Romanens rom

So I'm back from my conference and working out the kinks and jetlag from the trip. Other than the dancing, the conference was, well, kind of boring this time. I don't know what happened, but somehow I just never quite got into it. I did get a lot of positive feedback on my own paper, which was gratifying.

Right now, I'm desperately trying to pull together my MA-level literature seminar for the fall. I need to get the book order in asap, but there are still a lot of question marks. The course is NOR4410 "Samtidslitteratur" and the subtopic is "romanens rom." I'll have about seven novels that all use space/place in interesting ways. There are a few that I've already definitely decided to use:

1. Nikolaj Frobenius' Teori og praksis
2. Kari Hotakainen's Juoksuhaudantie [On the Homefront]
3. Dag Solstad's 16.07.41

Then there are a bunch that I'm toying with. I'm basically trying to limit it to the last 10 years, but there are a couple that are a little older than that.

1. Erlend Loe's L
2. Mikael Niemi's Populärmusik från Vittula
3. Hanne Ørstavik's Like sant som jeg er virkelig

And then, finally, there are some books that I've only heard of, but that might work really well.

1. Peter Törnqvist's Kioskvridning 140 grader
2. Mala Naveen's Desiland
3. John Erik Riley's Heimdal, California
4. Monika Fagerholm's Den amerikanska flickan 
5. Helle Helle's Ned til hunderne
6. Mette Moestrup's Jævnet med jorden

Crikey. I'm feeling overwhelmed and stressed out about making the choices. I think I have the primary theory book figured out, thanks to a conversation at SASS though: Ann-Marie Mai and Dan Ringgaard's edited volume of space/place theory, Sted.

No knitting to report. Or rather, there is, but I haven't taken any pictures and have too much work to catch up on this week to spend time blogging about it (or the rest of my Chicago trip)...