ABSTRACT
My current study of fairy stories has come about because I felt dissatisfied with the ways in which I previously worked. These somehow seemed to assume on the part of the audience a total rationality in regard to the photographs offered-which would then allow them to feel free to take up a more critical position in relation to their own lives. Clearly this is not the case —people are just not open to straightforward logic Much more work needs to be done on the actual processes whereby photographs actually work on us, not so much what they mean but how they mean it…. I want to take as my focus the illusion of romantic loveparticularly in fairy stories It is the concept which is so important in the maintenance of western culture, rather than its ability to fulfil any of its promises in a material way. Research among postgraduate field workers and youth club workers in England has shown that for most working-class girls the myth of romance is deeply embedded in their idea of their own conscious femininity. Whilst this is hardly a startling revelation, it does become an important point to consider in relation to any theory of class. For those women who are systematically discriminated against (and I was one of them) it is hardly surprising that part
of the female utopian imagination is the hope that somebody will come along and take them away from all that….
