Literary courses online: The Fiction of Relationship

Literary courses online: Last year, the online eduction platform Coursera launched. In partnership with many universities, Coursera offers free online courses in the fields of Computer Science, Medicine, Biology, Finance and Information, but also in Humanities and Social Science. The current course program also includes another literary course, and 2 culture / arts courses:

Starting 3. June: The Fiction of Relationship
"What is the nature of our relationship to others and the world? How can literature help us see these relationships more clearly? This course seeks to explore such questions through adventurous readings of ten great works of narrative fiction from the 18th to the 20th century."

Ten major works of narrative fiction from the 18th century to the present are read and discussed in this course, these include: Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prévost; two works by Herman Melville, Bartleby the Scrivener and Benito Cereno; Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and two stories by Franz Kafka, “Metamorphosis” and “The Country Doctor”; Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse and William Faulkner’s Light in August; an anthology of stories, Ficciones, by Jorge Luis Borges and The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas; Tony Morrison’s Beloved and Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee.

Course details and registration: Coursera: The Fiction of Relationship

Other upcoming Coursera courses:

• Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World (starts June 3) + more about this course
• Latin American Culture (starts June 3) 
• Introduction to Art (started May 28)

Eurovision of books 2013 - what to read from the final

Eurovision of books
Inspired by the Eurovision song contest, book blogger Winstonsdad - who focuses on translated fiction from all four corners of the world in his blog - created a long blog post with books from each of the countries that participate in the final show, and with the song clips: "Well tonight sees the 2013 Eurovision competition, I see this as a good chance to do a Europe wide reading guide suggesting a book I’ve read / A book I want to read (in some cases just this I've not read books from all 25 countries )"

Link: Eurovision of books 2013 - what to read from the final

Danish literature
Winner of the Eurovision 2013 is: Denmark. So here, 2 extra links: Wikipedia: Danish literature + Goodreads: Shelves > Denmark

More about the Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual singing competition held among many of the active member countries of Europe. Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and radio and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition. The contest has been broadcast every year since its inauguration in 1956 and is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world (more about the contest). Yesterday, the 58th annual Eurovision Song Contest took place in Malmö, Sweden.