SELCS

Modern Icelandic Literature: Special Topics

Tutor: Dr Helga Luthersdottir 

Credit value: 0.5 cu

Assessment: one coursework essay of 4000 words (100%)

Description:

The course provides a focused approach to selected topics of Icelandic literature from the modern and/or contemporary period. It provides a unique opportunity to delve deeply into the work of a specific author, genre, theme or a movement in the context of the appropriate theoretical framework while simultaneously anchoring the topic in Icelandic literary history.

Mode of delivery: 2 hour weekly seminar (joint with SCAN4202), consisting of lectures, class discussions and student presentations. 5 additional seminars on special topics to be scheduled in consultations with students as the course progresses. Moodle to be used as a repository for reading materials as well as for preparatory assignments and forum discussions.

Reading:

Because SCAN4204/SCANG014 is a special topics course, primary readings, as well as topic-specific secondary readings reflect the specific topic to be offered and will be selected by tutor each time the course is offered. Consequently, the below list consists of suggested basic (non-topic specific) readings assigned to fulfil the literary-history component of this course.

Secondary Readings:

  • Neijmann, Daisy (ed). A History of Icelandic Literature. Lincoln and London: U of Nebraska P, 2006
  • Óskarsson, Þórir. “From Romanticism to Realism.” In A History of Icelandic Literature. Daisy Neijmann (ed). 251-307.
  • Elísson, Guðni. “From Realism to Neoromanicism.” In A History of Icelandic Literature. Daisy Neijmann (ed). 308-356.
  • Jóhannsson, Jón Yngvi. “Realism and Revolt: Between the World Wars.” In A History of Icelandic Literature. Daisy Neijmann (ed). 357-403.
  • Eysteinsson, Ástráður and Úlfhildur Dagsdóttir. “Icelandic Prose Litearture, 1940-2000.” In A History of Icelandic Literature. Daisy Neijmann (ed). 404-470.
  • Kress, Helga. “Searching for Herself: Female Experience and Female Tradition in Icelandic Literature.” In A History of Icelandic Literature. Daisy Neijmann (ed). 503-551.
  • Additional recommended readings (available in Icelandic only)
  • Gísli Sigurðsson, Matthías V. Sæmundsson, Páll Valsson, Silja Aðalsteinsdóttir, Viðar Hreinsson, Halldór Guðmundsson. Íslensk Bókmenntasaga III. Reykjavík: Mál og menning, 1996.
  • Sæmundsson, Matthías V. “Sagnagerð frá upplýsingu til raunsæis.” In Íslensk Bókmenntasaga III. Árni Ibsen et al. Reykjavík: Mál og menning, 1996. 497-588.