Hans Christian Andersen and his Contemporaries: Longing for Nature and the Past
The new course scheduled for Fall 2025. A thematic course about ‘nature’ and ‘the past’, focusing on texts from Hans Christian Anderson and other Golden Age writers.
Longing for Nature and the Past is an English course for all international students each semester.
Together with contemporary writers and philosophers in 19th century Denmark, H.C. Andersen experienced a rapid societal shift during his lifetime: Romantic ideas and scientific explorations sparked new theories about man’s relationship with nature; the Napoleonic wars accelerated nationalistic glorifications of the medieval North; and with the Constitutional Act (1849), Denmark formally introduced democracy as its new system of government.
In this course, we will examine how Andersen and other Danish writers contemplated on these political and cultural changes and how their thoughts concerning Romanticism, nationalism, and medievalism resonate with us today. Focusing on the two themes: nature and the past, we will dive into literature and philosophical texts from Andersen as well as Søren Kierkegaard, Adam Oehlenschläger, N.F.S. Grundtvig, H.C. Ørsted, and B.S. Ingemann.
Together with lectures, the course includes two excursions. We will visit Andersen’s childhood home in Odense together with the impressive museum Hans Christian Anderson's House. Our second excursion will be in Copenhagen where we trace the writers’ daily life in the 19th century.
Course code: HDCB01142U
Credits: 15 ECTS
Duration: 1 semester
Available: Autumn semester 2025
Hans Christian Andersen & Søren Kierkegaard: The Quest for Identity in Modernity
This course deals with questions on identity and transformation raised by Golden-Age writers, Hans Christian Andersen and Søren Kierkegaard.
The Quest for Identity in Modernity is an English course for all international students each semester.
The questions concerning personal identity and transformation raised by the two Golden Age writers, H.C Andersen and Søren Kierkegaard, are no less relevant today than they were almost 200 years ago. How is it that a person becomes himself? How does a person attain wholeness and truth?
“Searching for one´s identity,” refers to the process of self-examination, self-definition, and inner exploration. It aims at understanding one´s values, beliefs, passions, and purpose in life.
Together with Andersen and Kierkegaard, we will explore these themes in their connection to cultural, social, emotional, and personal dimensions.
We will read texts by Hans Christian Andersen and Søren Kierkegaard and explore what it is in their writings that merits such a prolonged actuality and such an extensive, modern appeal.
In addition to lectures, the course offers two exciting excursions that allow students to follow in the author's footsteps. The first excursion explores sites in Copenhagen connected to Søren Kierkegaard, while the second takes students to Odense to visit Hans Christian Andersen’s childhood home, which has recently been transformed into a modern museum.
Course code: HDCB01142U
Credits: 15 ECTS
Duration: 1 semester
Available: Autumn and spring semester.