SELCS

Histories and Cultures of the Nordic Region


Course code: SCAN1303.
Course unit value: 1.0cu
Assessment: Four essays (25% each). Coursework one (1,500 words); Coursework two (2,000 words); Coursework three (2,000 words); Coursework four (3,000 words).

This module is also available as two one-term options, respectively:

1303A - 0.5cu (Autumn)

1303B - 0.5cu (Spring)

Tutors: Ms Annika Lindskog.

The module is designed to underpin a solid introduction to Scandinavian culture and language in the first year of the Department’s single and joint honours degree programmes. It is meant to introduce the study of history and of various forms of cultural production, while demonstrating the interaction between these cognate disciplines. The module also aims to contribute to the students’ intellectual and personal development by explicitly posing questions about power, ideology, authority and identity.

Students will gain knowledge and understanding of:

  • key developments in Nordic history and culture from the Viking era to the present day;
  • discipline-specific methodologies and relevant approaches to history, cultural history, literature, film and other forms of art and culture;
  • and the cultural specificity and constructedness of historiography and cultural criticism.

The module will provide a thoroughgoing, wide-ranging and stimulating introduction to the history and culture of the Nordic region. Taught in an explicitly interdisciplinary manner by a number of members of faculty from the Department of Scandinavian Studies, the module will invite students to reflect on the methodologies and approaches specific to different, cognate disciplines (such as History, Literary Studies, etc.), and to identify connections between them. A central concern is to emphasise the constructed nature of historical narrative, and to this end the course will be structured around a number of key dates, moving backwards and forwards in time to explore both historical causality and relevant cultural expressions of the sociological formations under investigation.

Preparatory reading and set texts:

  • Jørgen Goul Andersen and Jens Hoff, Democracy and Citizenship in Scandinavia (Palgrave, 2001).
  • David Arter, Scandinavian Politics Today (Manchester University Press, 1999).
  • Rolf Danielsen, Norway: A History from the Vikings to Our Own Times (Scandinavian University Press, 1995).
  • T.K. Derry, A History of Scandinavia (Minnesota University Press, 1979 or new edition 2000).
  • Robert Geyer et al., Globalization, Europeanization, and the End of Scandinavian Social Democracy? (Basingstoke, Macmillan, 2000).
  • Tony Griffiths, Scandinavia (1991).
  • Christine Ingebritsen, The Nordic States & European Unity (Cornell University Press, 1998).
  • Matti Klinge, A Brief History of Finland (1994).
  • Ulf Lindström, Euro-consent, Euro-contract, or Euro-coercion: Scandinavian Social Democracy, the European Impasse, and the End of Things Political (Oslo, Scandinavian University Press, 1992).
  • Mary McCririck, A History of Iceland, 1874-1974 (1984).
  • Lee Miles (ed.), The European Union and the Nordic Countries (Routledge, 1996).
  • Lee Miles, Sweden and EU Integration (Aldershot, Ashgate, 1997).
  • Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Denmark (1996).
  • F.D. Scott, Sweden: The Nation’s History (1977).
  • Øystein Sørensen and Bo Stråth (eds.), The Cultural Construction of Norden (Scandinavian University Press, 1997).
  • Sven Tägil (ed.), Ethnicity & Nation-Building in the Nordic World (1995).

Journals:

  • Edda.
  • Scandinavian Journal of History.
  • Scandinavian Economic History Review.
  • Scandinavian Studies.
  • Scandinavica.
  • West European Politics.

Students will also be expected to read appropriate chapters from standard history textbooks before each lecture/seminar, and to familiarise themselves with the primary materials chosen for that week. A Moodle site will allow for posting of digitised and online resources week-by-week, as well as post-seminar discussion.