Why Study Norwegian?
“Hvis litteraturen ikke fantes, ville mange tanker bli usynlige”
(If literature didn’t exist, many thoughts would remain invisible).
--Lars Saabye Christensen, Norwegian author
Studying the literature, language and film of Norway allows us to step out of the box of home to explore beyond the language and culture we know. This is a valuable enterprise in a world that increasingly requires that all of us have experience in a global setting.
Courses: Courses allow us to see through the lens of a small country that is both an important player in international peace negotiations and a site of multicultural change. A wish to explore, enter into a rigorous study of texts, and engage the questions literature and film pose to us, are the elements of a Norwegian major. Learning the Norwegian language increases awareness of the importance of preserving small language groups as voices to be heard in the global community. Students in the Norwegian Program link the reading of texts to critical inquiry in three main areas:
1) Explorations of cultural and national identity in times of change. An understanding of Norway in the 21st century is central to this inquiry;
2) Expressions of the human experience of conflict, displacement and social injustice;
3) Questions of authority based on gender, class, regional identity, or ethnicity.