FutureLearn

Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales (FutureLearn)

Offered by The Hans Christian Andersen Centre,
Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales (FutureLearn)

Explore the fairy tale world of HC Andersen - the inspiration behind The Little Mermaid and Frozen - with this free online course. This course will introduce you to some of Hans Christian Andersen’s most popular fairy tales, as well as a few less well-known ones.

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It will help you analyse the themes in these fairy tales, and give you an opportunity to discuss how these works were viewed in the author’s own times as well as their cross-cultural importance today, as the inspiration for many popular books and movies. Each week, experts from the internationally renowned HC Andersen Center will guide discussions, analyses and interpretations of one or more of the author’s fairy tales.

What topics will you cover?

  • Introduction to Hans Christian Andersen, his life, works and contemporary society.
  • Introduction to the fairy tale genre and the folk tale inspiration.
  • Models for analysis of folk tales and fairy tales: the actantial model and the home-away-home model.
  • Analysis and comparison of a folk tale ‘The Blue Light’ and a fairy tale Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Tinderbox’.
  • Hans Christian Andersen’s experimental rewritings of folk tales with the folk tale ‘The Riddle’ and Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Spectre’ and The Travelling Companion’.
  • Biblical themes in Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales.
  • An original Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale – ‘The Little Mermaid’.
  • Hans Christian Andersen’s new fairy tales with ‘The Snow Queen’ and ‘The Story of a Mother’.
  • Hans Christian Andersen’s recycling of the folk tale with ‘The Red Shoes.
  • Hans Christian Andersen’s contemporary and cross-cultural relevance.
  • How to engage in further studies of Hans Christian Andersen.

What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

  • Describe the life and works of the writer Hans Christian Andersen.
  • Describe the fairy tale genre.
  • Apply relevant models to the analysis of fairy tales.
  • Interpret fairy tales and uncover themes and meanings.
  • Discuss and compare different analyses and interpretations of fairy tales.
  • Explain the themes embedded in Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales.
  • Reflect on and discuss Hans Christian Andersen’s contemporary and cross-cultural relevance.
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