Fall 2019  |  SCAN 3614 Section 001: Blood on Snow: Scandinavian Thrillers in Fiction and Film (32835)

Instructor(s)
Class Component:
Discussion
Credits:
3 Credits
Grading Basis:
Student Option
Instructor Consent:
No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:
In Person Term Based
Class Attributes:
UMNTC Liberal Education Requirement
Meets With:
SCAN 5614 Section 001
Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
 
09/03/2019 - 12/11/2019
Tue, Thu 01:00PM - 02:15PM
UMTC, East Bank
Folwell Hall 108
Enrollment Status:
Open (39 of 50 seats filled)
Also Offered:
Course Catalog Description:
Scandinavian crime novels/films against background of peaceful welfare states. Readings in translation for non-majors. Scandinavian majors/minors read excerpts in specific languages.
Class Notes:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/?bbigelow+SCAN3614+Fall2019
Class Description:

In recent years, thrillers and crime fiction (in literature as well as film and television) produced in the Nordic countries have had remarkable commercial and critical success, both domestically and across the globe. In this course, we will work to define the genre that has come to be known variously as Scandicrime or Nordic Noir in depth, both by looking at key formative texts, as well as more provocative outliers. We will also tackle the question of why Scandinavian crime fiction has become so popular during the past few decades both within the Nordic countries as well as across the globe. Why is Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander, for instance, one of the most popular international literary police detectives of his generation? Why was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo a worldwide phenomenon? This remarkable popularity stands in stark contrast to the generally low crime rates in these supposedly peaceful social-democratic welfare states. This course will explore such paradoxical questions through reading, viewing, and discussing crime novels, films, and television series.

This course fulfills the Liberal Education core requirement in Literature. Close reading of literary texts will enable the students to focus on the relationship between language and meaning, and reflect on the complexity of human lives. Students will develop analytical skills in dealing with one of the world's most visible bodies of thrillers in fiction and film. The reading and analyzing strategies appropriate to the genre will be applied in order to further students' understanding of the art and cultural significance of this type of literature and film. Both national and international dimensions of the material will be considered.

Grading:
20%: Attendance and participation
20%: Three short papers (3-4 pages)
30%: Midterm examination
30%: Final examination
Textbooks:
https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/32835/1199
Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
15 November 2017

ClassInfo Links - Fall 2019 Scandinavian Classes

To link directly to this ClassInfo page from your website or to save it as a bookmark, use:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/?subject=SCAN&catalog_nbr=3614&term=1199
To see a URL-only list for use in the Faculty Center URL fields, use:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/?subject=SCAN&catalog_nbr=3614&term=1199&url=1
To see this page output as XML, use:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/?subject=SCAN&catalog_nbr=3614&term=1199&xml=1
To see this page output as JSON, use:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/?subject=SCAN&catalog_nbr=3614&term=1199&json=1
To see this page output as CSV, use:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/?subject=SCAN&catalog_nbr=3614&term=1199&csv=1
Schedule Viewer
8 am
9 am
10 am
11 am
12 pm
1 pm
2 pm
3 pm
4 pm
5 pm
6 pm
7 pm
8 pm
9 pm
10 pm
s
m
t
w
t
f
s
?
Class Title