Scandinavian 387H - Viking Revival

An interdisciplinary course exploring the 19th-century revival of the Viking image, using literature, philosophy, music and the visual arts to trace the motif as an expression of nationalism ca. 1800-1914. One course objective is to introduce major Scandinavian cultural figures such as H. C. Andersen, Kerkegaard, Ibsen, Sibelius, and Edvard Munch in their cultural contexts. Another is to reflect on what forms of Nordic identity were indigenous in Scandinavian history and culture, to what degree they did/did not resemble the ideal later appropriated by German race-mythologists, and what the differences might mean. (Gen.Ed. AT)