ABSTRACT
This is an attempt at a cultural reading of The Sound of Music. It is ideological in two senses. First, it is neither science nor simple subjectivism. It does not produce unquestionable, definitive knowledge or Truth (as is claimed – wrongly – for the natural sciences, and religion), but nor is it just what I happen to think. Rather it applies, openly and recognizably, an ideological position to the reading of the film (whilst not ignoring the question of evidence). This position places the reading within a developed, available intellectual and political debate – something fundamentally different from both ‘value-free’ science and the elaboration of personal taste or morality. Second, it is concerned with the way the ideology of the dominant groups in our society (above all, the bourgeoisie and men) operates in and on the film.
