Course Syllabus

Hans Christian Andersen - Fairy Tales of Discomfort

DIS Logo

Andy Warhol: "Hans Christian Andersen". Numbered TP 20/36, TP 24/36, TP  28/36 og TP [...] | lot 702 | Peintures et Sculptures at Bruun Rasmussen |  Auction.fr | English

Andy Warhol, Hans Christian Andersen, 1987

Semester & Location:

Spring 2023 - DIS Copenhagen

Type & Credits:

Elective Course - 3 credits

Major Disciplines:

Literature

Prerequisite(s):

None

Faculty Member:

Birgitte Duelund Pallesen, current students contact through Canvas Inbox

Time & Place:

Mondays & Thursdays 13.15-14.35, Fi6-Metro 102

 

Course Description

Hans Christian Andersen is internationally known as the writer of fairy tales. Children all over the world know The Little Mermaid, The Snow Queen, The Princess and the Pea and other tales. But Andersen also wrote plays, novels, poems, travelogues and songs – and his tales are not just for children.

In his fairytales, Andersen has an eye for the existential problems related to modernity. His protagonists are isolated, suffer from sexually related discomfort and urban anonymity and anxiety – and they constantly find themselves at the mercy of chance more than free will.

The course will start with a discussion of Andersen’s starting point in the Danish and German Romanticism in the 1830s and 40s. We will then move one to the ambivalences in Andersen’s later works and discover how Hans Christian Andersen’s literary tales are still pertinent in the 21st century.

 

Course Objectives

At the end of the course, students will be able to:

  • Examine and critically evaluate the works by Hans Christian Andersen
  • Identify themes, narration strategies, and literary style in the works by Hans Christian Andersen
  • Analyze the interrelation between text, time and context  
  • Be able to use different literary approaches and methods to analyze and comprehend the works by Hans Christian Andersen

Approach to teaching

Close reading and deep analysis will be the core method of the course. How a story gets told is as important as what gets told, so we need to pay attention to both content and form.

In combination with close reading of the works by Hans Christian Andersen, this course will include a number of out-of-the-house experiences, including a trip to the theater and a visit to Andersen's childhood home in Odense. Furthermore, I will include visual material, i.e. TV-shows, visual arts, film in class.

It is a participation-discussion oriented course and it is expected that students come to class having done all assignments, fully prepared to engage in discussions and activities. 

Faculty: Birgitte Duelund Pallesen

Cand.mag. in Comparative Literature, University of Copenhagen 2013. BA studies in European Literature, Film and Philosophy, UCL, London, UK. Litteraturnu.dk (2009-2017), Gyldendal (2009-14), editor. With DIS since 2015. Also teaching Postcolonial Europe: Narratives, Nationalism, and Race, Sense of Place in European Literature, and Danish Language and Culture.

Office hours: by appointment

Course expectations and Requirements 

This course is discussion‐based and requires your active participation and engagement.

Students are expected to have read the materials for each class and actively participate in discussions. Students should come to class prepared with questions and points for discussion. When posing questions or participating in discussions, students should, as much as possible, refer to the readings to support the points they are making. If you are shy about speaking up in class, you are welcome to email me your questions or ideas for class discussions.

You are also required to complete the following to pass the course: 

  • In-class Quiz 15%, September 29
  • Midterm 20%, October 23
  • Term paper outline 5%, November 22
  • Term Paper, 30 %, December 10

Furthermore, in groups all students will be asked to lead the class discussion around a piece of designated literature once during the semester. Sign up will be available from the beginning of the semester.

Literature

The following titles are examples of readings, not a complete list. Readings include (excerpts from):

Aldona Zanko, "In Memory of the Snow Queen - Hans Christian Andersen  Recalled and Retold"

Bente Scavenius. The Golden Age Revisited: Art and Culture in Denmark 1800-1850, Copenhagen, 1996

Bruno Bettelheim. The Uses of Enchantment, London, 1978

Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Elias Bredsdorff. Hans Christian Andersen. The Story of his Life and Work 1805-1875, London, 1975

Edgar Allan Poe. "The Shadow - A Parable"

E.T.A. Hoffmann, The Sandman

Hans Christian Andersen. The Complete Fairy Tales and Stories, translated from Danish by Erik Christian Haugaard, New York, 1974

Hans Christian Andersen. The Fairy Tale of My Life – An Autobiography, translated from the Danish by Naomi Lewis, First Cooper Square Press, New York, 2000

Hans Christian Andersen. A Poet's Bazaar

Hans Christian Andersen. The Diaries of Hans Christian Andersen, trans. Conroy and Rossel

Jackie Wullschlager, The Life of a Storyteller

Jens Andersen. Hans Christian Andersen, Overlook Duckworth, New York, 2003, translated from Danish by Tiina Nunnally

Johan de Mylius. The Voice of Nature in Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales, Odense, 1989

Kjeld Heltoft, Hans Christian Andersen as an Artist, translated by David Hohnen, Christian Ejlers’ Forlag, 2005

Nicolai Gogol, "The Nose"

Paul de Man. "Autobiography as Defacement"

Ursula Le Guin, "The Child and the Shadow"

Vladimir Propp. Morphology of the Folk Tale

Wolfgang Lederer. The Kiss of the Snow Queen. Hans Christian Andersen and Man’s Redemption by Women, Berkeley, 1986

 

Academic Regulations  

Please make sure to read the Academic Regulations on the DIS website. There you will find regulations on: 

 

DIS - Study Abroad in Scandinavia - www.DISabroad.org

 

Course Summary:

Date Details Due