Welcome! This syllabus is from a recent version of SCAND 367. It will change in some ways during spring 2025, but it can give you a good idea about the course material and assignments.

Please reach out with questions if you have them: ogunn@uw.edu

Sexuality in Scandinavia: Myth and Reality

Professor Olivia N. Gunn

Course description

The recent public global image of the Nordic countries involves their status as some of the most egalitarian and sexually open nations in the world. In SCAND 367, we consider how they achieved this reputation, as well as what has changed (or stayed the same?) since the decency debates of the 1880s and the recent rise of right-wing nationalism. Our sources—literary works, critical articles, sociopolitical writings, film, art, and television—will help us to explore how the Nordics have perceived human sexualities since the late nineteenth century, while also acknowledging the complexity and diversity of the landscape of gender and desire in Northern Europe. Students who complete this course earn A&H and SSc credit.

Required Reading/Viewing

• Articles, short stories and more will be available on Canvas
• Two memoirs:
  • Dependency by Tove Ditlevsen (978-0374539412)
  • I Talk about It All the Time by Camara Lundestad Joof (978-0299348540)
  • NOTE: You must purchase these books. They are available at the UW bookstore and online.
• Film and television will be screened in class or made available for streaming online

Course Objectives

• To begin developing an understanding of perceptions of sexualities and gender in the Nordic region
• To promote critical thinking on the role of conventions and myth making in society
• To provide an opportunity to encounter the models on which you base your opinions and beliefs about sexuality
• To practice critical reading and analysis of written and visual sources

Assignments

Two micro-papers: 40%

You will hand in two short essays (400-600 words) that explore some aspect of our central theme—"sexuality"—in conversation with one or two of our primary sources. These essays might pursue answers to a question or make an argument. They must cite from readings and/or viewings and engage with ideas from course lectures and discussions. Because the papers are short, you'll need to be very precise when it comes to organization, rhetoric, logic, and use of evidence. See the rubric on Canvas.

At the end of the quarter, you will have the opportunity to revise one of these papers for a re-grade, if you choose.

Two Image Annotation & Analysis Projects: 30%

In teams (of up to four people), you will produce two Image Annotation & Analysis assignments. After selecting an image or image pair (options provided by me), you will

• annotate the image(s) in detail and
• provide a 3-5 paragraph (double-spaced) written commentary that contextualizes the image (historically and in terms of class content/questions) and associates it with other written and/or visual sources

If you have a compelling reason for NOT doing this assignment in a team, please come and talk to me. It is possible to work alone, although I prefer that most students work in a team.

Weekly Team Discussions: 25% (credit/no credit)

Every week, you will engage in small team discussions. You must post a response to a prompt or set of questions (35 points) and respond to at least one team member (15 points). I use these discussions to evaluate participation. They can also serve as pre-writing/idea development for micro-papers and A&A projects.

Optional Journal: 5%

If you are interested in pursuing a higher grade (3.9 or 4.0), you can choose to keep a journal focused on a particular theme. You should produce seven entries over the course of the quarter.

This assignment cannot be crammed in at the end of the quarter: you should produce a first entry no later than week three.

Policies and Procedures

Academic Style and format

Citations used in course work should follow either the MLA style (http://guides.lib.uw.edu/research/citations/mla-style), or The Chicago Manual of Style, 16^th edition. Be consistent! Choose one style and stick with it. Some bibliographic information might not be available, but the following questions must always be answerable by the reader: Who said it (author’s name), and how/where can one find the source (title and page number, date and publisher, URL)?

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:  Cheating and plagiarism include, but are not limited to:

• Copying the work of others or allowing others (including machines) to do your work for you;
• Directly quoting the words of others without using quotation marks, indented format, and in-text citations to identify them; or
• Using sources (published or unpublished) without identifying them; or
• Paraphrasing materials or borrowing the ideas of others without identifying the sources.

Plagiarizing, or copying and/or using the words or ideas of others without proper acknowledgement, undermines your learning and devalues the degree that you are seeking. Acknowledge and/or cite every single source that you consider when producing assignments. Over-citing is better than under-citing! If you need help understanding and avoiding plagiarism, come talk to me. Consequences for plagiarizing will be determined on a case-by-case basis but can include failing the assignment and failing the course. Please see the following information on Student Academic Responsibility: file:///Users/olivianoblegunn/Downloads/UW_StudentAcademicResponsiblity-1.pdf

Grading scale

Grades for this course are calculated on a 100-point (percent) scale and converted to the University of Washington 4.0-scale

Links to an external site. prior to final submission. Conversion is based on a linear scale recommended by Sharon Hargus and Laurie Poulson in the Department of Linguistics and available here

Links to an external site.. Note that conversion for this course differs from the linear scale for numerical grades of 4.0 and 3.9. Percentage ranges for this course for each numerical grade are as follows:

97-100%=4.0; 94-96%=3.9; 93%=3.8; 92%=3.7; 91%=3.6; 90%=3.5;  89%=3.4; 88%=3.3; 87%=3.2; 86%=3.1; 85%=3.0; 84%=2.9; 83%=2.8; 82%=2.7; 81%=2.6; 80%=2.5; 79%=2.4; 78%=2.3; 77%=2.2; 76%=2.1; 75%=2.0; 74%=1.9; 73%=1.8; 72%=1.7; 71%=1.6; 70%=1.5; 69%=1.4; 68%=1.3; 67%=1.2; 66%=1.1; 65%=1.0; 64%=0.9; 63%=0.8; 62%=0.7; <0.7=0.0

I accept late work, if necessitated by emergency, illness, and other relevant contexts. Please negotiate an alternative due date before the original due date.

