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The Flaw to the Theory

  • We cannot presume to know how reading works in the universal sense and are not necessarily able to describe it.
  • The effects achieved by the text may not be the effects intended by the author.
  • To answer his title- no, because the text is a creation by a particular community, through a particular lens

Biographical Details

STANLEY FISH AND RHETORIC

  • Educated at University of Pennsylvania
  • Earned Ph.D. in 1962 at Yale
  • Taught at UC Berkeley, Johns Hopkins University, Duke University
  • At Duke, taught English and Law, chaired the English Department, Director of University Press
  • Dean of Arts and Sciences at University of Illinois, Chicago
  • Currently, Floerscheimer Distinguished Professor of Law at Cardoza Law School in NYC

Theories

Interpretation of Text

  • Views himself as advocate of anti-foundationalism
  • Associated with postmodernism
  • Major influence in rise of reader-response theory
  • Literary work does not contain its own meaning; meaning emerges as a result of the act of reading. This is where the critic must focus.
  • Is There a Text in this Class? - Fish argues that the reader "creates" the text by deciding which features are significant.
  • Interpretive community- maintains the normal values of which the readers are unknowingly restrained in coming to the text.

Fish and the Liberal Arts Debate

  • Disagrees with "grandiose claims" about liberal arts
  • Defends "administrative judgement with respect to professional behavior and job performance."
  • "We [professors] are responsible for the selection of texts, the preparation of a syllabus, the sequence of assignments and exams, the framing of a term paper... it's good because it's what you [we] like to do."
  • "Instead of saying 'Let me tell you what we do so that you'll love us'... say, 'We do what we do, we've been doing it for a long time, it has its own history, and until you learn it or join it, your opinions are not worth listening to.'"
  • As a result of his aggressive, arrogant attitude in regards to the humanities, many others in the field feel he is doing more harm than good

Meri Marsh

Video: Stanley Fish: Liberal Arts Ed. Needs No Justification

Discussion Questions

In his article "Why We Built the Ivory Tower", Fish says "No doubt, the practices of responsible citizenship and moral behavior should be encouraged in our young adults- but it is not the business of the university to do so." Do you agree with this view?

Is Fish, in fact, doing more harm than good in his arrogant defense of the humanities and liberal arts education?

Websites Consulted

https://rhetoricreadinggroup.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/fish-rhetoric.pdf

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/the-two-cultures-of-educational-reform/#more-148394

https://roth.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2015/11/10/reviewing-stanley-fish-on-free-speech-and-other-topics/

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/114224/stanley-fish-careerism

Fish's Writing

  • Regular opinion writer for The New York Times, works are very readable, have a relaxed style.
  • Widely read essays:
  • "The Unbearable Ugliness of Volvos"- statement on character of academics- impoverished, self-abasement, oppressed.
  • Political Correctness: Literary Studies and Political Change- literary studies cannot incite political change because of its interpretive nature.
  • There's No Such Thing as Free Speech, and It's a Good Thing, Too- collection of essays dealing with blind submissions, scholarly debate, liberal arts.
  • Is There a Text in This Class?- "meanings are not extracted but made."
  • Save the World on Your Own Time- attack on academic leftists, even though at times he identifies with them

Rhetorical Angle

  • Interpretive systems change because of our ability to argue a new or different point, and the "new" way of interpretation is just as limited by context.
  • Arguing for a new way of interpreting a text is the point of rhetoric.
  • History of rhetoric is a contest between foundationalism and anti-foundationalism
  • Agrees with the Sophists that believed in the antifoundational views and sees this as the underlying principle of all rhetoric
  • 20th century's return to rhetoric is good- a return to subjective interpretation

Critique of Foundationalist Theory

  • "theory that promises to put our calculations and determinations on a firmer footing than can be provided by mere belief or unjustified practice"
  • Fish does not believe in (T)ruth
  • Meaning evolves from context and lens rather than from words in discourse.
  • No such thing as absolute interpretation since context can never be taken away.
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