degrimm1-7, Exercise 2: Testing a claim

Model answer (one possible claim: "Little Red Riding Hood is really about a girl's coming of age"; check):

1. Which text? Unclear. Many tellers of this claim use Perrault's or a modern version, not the Grimm text, which has a different ending (check).
2. Whose meaning? Probably a modern critic's, not the teller's or the collector's, which is not a problem if stated but is a problem if presented as the tale's original meaning.
3. What is left out? The reading explains the red garment and the path but may skip the hunter and the second episode in the Grimm version.
4. Can it be tested? Hard to test, since nothing in the text or in historical sources states it.
5. Rivals? A warning-tale reading and a folkloric reading fit the same facts.

Verdict: a possible reading, not an established one, and the phrase "really about" should be replaced by "can be read as".