”I kamp og på flugt” Om H. C. Andersens Den lille havfrue gendigtet som en beretning om handicap
”In Battle and in Retreat” – on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Little Mermaid retold as an account of handicap

Summary/Abstract: The present paper offers a study of two contemporary English-languagereworkings of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Little Mermaid: oneby the M. Sickafoose (1995) and one by A. Woon (2016), from theperspective of disability theory. In each of them, the original tale has beenreframed into a story featuring a young girl striving to approach her inabilityto walk while drawing inspiration from the original tale. Due to their useof intertextuality, the texts to be analyzed are discussed as examples of theso-called postmodern fairy tale, aimed at interrogating the relevanceof classic fairy tales through the act of retelling. In spite of similaritiesin terms of theme, plot outline and character construction, the versionsselected for the analysis differ in terms of ending scenarios, offering twocomplementary messages concerning Andersen’s tale. While exploring thechanges in the overall understanding of disability underlying the original andthe two contemporary versions, the analysis aims to determine the potentialof Andersen’s fairy tale as a possible frame of reference while confrontinghandicap in the social reality of the present era.

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