1891.12 - Dramatic Literature with emphasis on Faroese Plays

1891.12

Dramatic Literature with emphasis on Faroese Plays

10

To provide students with insight into international, Nordic and particularly Faroese dramatic literature and with the tools to analyse this genre. Students will familiarise themselves with the main trends in dramatic literature and the tools to analyse and discuss both traditional and more recent dramatic literature.

Topic: The course is divided into two main components. The first half is an introduction to the main trends in European dramatic literature from ancient Greece up to around 1950 and more recent major trends in dramatic literature in the Nordic countries. Works by Sophocles, Shakespeare, Ibsen, Brecht, Beckett and more recent Nordic authors will be discussed, while students familiarise themselves with the formal characteristics of traditional dramatic literature and how to analyse these. In addition, the course will include examples of more recent Nordic dramatic literature and plays from Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Iceland will be discussed. This component of the course will focus on new trends and new forms of narrative in dramatic literature, as well as new theories aimed at understanding and analysing such trends. In the first half of the course, a broad selection of methods of analysis will be revised and applied to the discussion of works covered on the course. The second half of the course will focus on Faroese dramatic literature. Plays by Faroese authors will be analysed, interpreted and placed in both the Faroese and wider Nordic literary context.

Duration: Three hours a week for one semester. Teaching: The course will aim to afford students the opportunity to apply analytical tools in practice, the course therefore emphasises active student participation. Students will be analysing plays and the learning and teaching approaches will include brief lectures, class-based discussion and student presentations.

Oral examination or a written take-home assignment on a topic of the student’s choice.

Mikkjal Niels Helmsdal