"Interpreting the Variorum"

by Stanley Fish

Genres: Nonfiction

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Stanley Eugene Fish is an American literary theorist and legal scholar. He was born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island. He is often associated with postmodernism, at times to his irritation, as he describes himself as an anti-foundationalist.

He is the Davidson-Kahn Distinguished University Professor of Humanities and a Professor of Law at Florida International University, in Miami, as well as Dean Emeritus of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the author of 10 books. Professor Fish has also taught at the University of California, Berkeley, Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University, and Duke University.

Reviews

[Didier Goossens · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read for certain, as I am very favourable towards the theory of Reader Response Criticism. Having previously encountered this literary theory in excerpts from W. Iser a couple of years ago, this added to my appreciation of the theory, in compare to my stance of, say, Russian Formalism. I do not, however, entirely agree with Fish' development of his criticism; I in fact experienced an oppositie evolution. Whereras Fish develops his theory into different, all-encompassing interpretive communities, I lean more towards an individual stance on the matter. I do not deny the existence of interpretive communities, but find that they are less strict than Fish' description of them towards the end of this essay. One or two factors may loosely bind several communities together, but I do not further this acknowledgement, instead opting for a more individual approach, insofar that we as readers still stand very singular in our interpretation of the text. Even in a class of students of literature, we may find very different communities still, but towards the end of one such class, I experience very individual interpretations. Might we say then that every person on their own is an interpretive community?

[Ash Conklin · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5

The writing style is infuriating. Fish's use of parentheses is so aggressive. Also, many of his points seem to contradict his view so reader response as a whole. This definitely was not my favorite.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm counting it. I had to read it enough times.