Scandinavian Literature - Literary Criticism, Children's & Young Adult Literature - Literary Criticism

Hans Christian Andersen: The Misunderstood Storyteller

Name: Hans Christian Andersen: The Misunderstood Storyteller
Author: Jack Zipes
ISBN: 9780415974325

by Jack Zipes

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Overview

The 2005 bicentenary of Hans Christian Andersen's birth is an opportunity to re-evaluate the achievement of one of the great figures of the fairy tale and storytelling tradition, a beloved writer famous for The Snow Queen and The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling and The Red Shoes and many other now classic tales. Jack Zipes broadens our understanding of Andersen by exploring the relation of the Danish writer's work to the development of literature and of the fairy tale in particular. Based on thirty-five years of researching and writing on Andersen, this new book is a welcome reconsideration of Andersen's place and of his reception in English-speaking countries and on film.

Synopsis

Library Journal

Noted folk and fairy tale scholar Zipes (German, Scandinavian, & Dutch, Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis; Beautiful Angiola: The Lost Sicilian Folk and Fairy Tales of Laura Gonzenbach) devotes a significant part of his slim volume, published on the 2005 bicentenary of Danish children's author Hans Christian Andersen's birth, to how the famous writer has been intentionally or otherwise misunderstood and misinterpreted over time. Zipes takes a sociohistorical and biographical approach to Andersen's life and works, focusing on the popular fairy tales but also covering a selection of his lesser-known novels, stories, poetry, drama, and travel books. Two of the four chapters are expanded from previously published essays. Libraries with limited funding seeking a biography on this writer are advised to purchase Jens Andersen's fuller Hans Christian Andersen or Jackie Wullschlager's Hans Christian Andersen: The Life of a Storyteller. This work is recommended for larger academic libraries and those with Germanic or Scandinavian studies departments.-Martha Stephenson, Univ. of Wisconsin Lib., Whitewater Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

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Editorials

Library Journal

School Library Journal

Following an introduction to Andersen's life and personality, Zipes explores his subject's prodigious output of works including travel books, essays, novels, plays, autobiographies, and 156 fairy tales, only a few of which were actually written for children. Two further chapters, "The Discourse of the Dominated" (a discussion of Andersen's deep ambivalence about class issues) and "The Discourse of Rage and Revenge: Controlling Children" (a discussion of Andersen's attitudes toward children and childhood) are revised versions of essays previously published elsewhere. A final chapter, "The Cinematic Appropriation of Andersen's Heritage: Trivialization and Innovation," looks at both American and European films made from his works. Zipes compares those that build on Andersen's own messages and those that simply use his motifs and characters as commodities to be repackaged and sold. The book is illustrated with prints from 19th- and early-20th-century editions of his works that help to place Andersen in a historical context. A bibliography, film bibliography, and extensive notes are included. This book belongs in libraries with readers who are interested in critical interpretations of folklore and film, and those with collections of critical biographies or extensive collections of Andersen's works. Readers interested in Andersen's contributions to the literature of Denmark, to the modern fairy tale, and a more authentic look at a less-than-happy life, as presented for children in Hjirdis Varmer's Hans Christian Andersen: His Fairy Tale Life (Groundwood, 2005), will find this volume valuable.-Barbara Chatton, College of Education, University of Wyoming, Laramie Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.