Abstract/Summary

In this thesis, I will be asking the question: what does it mean to read? This is the question that underpins my thinking and my readings. I will begin by reading the implications of the relationship between the gaze and the body, as well as shifts in perspective and the lack which is implicated in this split. I will be engaging with a range of fairy tales from both Hans Christian Anderson and Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, and I will be reading this split and deferral throughout my fairy tale analyses. I will also be engaging with texts that are not fairy tales, as these readings do not have to be limited by the bounds of one ‘type’ of text. I will be thinking about the problem of repetition as well as presence of absence, particularly in relation to disability theory discourse. In the final section of this thesis, I will return to this notion of reading a body and what this means in problematising identity. I will be reading further sections of ‘The Little Mermaid’ and returning to Derrida in exploring ideas of denuding. I will be continuing to read division and deferral and returning to this notion of truth and revelation whilst asking ‘what does it mean to read’? Finally, I will think about the consequences of my readings in this way. I want to end on a reading to show that this is not just about fairy tales or literature or disability: this is what people are thinking about and this is why this is important.