Abstract
The research results of this dissertation contribute to a clarification of what cultural
challenges and possibilities can become relevant in any future glocal branding of Hans
Christian Andersen: a branding that is locally anchored in Andersen’s native city, Odense,
and at the same time appeals to his international audience.
The dissertation is anthological and consists of three academic articles, plus an account of the theoretical and methodological selections and deselections involved. It is based within the field of cultural studies, which is why it concentrates thematically on how Hans Christian Andersen’s function as an element in everyday language use has found expression in selected Danish media debates in written media.
The dissertation presents both a thematic and an analysis-methodological aim. The thematic intention is to introduce what is defined as a third theme in Hans Christian Andersen research, where Andersen is understood, examined and analysed as a cultural phenomenon. Hans Christian Andersen has been a topic for research practically ever since his artistic production has existed, but until now research has mainly concentrated on either his life or work. The point of departure for the dissertation is a hypothesis that the interest in Hans Christian Andersen’s life and work exists by virtue of his cultural significance, but that precisely this significance has until now been taken as self-evident in humanist research. In an attempt to remedy this, the focus in the analyses of the dissertation is on what is involved when Andersen is ascribed significance as a cultural phenomenon in locally, nationally and globally oriented contexts. On the basis of this, the primary research question of the dissertation is:
In what ways does it find expression when Hans Christian Andersen is ascribed significance as a Danish cultural phenomenon, and what functions do various kinds of significance have in local, national and global contexts?
Basing the research in the field of cultural studies makes it possible to construct a bridge between the thematic and analysis-methodological aim: The dissertation lies within the so-called neo-Gramscian cultural studies (Storey, theory; Hall), where analyses particularly focus on how the classical Gramscian concept of hegemony is (re)produced in new cultural contexts. Concentrating on how hegemony is achieved, negotiated and sought sedimented, there follows an understanding of culture as sites of struggle (Hall, ”Deconstructing” 233) – an understanding that places at the centre human struggles to ascribe significance to the phenomena they conceive as being culture-constituent.
In order to examine more closely the struggles of significance to do with the cultural phenomenon Hans Christian Andersen, an operationalised form of the political theorists Ernesto Lacalu and Chantal Mouffe’s discourse theory is made use of. In the methodological approach, several concepts from Laclau and Mouffe’s theory are therefore included as “sensitising concepts” that structuralise the analyses (Carpentier; Carpentier and Spinoy; Carpentier and DeCleen). The discourse-theoretical concepts are further supplemented by the concepts interpretative repertoire and affective practice, with the aim of complementing the otherwise lacking focus of discourse theory on an individual agent and thereby practice, just as the social-constructivist scale-concept functions as a practiceoriented amplification of how people represent themselves and each other.
In keeping with the discourse-theoretical optic, Hans Christian Andersen is analysed as a floating signifier: a powerful sign that appeals to widely divergent cultural sets of values, and that can be equipped with just as diverse discursive opinions when linked in practice to these sets of values (Laclau, Reflections 28; ‘Power’ 287). Consequently, the analyses of the dissertation concentrate on what happens when people mirror themselves in Hans Christian Andersen via language and ascribe meanings to him that harmonise with the hegemonic norms and values in the cultures of which the individuals feel themselves to be a part.
In the dissertation a three-part analytical model that functions as a framework for the analyses is developed. The model makes it possible to examine how Hans Christian Andersen is discursively constructed in various contexts, how this finds expression in ideologically charged practice, and how Hans Christian Andersen functions as a culturecreating and culture-consolidating element when he is included in articulations that include appeals to so-called felt communities: imagined communities that are formulated as being both affectively and geographically demarcated (Ahmed, Cultural 101).