Please respect yourself and others.

• EMAIL: You are more than welcome to email me, to drop by my office, or to make an appointment to meet during another time. I do not always check email after 5:00pm or on the weekends, so please plan accordingly
• My office is an LGBTQAI+ friendly place
• The classroom, whether in-person or online, is a community in which we learn from one another, so please be present, kind, and focused
• For in-person classes: Unless necessary for specific assignments, do not use mobile phones and considering taking notes on paper. Phones and laptops can distract me and your fellow students. In some cases, they can detract from your own learning.

Tentative Reading and Viewing Schedule

For precise reading and assignment due dates, see the weekly modules on Canvas. Initial posts for team discussions will be due every Monday before midnight (with the exception of Memorial Day); responses are due before the following Friday. All other assignments will be due on Friday before midnight.

Week 1: Sex and the Modern Breakthrough

• 28 March, Welcome!
• 30 March, Medical treatise excerpts and short stories (1880s: Krohg, Bang, Kleve)

Week 2: Trolls and Dubious Consent

• 4 April, Peer Gynt, Act II (1867: Ibsen)
• 6 April, Border (2018: Abbasi)

Week 3: Reproductive Freedom

• 11 April, Sex Activist Pamphlets (1915 and 1926: Møller and Ottesen-Jensen)
• 13 April, Dependency (1971: Ditlevsen)

Week 4: Fatherhood

• 18 April, Norwegian paternal leave (2009-2015: Knausgård)
• 20 April, The Great Christening (1931: Tancred Ibsen)
  • NOTE: On Thursday, class will take place online via pre-recorded lecture
    • First image annotation and analysis assignment due Friday, April 21st!

Week 5: Bad girls?

• 25 April, Summer with Monika (1953: Bergman)
• 27 April, The Worst Person in the World (2021: Trier)

Week 6: Same-Sex Sex and the Nation

• 2 May, “Between Homonationalism and Anti-Gender Politics: Sexual and Reproductive Rights in the Construction of Swedish Nationhood”
  • NOTE: Today we will have a guest lecturer, Dr. Katharina Kehl. Class will take place online; you must register for the lecture at this link: https://simpsoncenter.org/events/event-detail?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D164139164&eventid=164139164

• • Links to an external site.
• 4 May, Tom of Finland
  • First micro-paper due, Friday, May 5th!

Week 7: AIDS Crisis in Sweden

• 9 May, Never wipe tears without gloves (2012: Gardell and Kaijser)
• 11 May, contemporary article, TBD

Week 8: Sex education

• 16 May, Sex education in the 1960s and today
• 18 May, Pornography and the Nordic child
  • Second image annotation and analysis assignment due Friday, May 19th!

Week 9: Ambivalent liberations

• 23 May, Sameblod (2016: Kernell)
  • NOTE: Today we will have a guest lecture, Dr. Troy Storfjell
• 25 May, Me and My Little Sister (2016: West)

Week 10: Shame?

• 30 May, excerpts from I Talk About it All the Time and They Must Birth us or Fuck Us to Love Us (2018 and 2021: Lundestad Joof)
• 1 June, SKAM, season four (2017: Andem)
  • Second micro-paper due, Friday, June 2nd!

Optional journal and revision of micro-paper will be due Friday, June 9th!

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Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy (https://registrar.washington.edu/staffandfaculty/religious-accommodations-policy/)

Links to an external site.. Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form (https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious-accommodations-request/)

Links to an external site..

The University of Washington reaffirms its policy of equal opportunity regardless of race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disabled veteran or Vietnam era veteran in accordance with University policy and applicable federal and state statutes and regulations.

Your experience in this class is important to me. If you have already established accommodations with Disability Resources for Students (DRS), please communicate your approved accommodations to me at your earliest convenience so we can discuss your needs in this course.

If you have not yet established services through DRS, but have a temporary health condition or permanent disability that requires accommodations (conditions include but not limited to; mental health, attention-related, learning, vision, hearing, physical or health impacts), you are welcome to contact DRS at 206-543-8924 or uwdrs@uw.edu or disability.uw.edu. 

Links to an external site.DRS offers resources and coordinates reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities and/or temporary health conditions.  Reasonable accommodations are established through an interactive process between you, your instructor(s) and DRS.  It is the policy and practice of the University of Washington to create inclusive and accessible learning environments consistent with federal and state law.