Course Syllabus
A Sense of Place inEuropean Literature B |
 |
Ida Raselli, Som et landskab vil det levende / As a Landscape the living will (2023)
| Semester & Location: |
Fall 2024, DIS Copenhagen |
| Type & Credits: |
Literature Core Course - 3 credits |
| Study Tour: |
Berlin, Germany |
| Major Discipline: |
Literature |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Faculty Member: |
Birgitte Duelund Pallesen, current students contact through Canvas Inbox |
| Time & Place: |
Mondays and Thursdays, 08.30-09.50 Classroom: F24-402 |
Course Description
In this course we will explore and identify the interrelation between place and text. We discover comparative perspectives on European literature through in-depth analysis and close readings of texts written by modern and classical European writers.
The European Humanities core course includes a total of 18 classes, a core course week with a short study tour to the island of Møn, and a six day long study tour to Berlin, Germany.
Course Format
The course will be a mixture of class discussions, short lectures, and meetings with contemporary writers.
Core Course Week: Copenhagen and Short Study Tour to the Island of Møn
The focus of the week will be poetry, nature and contemplation. We retreat from the city to go on a three-day study tour to the island of Møn, Southern Zealand. Staying at Villa Gress, former home to author and WW2 resistance fighter Elsa Gress now turned writers' residency, we will use the site-specificity to explore the deep connections to literature, past and present, manifest in the place. Eco-criticism and eco-poetry will be key concepts that will help us ponder over the relationship between nature and culture, language and perception.
Six days Long Study Tour to Berlin, Germany
During the trip to Berlin, we will explore one of the most complex, lively and literary cities in Europe. We will read and discuss selected Berlin texts on site and explore how the city influences our reading and vice versa.
Berlin is a city of grand modernist experiments as well as a city with a recent past of horrific atrocities and suppression. Throughout the 20th century, Berlin has undergone tremendous transformations and abrupt changes. The aftermaths of The Third Reich, WWII and The Cold War are still very visible in Berlin’s urban landscape and the historical wounds and cultural voids present in the minds of the Berliners. From our theoretical perspectives of place, text and memory, we will study how artists and writers have responded to the changing political situations. We will see how authors of Berlin have helped shape the city’s imaginaries and how the city has been a driving force for the creation of literary text throughout the changing times.
After the fall of the wall and the reunification of Germany, the controversies of how to remember such a recent and troubled past have thrived in the capital. We will study how Berlin tries to come to terms with its past and how place is still contested and negotiated in relation to the reunited city’s memorial culture. We will see how these controversies are reflected in both the urban landscape, political debates and in the literature.
Instructor
Birgitte Duelund Pallesen, Cand. mag. (Comparative Literature, University of Copenhagen).
Email: birgitte.pallesen@dis.dk
Course Objectives
- Examine the interrelation between place and text in literature
- Learn the methodology of literary geography
- Identify significant themes and narration strategies in the works read
- Improve your skills in textual analysis
Course Requirements
This course is discussion‐based and requires your active participation and engagement. You are also required to complete the following to pass the course:
- Leading class discussion in Berlin (outline due September 19)
- Paper I: Analysis of Berlin text and place (due September 25)
- Berlin Reflection (due October 18)
- Paper II: Independent Literary Analysis (due December 13)
More information on assignments will be given in class, and individual consultations will be available.
Grade Components
| Active Participation | 25% |
| Paper I | 25% |
| Leading Group Discussion in Berlin: Outline & Reflection | 20% |
| Paper II | 30% |
Required Readings
Theoretical texts
Bachelard, G. The Poetics of Place.
Casey, Edward S. “How to get from Space to Place in a fairly short stretch of time”.
Cresswell, Tim. “Introduction: Defining Place.” Place – an introduction. 2nd ed., John Wiley & Sons, 2015.
Foucault, Michel. "Of Other Spaces".
Grosz, Elizabeth. "Bodies-Cities"
Lefebvre, Henri. The Production of Space
Massey, Doreen. “A Global Sense of Place”. Space, Place and Gender, U of Minnesota Press, 1994.
Miller, J.H. Topographies.
Moretti, Franco. Atlas of the European Novel, 1800‐1900, Verso, 1998.
Morton, Timothy. "The Dark Ecology of Elegy"
Neimanis, Astrida. “Hydrofeminism: Or, On Becoming a Body of Water”
Relph, E. Place and Placelessness.
Literature
Aridjis, Chloe. Book of Clouds. Black Cat, 2009.
Baudelaire, Charles. "Crowds".
Benjamin, Walter. Berlin Childhood.
Calle, Sophie. Detachment. Actes Sud, 2013.
Celan, Paul. Selected Poems and Prose of Paul Celan. W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 2001
Christensen, Inger. Alphabet.
Ditlevsen, Tove. "Childhood". Childhood, Youth, Dependency.
Gråbøl, Fine. What Kingdom.
Gogol, Nikolai. "Nevsky Prospect". Plays and Petersburg Tales. Oxford University Press, New York, 1995
Hensel, Jana. After the Wall. Public Affairs, 2004.
Jensen, Johannes V. The Fall of The King.
Korneliussen, Niviaq. Last Night in Nuuk.
Lorde, Audre. The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde. W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 2000
Poe, Edgar Allen. "Man of the Crowd".
Schalansky, Judith. Pocket Atlas of Remote Islands, Fifty Islands I have not visited and never will. Penguin Books, 2012.
Woolf, Virginia. Mrs Dalloway
Ørntoft, Theis. Poems 2014.
Secondary Literature
A selection of relevant secondary readings will be available under ‘Recommended Readings’ on Canvas.
Academic Regulations
Please make sure to read the Academic Regulations on the DIS website. There you will find regulations on:
DIS - Study Abroad in Scandinavia - www.DISabroad.org
Course Summary:
| Date | Details | Due |
|---|---|---|