An attempt is made to define more closely the primary research question of the dissertation by means of a particular analytical focus on the discursive, local and affective markers that manifest themselves when Hans Christian Andersen is ascribed significance as a cultural phenomenon. This thematic limitation is made explicit in three secondary research questions:
1. How does it find expression when Hans Christian Andersen is ascribed significance as a cultural phenomenon in a particular discourse? (Answer attempted in “Hans Christian Andersen: a cultural phenomenon in theory and practice”)
2. How do scales find expression in articulations of Hans Christian Andersen as a cultural phenomenon? (Answer attempted in “Hans Christian Andersen’s rightful place? From worldwide celebration to The Emperor’s New Clothes”)
3. How do affective practices find expression in articulations of Hans Christian Andersen as a cultural phenomenon? (Answer attempted in “When heritage tourism goes glocal: The Little Mermaid in Shanghai”)
Each of the academic articles of the dissertation relates to the primary research question whilst – as is clear from their being listed as points – they concentrate particularly on the first, second and third secondary research question respectively:
“Hans Christian Andersen: a cultural phenomenon in theory and practice”
In the article, the analysis concentrates on how Andersen has been localised and used in discourses critical of society in Denmark, Russia and China. The Danish analysis example is the frequent use of the princess’ “No good! Take him away!” from the fairytale about Clumsy Hans in Danish media debates about the weakest members of the welfare state. The societally critical uses of Hans Christian Andersen are read as example of the fact that Andersen, for ideological and historical reasons, is ascribed various types of significance as a cultural phenomenon at the three different “sites of struggle”, and that it is thereby possible to identify three different discursive constructions of Andersen with a societally critical orientation. The article is part of a chapter that concentrates in general on how the processes where cultural phenomena are transformed into cultural heritage find expression in practice.
“Hans Christian Andersen’s rightful place? From worldwide celebration to The Emperor’s New Clothes”
The main element of the article is an analysis of sections of the national and local (Odense) media debate that took place in connection with the celebration of the bicentenary of Hans Christian Andersen’s birth in 2005. The analytical focus is on how the debaters used references to the fairytale “The Emperor’s New Clothes” when expressing their dissatisfaction with what they felt was fêting in a global, commercial way. The media debate is an example of how central the individual debater’s point of view (Jenkins) – and thus understanding of the world – is for Hans Christian Andersen’s function as a Danish cultural phenomenon. The analysis of the article shows how comparing and contrasting scales takes place in contingent and context-dependent processes whereby the local, national and global are continually sought to be fixed and to have particular significances wrested from them. In the chapter that includes the article, the position of the dissertation as a whole is also emphasised in the on-going academic debate on globalisation.
“When heritage tourism goes glocal – The Little Mermaid in Shanghai”
In the analysis of this article it is examined how affective markers were activated in the media debate that arose in 2009 and 2010 in connection with the statue of The Little Mermaid being moved to Shanghai for half a year in order to be the main attraction in the Danish pavilion at the World Exposition. In the article two discursive constructions of The Little Mermaid are emphasised that became particularly evident in the debate: the statue as “it”, a movable object of economic value, and the statue as “she”, an immovable subject of symbolic value. In both these narratives the affective practice was reflected in various forms of ownership feelings, where the link to Hans Christian Andersen is situated in national variant. The analysis of the narratives contributes to a further understanding of how affective practice both manifests itself when it is the debaters’ intention and when it is not, and furthermore how the nationalising of cultural heritage in a cultural-economic context can be an impeding factor for a brand that also has to appeal to people outside Danish borders. The article is part of a chapter that also presents a more general discussion of how the concept of affect is used and understood in cultural studies.
The way in which the analyses of the three articles contribute in their separate ways to the overall results of the dissertation are summarised in a two-part conclusion. In the first part, the themes are emphasised that seemed particularly relevant in the analyses of how the cultural phenomenon Hans Christian Andersen is ascribed significance and function in local, national and global contexts. The themes, which comprise cultural heritage, ownership, localisation, value and emotions, are included in a proposed thematic analytical model. The second part of the conclusion concentrates on how the disciplinary basis of the dissertation in neo-Gramscian cultural studies – and the resulting discourse theoretical analytical model – has proved usable in the analyses, and how this basis will also be able to be used in future cultural analyses of other cultural phenomena.
The dissertation concludes with a perspectivising chapter that develops the collected research results into a proposal as to how Hans Christian Andersen can be situated as a subject for literary tourism. It is argued that precisely such a branding of Andersen will, at one and the same time, be able to be anchored locally in Odense and have a global appeal. In the chapter four typologies are finally proposed that can function as a point of departure for future cultural analyses of how literary localities are constructed by tourism developers and perceived by the tourists.
The dissertation contributes as a whole with new general knowledge of how cultural phenomena can be defined and analysed, and more specifically with new knowledge of what kinds of significance Hans Christian Andersen is equipped with in his function as a Danish cultural phenomenon. Methodologically speaking, the dissertation can also be read as a new empirically based proposal of how discourse theory can be operationalised so that it is a usable method in neo-Gramscian cultural studies.
