Research Interests

In my PhD project I investigate how the Danish poet Hans Christian Andersen is negotiated as a global cultural phenomenon through North American popular culture. I am particularly interested in what is at stake politically, socially, and culturally, when fairy tales such as The Princess and the Pea and The Little Mermaid are repeatedly adapted into different platforms and local contexts, such as theatre and musicals, illustrated children's books, film and television. Using the examples of the Broadway musical adaptation "Once Upon A Mattress" from 1959 and Disney´s adaptations of The Little Mermaid from 1989 and the forthcoming live-action remake in 2023, I examine both the relationship to Andersen's texts and other adaptations, but also the public reception of the adaptations in terms of reviews in news papers and magazines as well as comments and hashtags on social media.