Le proche et le lointain dans l’univers imaginaire de Hans Christian Andersen

Abstract

Andersen’s works reflect the great questions that he never ceased to ponder, be they personal and psychological or religious and metaphysical : love and separation, death and immortality, this world and the hereafter… To address these issues, he generally uses pairs of either spatial or temporal opposites, in an effort to give concrete form to the images that haunt his imagination. In focusing on the metaphors of far and near that Andersen uses, this study covers not only his famous Fairy Tales and Stories, but all his works – his novels, poems, travel writings, correspondance and Diaries. Through this specific example, it allows the reader to trace some of the characteristic meanderings of his thought and his imaginary world.