Stanley Eugene Fish (1938-)
Fish is a literary critic particulary associated with Reader-Response Criticism, according to which,
meaning in text is created, rather than discovered, by the reader.
History
Born in Rhode Island, Fish was educated at the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University.
He taught at Johns Hopkins University from 1974-1985 and at Duke
University thereafter.
Movements
Reader-Response Criticism
Writings
- In Surprised by Sin: The Reader in "Paradise Lost" (1967), Fish suggested that the subject of Milton's work is the reader,
who is forced to undergo spiritual self-examination over the course of
the work.
- In Is there a Text in this Class? The Authority of
Interpretive Communities (1980), Fish further develops reader-response
theory.
- Doing What Comes Naturally: Change, Rhetoric, and the
Practice of Theory in Literary and Legal Studies (1989)
Influential People
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