UCL SCANDINAVIAN STUDIES SYMPOSIUM
Hans Christian Andersen
A Storyteller for Our Time?
9. October 2014, 1-6pm, UCL Conference Suite 05
University College London, 188 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1T 7PH
This free one-day symposium will present, discuss and celebrate recent research publications, which
have explored Hans Christian Andersen’s life and work in the contexts of his European legacy, the
global reach of his fairy tales over two centuries and his enduring relevance for contemporary
readers around the world. By bringing together authors and researchers from the UK and the Danish
Hans Christian Andersen Research Centre our ambition is to showcase state-of-the-art research and
to discuss what Andersen’s nineteenth-century writings have to tell readers in our thoroughly
globalised and modern societies.
The symposium will begin with presentations by our invited Danish speakers, who will
introduce to recent publications by the H.C. Andersen Research Centre including H.C. Andersen i det
moderne samfund (Syddansk Universitetsforlag, 2014), Hans Christian Andersen in China (Syddansk
Universitetsforlag, 2014) and H.C. Andersen og det uhyggelige (forthcoming also from Syddansk
Universitetsforlag). The first book discusses a series of modern traits in Andersen’s works and points
out that that Andersen is still ’modern’ and is continuously renewed for new purposes. Hans
Christian Andersen in China deals with Andersen’s significance, unmatched for a transnational
author, in China, and with the first translations of his tales by which, a century ago, he was
introduced to Chinese readers. It provides insights from a variety of literary, cultural, and political
perspectives. In their presentations, Prof. Johs. Nørregaard Frandsen (Director H.C. Andersen
Research Centre, SDU) will discuss Andersen’s life and work in relation to the theme of social
mobility in an age of financial austerity; Prof. Jacob Bøggild (H.C. Andersen Research Centre, SDU)
will discuss the extent to which an attention to ‘strangeness’ in Andersen’s work will change the way
we have previously perceived and canonized his work in an international perspective; and Dr Anne
Klara Bom (Adjunkt, H.C. Andersen Research Centre, SDU) will present her work on Andersen as a
cultural icon with a particular attention to his use in the tourism industry and his reception in China.
The main feature of this symposium will be the UK launch of Paul Binding’s book Hans
Christian Andersen: European Witness (Yale University Press, 2014). Binding’s book shows that
Andersen's numerous novels, travelogues, autobiographies, and even his fairy tales earned a vast
audience because they distilled the satisfactions, tensions, hopes and fears of Europeans as their
continent emerged from the Napoleonic Wars. The book sheds new light on Andersen as an
intellectual, his rise to international stardom, and his connections with other eminent European
writers. It also pays tribute to Andersen's enlightened values - values that ensure the continuing
appeal of his works. The book will be presented by the author at the symposium followed by a live
conversation with Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen (UCL) and responses from the previous presenters and
invited UK critics including Dr Tom Lundskær Nielsen (UCL) and Dr Hans-Christian Andersen
(Northumbria University Newcastle).
Programme
1.00-1.30pm
Opening address by His Excellency Claus Grube, Danish Ambassador to the UK
Welcome by Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen
1.30-3.00pm
New Perspectives on H.C. Andersen from the H.C. Andersen Research Centre (SDU)
Presentations by Prof. Johs. Nørregaard Frandsen, Prof. Jacob Bøggild and Dr Anne Klara Bom
3.00 – 3.30pm: Coffee
3.30pm
Paul Binding, Hans Christian Andersen: European Witness
- In conversation with Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen
5.00-6.00pm
Roundtable and Reception
6.00pm End of Symposium
7.30pm: Dinner for the invited speakers