Almost a century and a half since his death, the fairy tales originally created by Hans Christian Anderson have survived to the present. Oftentimes, the origin of children’s stories are rather murky, a matter of folktale that is passed between generations or villages. Otherwise, the Brothers Grimm would not have spent their lives traveling to collect these stories. Today, it’s likely that one would have heard at least a few of H.C. Anderson’s tales. Perhaps the most famous of them all is The Little Mermaid, more well-known than during his lifetime, even if the original story was much more different.
Question
For this research project, I am more concerned with the morals and themes contained H.C. Anderson’s fairy tales rather than the actual text itself. Naturally, this is because I can only read the translations anyway. More seriously, H.C. Anderson encountered a variety of responses to his stories. While some of them were quite successful, there are many cases where they were met with little enthusiasm or much ridicule. He was often criticized for ideas and themes that were viewed as being beyond that of a child’s, but that is a key reason for why adults can enjoy his stories today. While some of his stories can be hopeful and idealistic, they are often dark and sad. I want to derive important elements that set and control the mood of these stories.
Approach
Across different stories, recurring adjectives, nouns and verbs will be marked and and a theme or moral classified. I expect this approach to evolve somewhat throughout the project, since the classification of a theme could be difficult to pinpoint in a succinct manner, if a theme could be decided upon at all. This could quickly become too subjective, so a running list of guidelines should be recorded to keep everything consistent.
Introduction
Almost a century and a half since his death, the fairy tales originally created by Hans Christian Anderson have survived to the present. Oftentimes, the origin of children’s stories are rather murky, a matter of folktale that is passed between generations or villages. Otherwise, the Brothers Grimm would not have spent their lives traveling to collect these stories. Today, it’s likely that one would have heard at least a few of H.C. Anderson’s tales. Perhaps the most famous of them all is The Little Mermaid, more well-known than during his lifetime, even if the original story was much more different.
Question
For this research project, I am more concerned with the morals and themes contained H.C. Anderson’s fairy tales rather than the actual text itself. Naturally, this is because I can only read the translations anyway. More seriously, H.C. Anderson encountered a variety of responses to his stories. While some of them were quite successful, there are many cases where they were met with little enthusiasm or much ridicule. He was often criticized for ideas and themes that were viewed as being beyond that of a child’s, but that is a key reason for why adults can enjoy his stories today. While some of his stories can be hopeful and idealistic, they are often dark and sad. I want to derive important elements that set and control the mood of these stories.
Approach
Across different stories, recurring adjectives, nouns and verbs will be marked and and a theme or moral classified. I expect this approach to evolve somewhat throughout the project, since the classification of a theme could be difficult to pinpoint in a succinct manner, if a theme could be decided upon at all. This could quickly become too subjective, so a running list of guidelines should be recorded to keep everything consistent.