SWEDISH LITERATURE

Locating the subject within the study plan of the MA-programme

Swedish Literature is offered at the first year of the MA-programme in Language Sciences (Scienze del Linguaggio) to the students who choose Swedish as their language/literature of specialization at this level. Swedish literature is not included in the other MA-programmes (European, American and Postcolonial Languages and Literature, Comparative International Relations), but it is open, as a freely chosen subject, to the students attending these programmes, who have previously studied Scandinavian languages, culture and literature at BA-level.

Expected results

The course proposes an analysis of texts and films in Swedish, as well as of texts in English and Italian. It aims at an in-depth knowledge of Ingmar Bergman’s oeuvre, of the biographical and cultural contexts in which it takes shape and, above all, of its intermedial dimension, including plays, film scripts, films and one autobiography. The course aims to develop the necessary skills for the analysis of the proposed works and the oral presentation of them in Swedish.

Prerequisites

The course will to be held in Swedish, as it is addressed to former students of Scandinavian studies at BA-level. Texts and films will be read and seen in the original language. The critical sources are in Swedish, English and Italian.
Students at MA-level without intermediate/upper-intermediate skills in Swedish, who are interested in our Swedish language and Swedish literature courses, can follow the courses at BA-level, starting as beginners.

Contents

Intermediality in Ingmar Bergman’s work between autobiography, drama, film script and stage direction.

Writing has always been topical in Ingmar Bergman’s oeuvre. He began as a dramatist and devoted himself to film script as a makeshift, at least initially. Bergman’s ability to combine images, words and music as the director and auteur of his films has made him world-famous, giving even his film scripts a particular literary dignity. And the literary quality of them, in their book form, is beyond doubt. Autobiographical writing confirms Ingmar Bergman’s position as a central literary author, as well as a dramatist, a theatre director and a filmmaker, in Sweden and worldwide.
By studying some of Bergman’s masterpieces from the 1940s to the 1980s, the course proposes a journey into his intermediality.

References

Primary sources

Plays:

Ingmar Bergman, Dagen slutar tidigt, in Id., Moraliteter. Tre pjäser, Bonniers, Stockholm 1948, pp. 75-157 (pdf) / Il giorno finisce presto, trans. Renato Zatti, Iperborea, Milano 2008 (bookshops or libraries)

Ingmar Bergman, Trämålning. Moralitet, Bonniers, Stockholm 1956 (pdf) / Pittura su legno. Una morality play, ed. Luca Scarlini, trans. Luciano Marrucci, Einaudi, Torino 2001 (bookshops or libraries)

Hugo von Hoffmansthal, Ognuno. Il dramma della morte del ricco. Jedermann. Das Spiel vom Sterben des reichen Mannes, parallel text, trans. Giuseppe Zamboni, TEA, Milano 1989 (pdf)

Scripts > films

Ingmar Bergman, Det sjunde inseglet, Norstedts, Stockholm 2017 (BALI) / Il settimo sigillo, trans. Alberto Criscuolo, Iperborea, Milano 2017 (BALI, bookshops or other libreries)

Ingmar Bergman, Smultronstället, Norstedts, Stockholm 2018 (BALI) / Il posto delle fragole, trans. Renato Zatti, Iperborea, Milano 2004 (bookshops or libraries)

Ingmar Bergman, Fanny och Alexander, Norstedts, Stockholm 2018 (BALI) / Fanny e Alexander. Un romanzo, Ubulibri, Milano 1987 (BAUM)

Autobiography and essays

Ingmar Bergman, Laterna magica, Norstedt, Stockholm 2018 (BALI) / Lanterna Magica, trans. Fulvio Ferrari, Garzanti, Milano 1990 (BAUM)

Ingmar Bergman, “Monolog”, in Id., Femte akten, Norstedts, Stockholm 1994, pp. 7-15 (pdf) / “Monologo”, in Id., Il quinto atto, Garzanti, Milano 2000 (libraries)


Secondary sources

Massimo Ciaravolo, “La scrittura drammaturgica ovvero desiderio e necessità di rappresentazione”, Hystrio, XXXI, 2018:4, pp. 32-35 (pdf)

from Massimo Ciaravolo (ed.), Storia delle letterature scandinave, Iperborea, Milano 2019, the following pp.: 297-315 (Giuliano D’Amico on B. Bjørnson and H. Ibsen); 322-334 (MC on A. Strindberg); 347-350 (MC on Hj. Söderberg); 402-404 (Camilla Storskog on Hj. Bergman); 466-471 (MC on P. Lagerkvist); 515-531 (Bruno Berni, Sara Culeddu and MC on theatre in Denmark, Norway and Sweden in the first part of the 20th century); 542-552 (Davide Finco on the 1940s in Sweden and Ingmar Bergman); 570-580 (MC and Maria Cristina Lombardi on the 1950s in Sweden and Ingmar Bergman); 911-940 (BB, SC, MC and Silvia Cosimini on Nordic theatre in the second half of the 20th century up to present time)

Jan Holmberg, Författaren Ingmar Bergman, Norstedts, Stockholm 2018, (BALI, pdf), p. 87-104

Hans Lund, “Förord” + “Medier i samspel”, in Hans Lund (ed.), Intermedialitet. Ord, bild och ton i samspel, Studentlitteratur, Lund 2002, p. 7-22 (pdf)

Birgitta Steene, Ingmar Bergman. A Reference Guide, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2005, pp. 11-66 (“Preface”; “Chapter 1. Life and Work”; “Chapter 2. The Writer”) (pdf)

Leif Zern, ”Il dialogo, la scena, la cinepresa (Il rapporto fra teatro, cinema e televisione in Ingmar Bergman)”, in Teatro in Europa, 10, 1992, pp. 66-71 (pdf)

Additional syllabus for students not attending the course

Students not attending the course have to study the syllabus described above. In addition, they will have to see and study the films in the original version on their own. Additional materials will be indicated at the professor’s office hours. A visit by the student is, in this case, compulsory.

Assessment

The examination is oral, it lasts about 20 minutes and it is in Swedish (unless otherwise agreed upon, in case of special needs). Some of the works dealt with in the course are discussed and they are referred to their significant biographical, cultural and literary contexts. One question may deal with reading and commenting on a passage from one of Bergman’s works.
The students who have not attended the course must study the additional materials that will be indicated. They must come and talk to the professor at least once before the oral examination.

Teaching methods

The course offers mainly frontal lectures, but with moments of participatory learning, as students may, on a voluntary basis, present in class one of the works included in the syllabus. Text will be mainly used in original version in class. Swedish will be the language normally used in teaching and in class intercourse.

More information

If you have questions or need further explanations, please write to massimo.ciaravolo@unive.it. Booking time with an e-mail is recommended if you want to meet the professor. Student who cannot attend the course must contact the teacher in order to discuss the syllabus with the supplementary reading.

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