{"product_id":"is-there-a-text-in-this-class-the-authority-of-interpretive-communities-9780674467262","title":"Is There a Text in This Class? The Authority of Interpretive Communities","description":"\u003cp\u003eStanley Fish is one of Americas most stimulating literary theorists. In this book  he undertakes a profound reexamination of some of criticisms most basic assumptions. He penetrates to the core of the modern debate about interpretation  explodes numerous misleading formulations  and offers a stunning proposal for a new way of thinking about the way we read.  Fish begins by examining the relation between a reader and a text  arguing against the formalist belief that the text alone is the basic  knowable  neutral  and unchanging component of literary experience. But in arguing for the right of the reader to interpret and in effect create the literary work  he skillfully avoids the old trap of subjectivity. To claim that each reader essentially participates in the making of a poem or novel is not  he shows  an invitation to unchecked subjectivity and to the endless proliferation of competing interpretations. For each reader approaches a literary work not as an isolated individual but as part of a community of readers. Indeed  he writes  it is interpretive communities  rather than either the text or reader  that produce meanings.  The book is developmental  not static. Fish at all times reveals the evolutionary aspect of his workthe manner in which he has assumed new positions  altered them  and then moved on. Previously published essays are introduced by headnotes which relate them to the central notion of interpretive communities as it emerges in the final chapters. In the course of refining his theory  Fish includes rather than excludes the thinking of other critics and shows how often they agree with him  even when he and they may appear to be most dramatically at odds. Engaging  lucid  provocative  this book will immediately find its place among the seminal works of modern literary criticism.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45647002140725,"sku":"ByrdShop_0674467264","price":29.75,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780674467262.jpg?v=1781685099","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/is-there-a-text-in-this-class-the-authority-of-interpretive-communities-9780674467262","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}