FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Verne Moberg
E-mail: [email protected]
Telephone: 212-854-4015
 
 
SWEDISH CABARET, LANGUAGE, AND WOMEN
AT COLUMBIA’S DEUTSCHES HAUS THIS FALL
 
 
Political cabaret, the Swedish language, and women’s history will be the focus of three special events presented by the Columbia University Swedish Program this fall. All will be held at Deutsches Haus, located at 420 W. 116th Street (between Amsterdam Ave. and Morningside Dr.), N.Y.C.
 
The first talk, entitled “The Notorious Horse from Troy: Karl Gerhard and His 1940 Political Cabaret in Stockholm,” will be by Professor Jay Lutz, scheduled for 7 pm Friday, October 1, 2004. at Deutsches Haus.
 
While writing a book about political Paris cabaret songs of the late 1880s, Jay Lutz examined satirical reviews elsewhere in Europe, and among the most interesting were those of the much admired Swedish stage artist Karl Gerhard (1891-1964). In his illustrated talk Dr. Lutz will analyze performance and political aspects of "The Notorious Horse from Troy,” a satirical Karl Gerhard song from an anti-Nazi review that led to police intervention. The Swedish author and actor wrote about 4,000 couplets and songs, often with a French influence, producing some hundred reviews and 240 recordings.
 
Jay Lutz is a professor of French at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, where he teaches French and Swedish language and literature classes. He has published studies on Paul Verlaine and Oscar Levertin.
 
The second event of the fall season will be a talk in English by Lars-Gunnar Andersson entitled “Swedes on Swedish: Attitudes to Change in Modern Swedish.” The program is set for 1 p.m. Monday, October 18, also at Deutsches Haus
 
For several years this professor of modern Swedish at the University of Gothenburg has written a language column in a Gothenburg newspaper, and his pieces have been collected in a book. He is also the author of a volume on “Bad Language: Swear Words, Dialects, and Other Evils.” Prof. Andersson has appeared regularly on Swedish radio and TV to discuss the many varieties of modern Swedish, and Swedes’ reactions to them. He will be the keynote speaker at this year’s national Swedish Teachers’ Workshop at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
 
The last program for the fall term will be a talk in English by Swedish dramatist Cecilia Sidenbladh entitled “Super Women from the Pages of Sweden’s History.” The “super women” discussed will be Sweden’s St. Birgitta (1303-1373), the controversial Queen Christina (1626-1689), feminist pioneer Fredrika Bremer (1801-1865), and Nobel Prize-winning novelist Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940). The event will be on Tuesday, November 9 at 7 pm, also at Deutsches Haus.
 
Cecilia Sidenbladh is a Swedish dramatist who enjoys writing about people of the past and often focuses on women’s issues. She made her debut as a dramatist in 1992 with a study of the Stockholm witch trials of the 1670s and several of her plays deal with the 19th century feminist C.J. L. Almqvist, whose writing career is the subject of her doctoral dissertation. Dr. Sidenbladh has also published a number of historical novels and several children’s books. In honor of the 700th birthday of St. Birgitta, Dr. Sidenbladh wrote a play entitled Djävulens advokat (The Devil’s Advocate, produced for the anniversary celebration) and a children’s book, Birgitta, Birgitta! Her one-act play Isjungfrun (The Ice Maiden), based on the diaries of Victoria Benedictsson, was presented at Columbia University’s Deutsches Haus on November 3, 2000, and at the Strindberg Museum in Stockholm August 13-25, 2002.
 
These fall 2004 events will be sponsored by the Swedish Program with the assistance of the American-Scandinavian Foundation, the Swedish Women’s Educational Association-New York chapter, the Swedish Consulate of New York, and the Institute for the Study of Europe at Columbia University.
 
The public is invited to all these programs, and admission is free. For information: telephone: 212-854-4015; E-mail: [email protected]
 
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