Course Syllabus

 

Imagining the Other in European Literature

 

Core Class, Fall 2017, 3 credits

Stockholm

Time: Mondays and Thursdays, 8:30 – 9:50

Location: 1E 509

Study Tour to Oxford and London
Major Disciplines: Literature
Faculty Member: Jan Holmgaard

 

Description of course  

The course examines how Otherness has been imagined and depicted in Nordic and European literature. Through questioning the underlying assumptions in European literature, we explore the processes of constructing and representing the Other in terms of gender, culture, ethnicity, social class, sexual orientation, religion, and nationality. The course is divided into four different parts: 1) Postcolonial Perspectives; 2) Female Writers, Feminism, and Exotism; 3) Woman as Other, and the Question of Gender; and 4) Multiculturalism in the Metropolis. The course also includes a short Study Tour to Gothenburg and a long Study Tour to London/Oxford.

 

Learning objectives of the course  

By the end of this course you will have developed skills enabling you to: 1) analyze the underlying ideological and cultural assumptions in works of literature;2) understand the historical and political contexts of literature; 3) identify siginificant narrative and figurative literary strategies; 3) navigate though challenging theoretical texts; 4) improve your own writing and textual analysis; 5) develop your own critical voice.

 

Approach to Teaching

I believe that teaching is a passion. Each session, seminar, or lecture is an opportunity not only to present facts, knowledge, and analytical perspectives, but to engage in dialogue with students on important literary, ideological, cultural, and existential questions and topics. I always encourage students to challenge themselves and to engage in critical thinking, whereby preconcieved ideas and one’s own prejudices are questioned and put into context.

 

Expectations of the students

Students are expected to have done the reading for each class and to come prepared with notes and questions for the class to discuss. Engaged participation is part of the evaluation and grading of the course. It also makes the sessions so much more interesting and versatile. It is vital that the students engage in an ongoing critical dialogue based on the required texts. Engaged participation is also extended to include an oral presentation in class. Furthermore, students are expected to develop their writing abilities and their analytical approach to literature. During the course, students are expected to hand in two papers, as well as a final paper.

 

Field studies, practicum, and/or study tour

The purpose of the study tour to London and Oxford is to further expand and develop the fourth part of the course, dealing with Multiculturalism in the Metropolis. By visiting London, and taking part in its rich colonial and postcolonial history, we will gain a deeper critical understanding of the current multicultural metropolis. We will visit The National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain, The Albert and Victoria Museum, and other important venues . The tour will also present us with an excellent opportunity to further study what role the city has played as a representation of modernity and postmodernity within a literary context. After all, London is a key setting not only in Virgina Wool´s groundbreaking novel Mrs Dalloway, but also in  Zadie Smith´s contemporary and much appraised N-W. The purpose of the short tour to Gothenburg is to expand our perspectives on postcolonialism, primarily by visiting The Museum of World Culture, and meeting with leading scholars within the field.

 

Evaluation

Students will be evaluated based on overall acquired skills, from demonstrating a basic understanding of facts and knowledge, over a comprehensive understanding of literary strategies and theoretical concepts, to a fully developed critical approach to important and complex questions regarding gender, postcolonialism, and multiculturalism, both in works of literature, and in theoretical works.  Students will be evaluated based on the following: the engaged participation in class, the oral presentation in class, two written assignments, and the final paper.

 

Grading

Participation: 10%

Oral presentation: 10%

Paper 1: 20%

Paper 2: 20%

Final Paper: 40%

 

Disability and Resource Statement

Any student who has a need for accommodation based on the impact of a disability should immediately contact Mark Peters (mpe@disstockholm.se) to coordinate this. In order to receive accommodations, students should inform the instructor of approved DIS accommodations.

 

DIS Contacts

Karen Søilen, Interim Program Director, European Humanities Department, ks@dis.dk

Mark Peters, Stockholm Academic Coordinator, mpe@disstockholm.se 

 

Required Readings

Novels, Short Stories, Travelogues

Blixen, Karen, ”The Roads Round Pisa” (Canvas)

Brontë, Charlotte, Jane Eyre (Canvas)

Conrad, Joseph, Heart of Darkness (Textbook)

Duras, Marguerite, The Lover (Textbook)

Eliot, George, Daniel Deronda (Canvas)

Flaubert in Egypt: A Sensibility on Tour (Canvas)

Flaubert, Gustave, Salammbô (Canvas)

Hoffmann, E. T. A. ”The Sandman” (Canvas)

Kureishi, Hanif, The Buddha of Suburbia (Textbook)

Naipaul, V. S., ”A New King of the Kongo” (Canvas)

Naipaul, V. S., ”Conrad´s Darkness and Mine” (Canvas)

Rhys, Jean, Wide Sargasso Sea (Canvas)

Selvon, Sam, The Lonely Londoners (Textbook)

Smith, Zadie, NW (Textbook)

Woolf, Virginia, Mrs Dalloway (Textbook)

 

Theoretical Texts

Achebe, Chenua, ”An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad´s Heart of Darkness” (Compendium)

Ball, John, Clement, Imagining London: Postcolonial Fiction and the Transnational Metropolis (excerpts) (Compendium)

Beauvoir, Simone de, The Second Sex (excerpts) (Compendium)

Butler, Judith, Gender Trouble (excerpts) (Compendium)

Carroll, Alicia, ”Arabina Nights, Make-Believe, Exotism and Desire in Daniel Deronda” (Compendium)

Célestine, Roger, From Cannibals to Radicals: Figures and Limits of Exotism (excerpts) (Compendium)

Cixous, Hélène, ”The Laugh of the Medusa” (Compendium)

Freud, Sigmund, ”The Uncanny” (Compendium)

Gilbert and Guber, The Madwoman in the Attic – The Woman Writer in the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination (excerpts) (Compendium)

Haffey, Kate,”Exquisite Moments and the Temporality of the Kiss in Mrs Dalloway and The Hours” (Compendium)

Irigaray, Luce,”The Wedding Between Body and Language” (Compendium)

Kokoli, Alexandra M., The Feminist Uncanny in Theory and Practice (excerpts) (Canvas)

Kuehn, Julia, ”Beyond Orientalism: Exoticising Daniel Deronda” (Compendium)

Leavis, F. R., The Great Tradition (excerpts) (Compendium)

McLeod, Bill, Postcolonial London: Rewriting the Metropolis (Textbook)

Meyer, Susan, ”Safely to Their Own Books: Proto-Zionism, Feminism, and Nationalism in Daniel Deronda” (Compendium)

Miller, Hillis J., ”Should We Read Heart of Darkness?” (Canvas)

Ruddy, Karen, ”The Ambivalence of Colonial Desire in Marguerite Duras The Lover” (Compendium)

Said, Edward, Orientalism (excerpts) (Textbook)

Said, Edward, ”Two Visions in Heart of Darkness” (Canvas)

Spivak, Gaytari C., ”Three Women´s Texts and a Critique of Imperialism” (Compendium)

Spivak, Gaytari C., ”Can the Subaltern Speak?” (Compendium)

Todorov, Tzvetan, ”Heart of Darkness” (Compendium)