Scandinavian C145B: Knut Hamsun and his Contemporaries in Late-19th Century Scandinavian Literature.

This quarter, the course will focus on the patriarchy, masculinity, and fatherhood in crisis in Scandinavian literature and the arts of the 1880s and 1890s. Primary readings include prose fiction by Knut Hamsun, Amalie Skram, Victoria Benedictsson, Anne-Charlotte Leffler, and Herman Bang; plays by Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg; and the expressionist paintings and prints of Edvard Munch. These writers and artists engaged in fierce debates about women’s rights and morality questions, embraced naturalism and scientific discourses, questioned religious and social dogmas, while relentlessly putting society under a critical lens. Taught in English.