INTENSIVE COURSES

Nordplus Higher Education programme Project NPHE-2022/10047 – Teaching Nordic and Baltic Lives

Intensive course Studying Life Writing in Nordic and Baltic Contexts

University of Tartu, June 5-9, 2023

3CP, Level of studies: BA and MA

The aim of the course is to provide an overview of life writing studies as well as different life writing collection initiatives as a vibrant and diverse field of study/area of cultural activity in the Nordic and Baltic countries. The course also introduces a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to life writing sources and possibilities of engagement with a different sources and materials. Based on current research in the field in Nordic and Baltic countries and taught by a team of internationally renowned Nordic and Baltic scholars in the field, the course provides insights into current and most topical research foci, data and source collection methods and systematization and methodological developments.

June 5-7 will be dedicated to introducing Baltic and Nordic life writing and life writing studies approaches, themes, collections and methods with a bit of overview of general foci current in the field. These days combine lectures, seminars and practical tasks.

For June 8-9, coursework will be integrated into the 15th International Conference of the Estonian Association of Comparative Literature “Trauma and Healing: Storying Lives, Literary Engagements, Entangled Memories”. Russian full-scale military aggression against Ukraine that started on February 24, 2022 that has claimed the lives of thousands of civilians and has brought about the most extensive humanitarian crisis of the 21st century, forcibly displacing nearly half of the Ukrainian population, brings the notion of trauma into focus with particular urgency. A special section of the conference is dedicated to the war in Ukraine with a focus on representation of the experience of the war in literature, visual media and life writing. Of particular importance for the intensive course are two keynotes of the conference, “Illness Trauma and Life-Writing” by Hanna Meretoja, professor of comparative literature at the University of Turku and “The Story with No Ending: Conducting Interviews in Ukraine after February 24, 2022” by Natalia Otrishchenko, a sociologist and research fellow at the Center for Urban History in Lviv who since March 2022 has led the Ukrainian team within the “24/02/22, 5 am” documentation initiative. There will also be short practical/creative tasks related to related to both keynotes for the students.

Objectives:

a) to exchange and disseminate knowledge about the role of life writing

in different Nordic and Baltic countries and introduce current research and collection

trends in the area.

b) to offer training in different current methods and approaches to the study of life writing and storying life experience

Study outcomes:

Students a) gain an overview of trans/disciplinary approaches to life writing and collection initiatives in Nordic and Baltic countries and apply them in comparative perspective via analytical and practical study tasks; b) develop the skills of finding and working with different source types; acquire basic skills of applying self-reflective and creative approaches to life narrative; c) advance international and interdisciplinary teamwork skills and can demonstrate them in creative and practical assignments.

Course tasks: Participation in lectures and seminars, fulfillment of seminar tasks and practical exercises as well as reflective exercises and short writing tasks after the contact teaching part of the course (deadline June 22. 2022). A Moodle site will be set up for the course where all course materials can be found, and all tasks need to submitted.

Course instructors:

University of Tartu (Leena Käosaar, Department of Estonian Literature)

University of Turku (Hanna Meretoja, Department of Comparative Literature)

University of Uppsala (Dr. Maryam Adjam, The Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology)

Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, University of Latvia (Dr Zita Karkla)

The Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore (Dr. Giedre Smitiene)

Practical matters: for students coming from Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden, travel and accommodation costs will be covered. Meals will be covered for all students during the course. There is no course fee.