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Teilmann, Stina --- "On Real Nightingales and Mechanical Reproductions" [2006] ELECD 99; in Porsdam, Helle (ed), "Copyright and Other Fairy Tales" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006)

Book Title: Copyright and Other Fairy Tales

Editor(s): Porsdam, Helle

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845426019

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: On Real Nightingales and Mechanical Reproductions

Author(s): Teilmann, Stina

Number of pages: 17

Extract:

2. On real nightingales and mechanical
reproductions
Stina Teilmann
Hans Christian Andersen (1805­75) lived in a century during which `authen-
ticity' came to be an important marker of value. The Romantic Movement in
art and literature celebrated `authentic expression'. Philosophy and political
thinking began to emphasize the significance of `authentic being'.1 As a result
`authenticity' was given a new sense in the nineteenth century. No longer a
mere synonym for `authoritative' and `authorized' (`legally valid'), `authentic'
became important in the sense of `being real and actual' as opposed to `coun-
terfeit' or `copied'.2
Andersen shared his contemporaries' fascination with authenticity. Indeed
some of his most famous fairy tales reveal an intense concern with the signif-
icance of being authentic or `real'. Thus the opening lines of `The Princess on
the Pea' (1835):

Once upon a time there was a prince who wanted to marry a princess. But she had to
be a real princess. He travelled all over the world to find her, yet everywhere he went,
something was the matter. There were certainly enough princesses, but he couldn't be
sure that they were real princesses ­ there was always something that wasn't right. He
came home and was very sad because he so wanted to marry a real princess.3

A princess comes and knocks on the door, and she claims to be a real princess.
The old queen, the prince's mother, gives her 20 mattresses and 20 eiderdowns
on which to sleep, and ...