Literary Writing in Exile

This course focuses on the role that exile literature plays within a larger democratic community and the discussion of how exile is shaping contemporary literature. The purpose of the course is to provide students with an opportunity to develop their literary writing and to reflect together with others on questions concerning transitions between nations, countries, languages and literary contexts and communities.

Students will explore the theme of exile in relation to their own writing as well as the writing of others. The course discusses strategies and methods you can use to develop your writing in situations where the context of the literary work is changing. The course deals with literary writing, reading and translation in relation to experiences of banishment and loss, and also moves towards reorientation and innovation. 

The main part of the course will be taking place online on Fridays, with lectures, seminars and workshops. Two scheduled meetings will take place in Gothenburg. One in connection to the Gothenburg Bookfair in September and the other one right at the end of the semester in January 2024. It will then include a public literary event at Göteborgs Litteraturhus, curated partly by the students of the course.

Apply in three steps

1. Apply for the course at universityadmissions.se. Deadline April 17, 2023. 
2. Submit your work sample in SlideRoom. Deadline April 24, 2023. 
3. Submit documentation proving you meet the entry requirements of the course on universityadmissions.se. Deadline June 21, 2023.

Your work sample should consist of a newly written text containing the following themes:

1. Tell about, or refer to, a literary work or author in exile that has influenced your own thinking and and writing. 

2. Briefly describe your own experience of writing and/or literary work.

3. In this course, we work collectively and experiment with different ways of working with writing. What are your thoughts in that?  

The text can be written in Swedish or English. Maximum 5000 characters including spaces. 

The text will be assessed based on the following criteria:- Ability to reflect on own writing- Ability to place your own literary work in relation to the themes of the course.- Experience/ability to work artistically in collective work forms.