Claus Elholm Andersen
Nordic
Professor, Scandinavian Studies Unit Head
he/him
Office Number: 1302 Van Hise Hall
Biography
Language(s): Danish
Research/Language Interests: In my research, I am mainly interested in the intersection of form and politics, and questions of fiction and fictionality: What it is, how it works, and what it implies.
In 2023, I published the monograph Karl Ove Knausgård and the Autofictional Novel, in which I argue that Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgård, in his 6-volume autobiographical novel My Struggle, consciously engages with, and undermines, a long critical history of equating novels with fiction.
More recently, I published in the book En dissonans i denne verden: Læsninger i H.C. Andersens tidlige eventyr. Through close readings of some of Andersen’s best-known tales, I show that he is not an innocent writer of cozy stories for children, but a sharp observer of inequality, power relations, and social divisions in his own time. This early criticism of capitalism, I argue, is part of what gives his tales their continued relevance.
An English edition of the book is scheduled to be published by Routledge in 2027.
I am currently working on a monograph of Hans Christian Andersen’s novels. I’m interested in how Andersen uses the novel to think through the relation between the personal and the political, and how, in doing so, he stretches and, in some ways, renews the novelistic form.
Undergraduate Courses: The Tales of Hans Christian Andersen (Scand 373), Contemporary Scandinavian Literature (Scand 427), Contemporary Scandinavia: Politics and History (Scand 577), Readings in Danish Literature (Scand 271), Contemporary Scandinavian Languages (Scand 401), Graduate Seminar in Professional Development (GNS 700), and Knausgård and Postfiction (Scand 901)
About Me: I am the Birgit Baldwin Chair and Paul and Renate Madsen Professor of Scandinavian Studies. In addition to my scholarly work, I have given numerous talks around Wisconsin on hygge and happiness through the Badger Talks program. I regularly write for the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
I am committed to the project of making Scandinavian Studies/literary studies diverse, inclusive, and equitable fields.
Education:
• University of Helsinki, Ph.D. (2015)
• University of Copenhagen, Cand.mag. (1999)
• University of Copenhagen, BA (2006)
In January 2018, Professor Andersen was interviewed by Fox6 News.
Click to learn about Hygge, the concept of ‘pleasant togetherness’.
See Professor Andersen talk about the concept of hygge on PBS’ The NewsHour in January 2026.