Is There a Text in This Class? The Authority of Interpretive Communities
These essays demonstrate why Fish has become the center--as both source and focus--of so much intellectual energy in contemporary American critical theory. For brilliance and forcefulness in argumentation and for sheer boldness of mind and spirit, he has no match. (Barbara Herrnstein Smith)It is a great...pleasure these days to find a critic willing to discuss language, literature, reading, writing, and the community of readers on the understanding that the reader plays a real part in the production of his experience. (Denis DonoghueTimes Literary Supplement)No bare summary of his conclusions can do justice to the brilliance of his analyses...Is There a Text in This Class?is a substantial achievement which deserves the serious consideration of all students of literature. Its arguments are cogent, forceful and engaging, its style witty, personable and unpretentious, and its analyses are just, incisive and economical. Most important, the theory it advocates is provocative, comprehensive and, I believe, true. (Criticism)