Course Syllabus
Illustration from The Snow Queen by Katharine Beverly og Elizabeth Ellender, 1929.
| Semester & Location: |
Spring 2024 - DIS Copenhagen |
| Type & Credits: |
Elective Course - 3 credits |
| Major Disciplines: |
Literature |
| Prerequisite(s): |
None |
| Faculty Member: |
Birgitte Duelund Pallesen |
| Time & Place: |
Tuesdays & Fridays 10.05-11.25 in 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 Narrative Medicine.
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.
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):
Ann Rowland, Romanticism and Childhood
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, Oliver Twist
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
Grimm Brothers, The Blue Light & The Six Swans
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
Lewis Carol, Alice in Wonderland
Maria Tatar, "What is Fairytale?"
Nicolai Gogol, "The Nose"
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray & ‘The Fisherman and his Soul’
Paul de Man, "Autobiography as Defacement"
Søren Kierkegaard, From the Papers of One Still Living
Torsten Bøgh Thomsen, "Denmark my Native Land: Hans Christian Andersen as a Happiness Object"
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:
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