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Syllabus:

Contemporary Swedish Culture, 7.5 Credits

The course is discontinued from 2025-05-20

Swedish name: Contemporary Swedish Culture

This syllabus is valid: 2016-01-18 valid to 2018-01-14 (newer version of the syllabus exists)

Course code: 1KU030

Credit points: 7.5

Education level: First cycle

Main Field of Study and progress level: Cultural Analysis: First cycle, has only upper-secondary level entry requirements
Drama-Theatre-Film: First cycle, has only upper-secondary level entry requirements
Ethnology: First cycle, has only upper-secondary level entry requirements
Art History: First cycle, has only upper-secondary level entry requirements
Comparative Literature: First cycle, has only upper-secondary level entry requirements
Media and Communication Studies: First cycle, has only upper-secondary level entry requirements
Museology: First cycle, has only upper-secondary level entry requirements

Grading scale: Pass with distinction, Pass, Fail

Responsible department: Department of Culture and Media Studies

Established by: Faculty director of studies, Faculty of arts, 2015-12-16

Contents

The course gives an introduction to contemporary Swedish cultural trends and tendencies through the study of some Swedish depictions and narratives. A wide range of cultural expressions and art forms are introduced and used as a basis for discussion and analysis (including but not limited to film, television, literature, mass media, and art). Within the course, several themes are explored, such as equality, ecology, migration and political activism. Special attention is given to the relationship between the urban and the rural, the local and the national, and the national and the global.

Expected learning outcomes

After completing the course the student should have basic knowledge of:

  • Some contemporary Swedish cultural trends and tendencies.
  • Examples of specific Swedish depictions and narratives relating to the main themes of the course.
  • How individual works of art and mass media can be analyzed in relation to public debate and political discourse.

 

Required Knowledge

General entry requirements

Form of instruction

The course is held in English. Teaching consists of lectures, seminars, group projects and local excursions. All seminars and local excursions are compulsory. If a student fails to attend a compulsory session, a written complementary examination will be provided by the teacher. All activities will take place in the evenings.

As an enrolled student with a disability you can apply for support in connection with your studies. For more information contact the Student Services http://www.student.umu.se/english/during-your-studies/support-for-disabled-students/?languageId=1.
 

Examination modes

The course is examined through participation in seminars and excursions, which is graded U (Fail) or G (Pass) and one individually written examination. The written exam is to be handed in at the end of the course and will cover both descriptive and analytic elements. On the written examination one of the grades U (Fail), G (Pass), or VG (Pass with distinction) is given. In order to pass the course all exams and compulsory sessions must be passed and one of the grades U (Fail), G (Pass), or VG (Pass with distinction) is given.   

Students who fail the final examination have the right to retake the examination soon afterwards, but the first exam might also be rewritten with a restriction to receive the highest grade (VG). Examination on the same syllabus as the ordinary examination is guaranteed until two years after the first registration to the course.

Students who have passed an examination cannot redo the examination to receive a higher grade. A student who has failed an examination twice can apply to the The Faculty of Arts Board to have another teacher consider the exam.

Other regulations

Credit transfer is always examined individually.
 

Literature

  • Valid from: 2017 week 2

    Some of the literature is provided by teachers in connection to lectures and seminars. The students will also be able to suggest material for seminar discussions.

    Booth Michael
    The almost nearly perfect people : the truth about the Nordic miracle
    London : Jonathan Cape : 2014 : 406 s. :
    ISBN: 9780224089623
    Mandatory
    Search the University Library catalogue
    Reading instructions: Selections appointed by the teachers

    Modern-day Vikings: A Practical Guide to Interacting With the Swedes (InterAct series)
    Carr Lisa Werner, Robinowitz Christina Johansson
    Intercultural Press, Incorporated : 2001 :
    Mandatory

    Sweden after the recent election : the double-binding power of Swedish whiteness through the mourning of the loss of “old Sweden” and the passing of “good Sweden”
    Hübinette Tobias, Lundström Catrin
    Included in:
    Nora
    London : Taylor & Francis : 1998- :
    Mandatory

