Darnton

Begins with the question that why in France were there stories of gore and
threat in the age of reason? The great cat massacre shares the story of little
red riding hood and emphasizes its French origins. The author Darnton
argues that psychoanalysis has hyper analysed these tales especially in
their written forms which is erroneous because there is vast difference
between the oral narrative and the one that is written down. Argues that
folktales tell us a great deal about the ethos and belief systems of a
community in a giver period of time.
Points to the French elements as different from German or English elements,
more middle class oriented. Belong to a France between 15 th -18th century.
Unmoving history and event history. From the time of black death in 13.. to
17.. there was no change in history, any political changes that tend to
signify consistent changes in the European climate happened in the cities of
paris not in the peasant life. the former was marked by event history.
Craving for food and fulfilment of apetitie was the most recurrent motif in
french peasant writing. Life on the road and life in the household area the
two facets explored. Daughters=home, sons=on the road
Negt and Kluge
Jameson in this essay speaks of the contribution and definitional entity of
what negt and kluge call the proletariat public sphere. He argues how its
different from habermass conception of the public sphere. Cites translation
as a problem. Goes to the term obstinacy and experience.
The fairy tale moves in its own time
Can fairy-tale be still seen as an exercise in wish-fullfillment even though
there are no kings and no dragons today (well technically there never were
any dragons)? Well, yes it can because unlike the folk tale it has no locale,
its free floating. Can be appropriated to any time scape and any locale.
Thus, science fiction is really a fairy tale so are movies with glamour and
sheen. Of course while in fiction the fairy tale element sustains it does little
in reality although it does hint towards the indomitable spirit of the hero
that cant be subjugated