology;
18-21: the student has a superficial knowledge of the topics presented in the course and in the assigned readings; his/her oral presentation is confused and does not resort to terminology.

The correspondence with the European grading scales (from A to F) is the following: less than 18 = F; 18-21 = E; 22-25 = D; 26-28 = C; 29-30 = B; 30 cum laude = A.

Didactic methods

The course offers mainly frontal lectures, but opens to participatory learning, as students may, on a voluntary basis, present in class one of the works included in the syllabus. When students present a work in class, they do not have to prepare it again for the examination. Italian is the language used in teaching, and the works will be basically presented and studied in Italian translation.
It must be pointed out that it will not be possible, during the presentation and analysis in class, to omit parts of the plot, not even the end of the literary works, in order not to “spoil” the reading. The suggestion is, therefore, to read the novels in advance.

More information

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 to agree upon the syllabus.

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