Introspection and Essay Studies Conducted in Turkey. Fairytale: An Interdisciplinary Turco-Danish Study of the Collective v. the Individual Nature of the Response to Literature. Report No. 12. Revised.

As part of the interdisciplinary Turko-Danish Fairytale Project, both an introspection and an essay study were conducted with Turkish university prep-school students and junior college students to determine their responses to three fairytales: "The Snake, the Fox, and the Man,""The Gold Apple," and "Per Smed's Whip." The 63 readers in the introspection study were given the texts of the three tales, one by one, and were asked to report on what they experienced during the actual reading of each tale. After their commentary, the readers were asked, among other things, whether they liked the story and what the meaning of the story was. After they had read all three tales, the readers were asked whether they had read or heard of the stories before, which of the stories they liked best, which of the stories were most familiar, and which of the stories were most alien. The 61 readers who participated in the essay study were asked to write summaries of each tale and to answer questions that were identical to those in the introspection studies. Most of the readers for the introspection study reported that they had never heard of the stories before, liked "The Gold Apple" best and found it most familiar, and found "Per Smed's Whip" the most alien. Most of the readers for the essay study reported they had never heard or read the stories previously, preferred "The Snake, The Fox, and The Man," found "The Gold Apple" most familiar, and found "Per Smed's Whip" the most alien. (Extensive examples of student comments on the fairy tales are appended.) (HOD)