Fall 2017  |  SCAN 5670 Section 001: Topics in Scandinavian Studies -- Scandinavian Silent Movies and the World 1910-30 (34933)

Instructor(s)
Class Component:
Lecture
Credits:
3 Credits
Grading Basis:
Student Option
Instructor Consent:
No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:
In Person Term Based
Class Attributes:
Topics Course
Meets With:
SCAN 3670 Section 001
Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
 
09/05/2017 - 12/13/2017
Tue, Thu 02:30PM - 03:45PM
UMTC, East Bank
Nicholson Hall 145
Also Offered:
Course Catalog Description:
Topic may focus on a specific author, group of authors, genre, period, or subject matter. Topics specified in Class Schedule. Readings in English for nonmajors. May meet with 3670.
Class Notes:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/?houex001+SCAN5670+Fall2017
Class Description:
Nordic film saw the day of light as a sustainable genre in the early 20th century. Around 1910 its rowdy childhood ended, and quality silent movies began appearing. It happened not least at studios in Denmark, where the medium first blossomed in a big way. It did so even during and immediately after WWI, when it migrated to the film centers in central Europe (Dreyer) and Hollywood (Christensen). This latter destination also attracted Sweden's most prominent directors (Stiller and Sjöström), when they decided to leave their home turf. Just like their male counterparts, two Nordic actresses - Danish Asta Nielsen and Swedish Greta Garbo - went abroad as well, each becoming the diva of the silent movie era: Nielsen (as die Asta) in Germany in the 1920s, and Garbo in Hollywood well into the 1930s' era of talkies.
Silent movies with ties to Scandinavia (ca. 1910-1930) had both remarkable national and international impact. This topics course is about the birth of a medium and its transcontinental and transatlantic migration and will examine some major specimens by the leading directors and actors. Their work, which often responded with cinematic gusto to impulses from lyric poetry and epic fiction, will be studied in its full complexity: as works of art and entertainment - departing from the world of theater - and as technical and cultural products signaling a new era of modernity with particular cultural infrastructures and audiences.
As for audiences' expectations and sensibilities during and after this breakthrough and surge of Nordic film art, one later critic's musings may be telling: when it was succeeded by "the dark days of the 1930s ... this entire silent period must have seemed like some vanished paradise."
Learning Objectives:
To investigate--in writing and oral discussions--formal, thematic, and inter-medial hallmarks of early Nordic film-making. Which type of creativity and innovation distinguishes films of this era, especially if viewed in the context of literary, theatrical, and other cultural practices? Which major cross-cultural aspects do Nordic silent movies reveal to comparative analysis and interpretation?
Grading:
25% Final Exam
50% Reports/Papers
10% In-class Presentations
15% Class Participation
Exam Format:
Take home essay
Class Format:
30% Lecture
10% Film/Video
60% Discussion
Workload:
65-100 Pages Reading per Week (for Scan 3670); 100-135 Pages Reading per Week (for Scan 5670)
15 Pages Writing Per Term (for Scan 3670); 20 Pages Writing Per Term (for Scan 5670)
1 Exam(s)
2 Paper(s)
1 Presentation(s)
Textbooks:
https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/34933/1179
Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
3 April 2017

ClassInfo Links - Fall 2017 Scandinavian Classes

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