Red Riding Hood

An Interpretation from Anthropology

Bibliographic Data

ID8932167
AuthorsMary Douglas (University of London, corresponding author)
Year1995
Volume106
Issue1-2
Pages1-7
Publication date1995-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueFolklore (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0015-587X • E-ISSN: 1469-8315
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0015587x.1995.9715887
OpenAlexW1996975291
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited10

Today my initial problem is how to interpret a story when it is not clear whether it is meant to be funny or tragic, and when the whole social context is missing. It must be in line with critical theory to say that when all you have is the story itself, the meaning is whatever the reader assigns to it. In a sense you, the newest reader, become the author of the current meanings. This should be a comfort to the updating feminist readings of Mother Goose stories, and to psychoanalytic readings or jazzy Monty Python style reworkings or collections of old meanings (Zipes 1993). But it is very little comfort to folklorists or anthropologists who might want to know what the story originally meant to say. The folklorists I know are mild and tolerant

Aesthetics · Art · Context (archaeology · Epistemology · Interpretation (philosophy · Linguistics · Literature · Meaning (existential · Psychoanalysis · Psychoanalytic theory · Sociology · Style (visual arts · Digital Games and Media · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · History · Media, Gender, and Advertising · Philosophy · Psychology

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