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Course Plan and Syllabus 2012
Course Code: ISS 1320
Course Name: Norwegian Literature
Course Leader: Claudia Berguson
Time: 8:15-10:00
Date Topic/ Readings/ Lecturer References
Week 1
June 25
Topic: Course Overview, Literature and the Creation
of a Nation
Reading: Excerpt from stergrd The Invention of
Norway in Srensen and Strth The Construction of
Norden
stegrd , The
Geopolitics of Nordic
Identity-From
Composite States to
Nation States in
Srensen and Strth
The Construction of
Norden
June 26
Topic: Petter Dass and the Baroque
Reading: Excerpt from Dass: The Trumpet of
Nordland
Stokker in Nss:
Excerpt from Ch. 2
June 27
Topic: Ludvig Holberg and the Age of Enlightenment
Reading: Erasmus Montanus
Nss: Excerpt from
Ch. 3
June 28
Topic: Oral Tradition and Its Written Forms, National
Romanticism and Norwegian Folk Narratives
Readings: The Dream Vision of Olav Aasteson,
The Princess Who Always Had to Have the Last
Word, The Ash Lad Who Had an Eating Match with
the Troll, Gudbrand of the Hillside, The Old Lady
Against the Stream

Nss: Excerpt from
Ch. 4
Optional Readings:
The Seventh Father of
the House, The Boy
Who Became a Lion, a
Falcon and an Ant,
The Bear and the Fox
Who Made a Bet,
White-Bear-King
Valemon
June 29
Topic: Romanticism and Poems of Henrik
Wergeland
Readings: Wergeland Poems Morning Worship,
The Last Voyage, To Spring, To My Wallflower

Nss on National
Breakthrough (Excerpt
Ch. 4)

Week 2
July 02
Topic: Romanticism and Realism
Reading: Camilla Collett, excerpt from The District
Governors Daughter
Janet Garton: Finding
a Voice
July 03
Topic: Realism
Readings: Bjrnstjerne Bjrnson The Father and
Alexander Kielland At the Ball

July 04
Topic: Modern Drama
Reading: Henrik Ibsens Peer Gynt (Acts I-III)
The Legend of Peer
Gynt (handout)
July 05
Topic: Modern Drama
Reading: Peer Gynt (continued, Acts IV and V)
Toril Moi: Excerpt from
Henrik Ibsen and the
Birth of Modern Drama
July 06
Authors in the City: Ibsen Apartment, Statues Tour
Student Presentations: Holberg, Ibsen, Bjrnson,
Wergeland, Collett


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Week 3
July 09
Topic: The Evolution of Ibsen as an Author
Reading: Ibsen, The Wild Duck

Kaplan: On the Road
to Realism article
July 10
Topic: Naturalism
Readings: Amalie Skram Karens Christmas and
Ragnhild Jlsen The Twelfth Cabin and Fiddle
Music in the Meadow
McFarlane in Nss
Excerpt from Ch. 5
July 11 Midterm Exam
July 12 No Classes: Long Weekend --
July 13 No Classes: Long Weekend --
Week 4
July 16
Topic: Neo-romanticism
Readings: Obstfelder I Look and Hamsun Hunger

July 17
Guest Lecture by Erik Skuggevik (M.A., lecturer on
translation studies at the University of Surrey and
language teacher at ISS)
Topic: Translation of Literary Works
Readings: TBA

July 18 Topic: Hunger (continued)
July 19
Topic: The Historical Novel and Epic Norway
Reading: Excerpt from Sigrid Undsets Kristin
Lavransdatter: The Wreath
Berguson: Arrested in
Parody article
July 20
Topic: The Years Between the Wars
Readings: Nini Roll Anker A Crime and Cora
Sandel A Mystery
Mishler in Nss, Ch. 6
Week 5
July 23
Topic: Modern Prose Fiction
Reading: Tarjei Vesaas, The Birds

July 24 The Birds Tarjei Vesaas (continued)
July 25
Topic: Modern Poetry
Readings: Rolf Jacobsen, Olav H. Hauge, Marie
Takvam and Inger Hagerup

July 26
Topic: Women Authors in Late 20
th
Century
Readings: Merete Lindstrm Mother Moon and
Sidsel Lie Puzzle Pictures

July 27
Topic: From Socialist Realism to Contemporary
Fiction
Reading: Dag Solstad, Shyness and Dignity
Zagar: Modernism
and Aesthetic
Dictatorship article
Week 6
July 30 Shyness and Dignity (continued)
July 31
Topic: Migrant Literature
Reading: Excerpt from Khalid Hussain, Pakkis


August 01
Topic: Contemporary Drama
Reading: Jon Fosse, Someone Is Going to Come

August 02 Review for Exam
August 03 Exam



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Reading List
Fosse, Jon: Someone is going to come. Published in the collection Jon Fosse Plays One. Translated by
Gregory Botton. Oberon Books, London. 2002.
Holberg, Ludvig: Erasmus Montanus. (Any translation/edition. If you have several alternatives, choose
the most recent addition.)
Ibsen, Henrik. Peer Gynt. (Any translation/edition. Recommended: John Northams translation
published by Scandinavian University Press.)
Ibsen, Henrik. The Wild Duck. (Any translation/edition. If you have several alternatives, choose the most
recent addition.)
Hamsun, Knut. Hunger. (Recommended translation: Sverre Lyngstads translation published by
Canongate.)
Solstad, Dag. Shyness and Dignity. (Any translation/edition.)
Vesaas, Tarjei. The Birds. (Available for loan for all students. For loan at the ISS office.)