In your fourth year you will return to Edinburgh and continue with advanced language work as well as selecting a number of special subject options for intensive study. By an appropriate choice of options it is possible to give your course a bias towards either literary or language studies. The Post-war Scandinavian Novel Ingmar Bergman and Cinema Scandinavian Literature for Children and Young People Single and Major Honours students select four options, Joint Honours students two options. Scandinavian Cultural History treats the history, literature, visual arts and film of Scandinavia as a whole. Knowledge of the languages is not necessary for those who wish to take this course, and language study is not a component of it.
Texts are read in translation and use is made of slides and video.
Ingmar Bergman and Carl Dreyer are among the film directors treated, Ibsen and Strindberg among the authors, Edvard Munch among the artists, but there is also a host of other individuals of great interest though less well known outside Scandinavia. In the Honours years the assessment is mainly by three-hour written examination papers but long essays written during the student's year abroad are also included. It is of course desirable that you visit the country you are studying as often as you can. If you are studying a Scandinavian language as part of the Joint Degree in Modern European Languages, you will spend a period of between two and eight months in the relevant Scandinavian country. If you are studying Honours in Scottish Ethnology and Scandinavian Studies or Celtic and Scandinavian Studies, English Language and Scandinavian Studies, Law and Scandinavian Studies or Scandinavian Studies and Social Policy you must complete two months of approved residence abroad.