Representations of Helsinki

The course is organized by the Department of Social Policy (Faculty of Social Sciences) and the Department of Finnish language and literature (Faculty of Arts).

Group size max. 40 students.

Objectives

This course gives an overview of the representations of Helsinki in literature. Material from popular music and cinema will also be examined, and comparisons will be drawn to the image of Helsinki in the tourist industry. The course is interdisciplinary in scope: it will introduce key theoretical concepts on representations of the city and will present a range of methods for the analysis of urban literature, drawn from urban studies, literary studies, geography and cultural studies. The excerpts for reading will be selected from novels, poems and plays set in Helsinki from the end of the 19th century onwards and they will be made available in English.

Completion

The course requirements are regular attendance and the submission of an essay.