The dissertation is anthological and consists of three academic articles, plus an account of the theoretical and methodological selections and deselections involved. It is based within the field of cultural studies, which is why it concentrates thematically on how Hans Christian Andersen’s function as an element in everyday language use has found expression in selected Danish media debates in written media.
The dissertation presents both a thematic and an analysis-methodological aim. The thematic intention is to introduce what is defined as a third theme in Hans Christian Andersen research, where Andersen is understood, examined and analysed as a cultural phenomenon. Hans Christian Andersen has been a topic for research practically ever since his artistic production has existed, but until now research has mainly concentrated on either his life or work. The point of departure for the dissertation is a hypothesis that the interest in Hans Christian Andersen’s life and work exists by virtue of his cultural significance, but that precisely this significance has until now been taken as self-evident in humanist research. In an attempt to remedy this, the focus in the analyses of the dissertation is on what is involved when Andersen is ascribed significance as a cultural phenomenon in locally, nationally and globally oriented contexts. On the basis of this, the primary research question of the dissertation is:
In what ways does it find expression when Hans Christian Andersen is ascribed significance as a Danish cultural phenomenon, and what functions do various kinds of significance have in local, national and global contexts?
Basing the research in the field of cultural studies makes it possible to construct a bridge between the thematic and analysis-methodological aim: The dissertation lies within the so-called neo-Gramscian cultural studies (Storey, theory; Hall), where analyses particularly focus on how the classical Gramscian concept of hegemony is (re)produced in new cultural contexts. Concentrating on how hegemony is achieved, negotiated and sought sedimented, there follows an understanding of culture as sites of struggle (Hall, ”Deconstructing” 233) – an understanding that places at the centre human struggles to ascribe significance to the phenomena they conceive as being culture-constituent.
In order to examine more closely the struggles of significance to do with the cultural phenomenon Hans Christian Andersen, an operationalised form of the political theorists Ernesto Lacalu and Chantal Mouffe’s discourse theory is made use of. In the methodological approach, several concepts from Laclau and Mouffe’s theory are therefore included as “sensitising concepts” that structuralise the analyses (Carpentier; Carpentier and Spinoy; Carpentier and DeCleen). The discourse-theoretical concepts are further supplemented by the concepts interpretative repertoire and affective practice, with the aim of complementing the otherwise lacking focus of discourse theory on an individual agent and thereby practice, just as the social-constructivist scale-concept functions as a practiceoriented amplification of how people represent themselves and each other.
In keeping with the discourse-theoretical optic, Hans Christian Andersen is analysed as a floating signifier: a powerful sign that appeals to widely divergent cultural sets of values, and that can be equipped with just as diverse discursive opinions when linked in practice to these sets of values (Laclau, Reflections 28; ‘Power’ 287). Consequently, the analyses of the dissertation concentrate on what happens when people mirror themselves in Hans Christian Andersen via language and ascribe meanings to him that harmonise with the hegemonic norms and values in the cultures of which the individuals feel themselves to be a part.
In the dissertation a three-part analytical model that functions as a framework for the analyses is developed. The model makes it possible to examine how Hans Christian Andersen is discursively constructed in various contexts, how this finds expression in ideologically charged practice, and how Hans Christian Andersen functions as a culturecreating and culture-consolidating element when he is included in articulations that include appeals to so-called felt communities: imagined communities that are formulated as being both affectively and geographically demarcated (Ahmed, Cultural 101).
