Outlined in this paper are the plans for three additional pilot studies to be conducted in Denmark as part of the interdisciplinary Turko-Danish Fairytale Project. The project is concerned with the collective versus the individual nature of reader response to literature and the three pilot studies are: introspection studies during the reading,…

A study examined how the third version of a questionnaire on readers' backgrounds (developed for the "Folktale project", which explores similarities and dissimilarities in the response to literature from and in different cultures) fared internationally under field conditions which would not immediately be controlled by members of the…

The theoretical background of the interdisciplinary Turko-Danish Fairytale Project is discussed in this paper. The paper first offers support for the working hypotheses of the Fairytale Project, which was designed to determine (1) if there are aesthetic principles that are universal and that guide the reader's experience of literary works; (2)…

This article describes a series of Scandinavian studies in reader response from 1968 to 1990. Studies chronologically discussed in the article are: (1) "Rhythm in Poetry"; (2) "The Esthetic Experience"; (3) "Meaning in Literary Texts"; (4) "Tension"; (5) the "Ram" study; (6) the…

This paper briefly reviews the state of the art in reader response research with special reference to the Danish studies in reader responses. The paper then proceeds to a discussion of a number of methodological problems inherent in setting up questions for cross-cultural (and international) studies in general, and for reader response studies in…

As part of the interdisciplinary Turko-Danish Fairytale Project concerning the nature of response to literature, this paper discusses the rationale, principles, and actual translation procedures behind nine fairytales considered for use in the study. Various sections of the report discuss (1) the texts to be chosen, including their authenticity,…

This paper is the last in a series of 14 detailing the procedures involved in setting up an interdisciplinary project that explores the similarities and dissimilarities in the response to literature in readers from different countries. It marks the end of the preparatory work for the "Folktale-project." The first section is an overview of the…

As part of the Folktale project, which explores similarities and dissimilarities in the response to literature from and in different cultures, advanced undergraduate students in classes on literary interpretation or literary history analyzed a Danish, a Greenlandic, and a Turkish folk tale. Two male and two female students in classes on literary…

Prepared as part of the interdisciplinary Turko-Danish Fairytale Project, this paper describes the design of a study intended to discover: (1) if there are aesthetic principles that are universal and that guide readers' experiences of works of literature; (2) whether the principles are built into people by their cultural, economic, and social…

This paper describes the folkloristic and literary theories centered on the traditional narrative that have a bearing on the Turko-Danish Fairytale Project. These theories were incorporated into the Fairytale Project because traditional prose tales (of which the fairy tale is one of the most prominent forms) are a genre that exists in both oral…

Summaries of the Danish internal reports of the essay studies, the introspection studies, and the literary analyses that are part of the larger interdisciplinary Turko-Danish Fairytale Project concerning the collective versus the individual nature of the response to literature are presented in this report. Various sections of the five papers…

This paper presents a brief survey of interdisciplinary Danish studies in experimental reader response since 1965. The paper describes nine projects or studies, including information on their purposes and methods, stages, persons responsible, supporters, funding institutions, internal reports, and publications. Project titles include…

Written literature has evolved over a long period to an entity separate from oral tradition. Written literature aspired to perpetuation, to the creation of written "monuments." This aspiration caused authors to find the means of multiplying authentic versions so that they could popularize their "original" form unchanged. On the…

A detailed plan for stages one and two of the interdisciplinary Turko-Danish Fairytale Project is presented in this paper and factors considered in the project's research design are discussed in depth. The first section describes the working hypotheses of the project--that there are primordial patterns in the response to literature that are common…

Prepared as part of the interdisciplinary Turko-Danish Fairytale Project, this paper contains descriptions of the core group of readers (600 18-year-old students) and the special groups of readers (each composed of approximately 50 subjects) who participated in the investigation of the collective versus the individual nature of the reader response…