The theoretical background of the interdisciplinary Turko-Danish Fairytale Project is discussed in this paper. The paper first offers support for the working hypotheses of the Fairytale Project, which was designed to determine (1) if there are aesthetic principles that are universal and that guide the reader's experience of literary works; (2) whether these principles are built into people by their cultural, economic, and social experiences; or (3) whether these principles are totally individualistic. Then, the theory of reader response that suggests that text does not exist outside the experiences of the readers/listeners is detailed. This theory is applied to the project. An explanation is provided of why explicit statements from different schools of critical thinking are needed in the planning stage, for pilot studies, and for the final assessment. A description of each of the seven fairy tales under consideration is also presented. An explanation of a phenomenological approach to some features in the seven tales is offered and the cultural factors, the Propp functions, and the Holbeck metafunctions that apply to each are described in detail. Fairy tales in relation to the reader/listener and psychological symbols found in the tales are also discussed. (CRH)