An attempt is made to define more closely the primary research question of the dissertation by means of a particular analytical focus on the discursive, local and affective markers that manifest themselves when Hans Christian Andersen is ascribed significance as a cultural phenomenon. This thematic limitation is made explicit in three secondary research questions:
1. How does it find expression when Hans Christian Andersen is ascribed significance as a cultural phenomenon in a particular discourse? (Answer attempted in “Hans Christian Andersen: a cultural phenomenon in theory and practice”)
2. How do scales find expression in articulations of Hans Christian Andersen as a cultural phenomenon? (Answer attempted in “Hans Christian Andersen’s rightful place? From worldwide celebration to The Emperor’s New Clothes”)
3. How do affective practices find expression in articulations of Hans Christian Andersen as a cultural phenomenon? (Answer attempted in “When heritage tourism goes glocal: The Little Mermaid in Shanghai”)
Each of the academic articles of the dissertation relates to the primary research question whilst – as is clear from their being listed as points – they concentrate particularly on the first, second and third secondary research question respectively:
“Hans Christian Andersen: a cultural phenomenon in theory and practice”
In the article, the analysis concentrates on how Andersen has been localised and used in discourses critical of society in Denmark, Russia and China. The Danish analysis example is the frequent use of the princess’ “No good! Take him away!” from the fairytale about Clumsy Hans in Danish media debates about the weakest members of the welfare state. The societally critical uses of Hans Christian Andersen are read as example of the fact that Andersen, for ideological and historical reasons, is ascribed various types of significance as a cultural phenomenon at the three different “sites of struggle”, and that it is thereby possible to identify three different discursive constructions of Andersen with a societally critical orientation. The article is part of a chapter that concentrates in general on how the processes where cultural phenomena are transformed into cultural heritage find expression in practice.
“Hans Christian Andersen’s rightful place? From worldwide celebration to The Emperor’s New Clothes”
The main element of the article is an analysis of sections of the national and local (Odense) media debate that took place in connection with the celebration of the bicentenary of Hans Christian Andersen’s birth in 2005. The analytical focus is on how the debaters used references to the fairytale “The Emperor’s New Clothes” when expressing their dissatisfaction with what they felt was fêting in a global, commercial way. The media debate is an example of how central the individual debater’s point of view (Jenkins) – and thus understanding of the world – is for Hans Christian Andersen’s function as a Danish cultural phenomenon. The analysis of the article shows how comparing and contrasting scales takes place in contingent and context-dependent processes whereby the local, national and global are continually sought to be fixed and to have particular significances wrested from them. In the chapter that includes the article, the position of the dissertation as a whole is also emphasised in the on-going academic debate on globalisation.
“When heritage tourism goes glocal – The Little Mermaid in Shanghai”
In the analysis of this article it is examined how affective markers were activated in the media debate that arose in 2009 and 2010 in connection with the statue of The Little Mermaid being moved to Shanghai for half a year in order to be the main attraction in the Danish pavilion at the World Exposition. In the article two discursive constructions of The Little Mermaid are emphasised that became particularly evident in the debate: the statue as “it”, a movable object of economic value, and the statue as “she”, an immovable subject of symbolic value. In both these narratives the affective practice was reflected in various forms of ownership feelings, where the link to Hans Christian Andersen is situated in national variant. The analysis of the narratives contributes to a further understanding of how affective practice both manifests itself when it is the debaters’ intention and when it is not, and furthermore how the nationalising of cultural heritage in a cultural-economic context can be an impeding factor for a brand that also has to appeal to people outside Danish borders. The article is part of a chapter that also presents a more general discussion of how the concept of affect is used and understood in cultural studies.
The way in which the analyses of the three articles contribute in their separate ways to the overall results of the dissertation are summarised in a two-part conclusion. In the first part, the themes are emphasised that seemed particularly relevant in the analyses of how the cultural phenomenon Hans Christian Andersen is ascribed significance and function in local, national and global contexts. The themes, which comprise cultural heritage, ownership, localisation, value and emotions, are included in a proposed thematic analytical model. The second part of the conclusion concentrates on how the disciplinary basis of the dissertation in neo-Gramscian cultural studies – and the resulting discourse theoretical analytical model – has proved usable in the analyses, and how this basis will also be able to be used in future cultural analyses of other cultural phenomena.
The dissertation concludes with a perspectivising chapter that develops the collected research results into a proposal as to how Hans Christian Andersen can be situated as a subject for literary tourism. It is argued that precisely such a branding of Andersen will, at one and the same time, be able to be anchored locally in Odense and have a global appeal. In the chapter four typologies are finally proposed that can function as a point of departure for future cultural analyses of how literary localities are constructed by tourism developers and perceived by the tourists.
The dissertation contributes as a whole with new general knowledge of how cultural phenomena can be defined and analysed, and more specifically with new knowledge of what kinds of significance Hans Christian Andersen is equipped with in his function as a Danish cultural phenomenon. Methodologically speaking, the dissertation can also be read as a new empirically based proposal of how discourse theory can be operationalised so that it is a usable method in neo-Gramscian cultural studies.
| Original language | Danish |
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| Place of Publication | Odense |
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| Publication status | Published - 2014 |