    Isenhour Cindy
    Building sustainable societies: A Swedish case study on the limits of reflexive modernization
    Included in:
    American ethnologist
    Washington : The Soc. : 1974- : 37 : pages 511-525 :
    Mandatory

    Women and men in Sweden : facts and figures. 2014
    Stockholm : Statistics Sweden, Population statistics unit (Statistiska centralbyrån) : 2014 : 104 s. :
    http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:scb-2014-x10br1401eng_pdf
    ISBN: 9789161816095
    Mandatory
    Search the University Library catalogue
    Reading instructions: p. 2-11

    Blond och blåögd : vithet, svenskhet och visuell kultur = Blond and blue-eyed : whiteness, Swedishness, and visual culture
    Werner Jeff, Björk Tomas
    Göteborg : Göteborgs konstmuseum : 2014 : 392 s. :
    Fulltext
    ISBN: 9789187968877
    Mandatory
    Search the University Library catalogue
    Reading instructions: Skiascope 6, 2014, p. 13-49, 161-169

    Challenging the myth of gender equality in Sweden
    Martinsson Lena, Griffin Gabriele, Giritli Nygren Katarina
    Bristol : Policy Press : 2016 : 222 s. :
    ISBN: 9781447325963
    Search the University Library catalogue
    Reading instructions: Optional reading

    Swedish traditions
    Swahn Jan-Öjvind, Puryear Rachelle
    Bromma : Ordalaget : 2012 : 159 s. :
    ISBN: 978-91-7469-040-8
    Search the University Library catalogue
    Reading instructions: Optional reading

    Davis Kathy
    Intersectionality as Buzzword
    Included in:
    Feminist theory.
    London : Sage : 2000- : pages p. 67-86 :
    Mandatory

    Citizenship policies and ideas of nationhood in Scandinavia, Citizenship Studies, 14:4
    Brochmann Grete, Seland Idunn
    Mandatory : 2010 :
    Mandatory
    Reading instructions: p. 429-443

    Hall Stuart
    Representation : cultural representations and signifying practices.
    London : Sage : 1997 : 400 s. : ill. :
    ISBN: 0-7619-5432-5
    Mandatory
    Search the University Library catalogue
    Reading instructions: p. 1-29

    Nekby Lena
    Cultural Integration in Sweden
    Included in:
    Cultural integration of immigrants in Europe
    Oxford : Oxford University Press : 2012. : xiv, 344 p. : pages Chapter 6 :
    Mandatory
    Reading instructions: Chapter 6

    Roald Anne Sofie
    From ’People's Home’ to ’Multiculturalism (Chapter 7)
    Included in:
    Muslims in the West
    Oxford : Oxford University Press : 2002. : xvii, 318 p. :
    Mandatory
    Reading instructions: Chapter 7

    Race performativity and melancholic whiteness in contemporary Sweden
    Hübinette Tobias, Räterlinck Lennart E.H.
    Routledge : 2014 :
    Social Identities, 02 November 2014, Vol.20(6), p.501-514
    Mandatory

    Teitelbaum Benjamin
    Come Hear our Merry Song
    Brown University : 2013 :
    Chapter 1 pp 1-8, chapter 4 pp 225-300
    Mandatory

    Further reading will be appointed by the lecturer.

  • Valid from: 2016 week 3

    Some of the literature is provided by teachers in connection to lectures and seminars. The students will also be able to suggest material for seminar discussions.

    Booth Michael
    The almost nearly perfect people : the truth about the Nordic miracle
    London : Jonathan Cape : 2014 : 406 s. :
    ISBN: 9780224089623
    Mandatory
    Search the University Library catalogue

    Modern-day Vikings: A Practical Guide to Interacting With the Swedes (InterAct series)
    Carr Lisa Werner, Robinowitz Christina Johansson
    Intercultural Press, Incorporated : 2001 :
    Mandatory

    Further reading will be appointed by the lecturer.