HDCB01142U DCC H.C. Andersen and Søren Kierkegaard: The Quest for Identity in Modernity

In the autumn semester 2025, the focus is primarily on H. C. Andersen. For this reason, the course description is different from previous semesters.

The official course title will still be “H.C. Andersen and Søren Kierkegaard: The Quest for Identity in Modernity”, but in daily speaking the course title will be “Hans Christian Andersen and his Contemporaries: Longing for Nature and the Past”.

Hans Christian Andersen and his Contemporaries: 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.

Danish Culture Courses – University of Copenhagen

Name of Exam: HDCB01141E Danish Literature and Philosophy in Context of Danish Culture and Society.