Translation als Mythos

Abstract This paper investigates the reception history of the Danish Poet and fairytale writer Hans Christian Andersen in 19th-century Germany and its influence on his (auto)biographical depiction. Like many Scandinavian poets, Andersen discovered Germany’s literary potential and took advantage of it to further his career. In most cases, he was pictured as a genius who suffered systematic underestimation in Denmark. This narrative which determined his reception plays a central role in his German autobiography Märchen meines Lebens (Fairy Tale of my Life). Analyzing Andersen’s autobiographical discourse, I will reconstruct the process of the construction of Andersen’s (auto)biographical myth, emphasizing translation’s role in shaping autobiographical narratives.