Page 79 - DENG501_LITERARY_CRITICISM_AND_THEORIES

Unit 6: Is There a Text In This Class—Stanley Fish: Analysis

often they agree with him, even when he and they may appear to be most dramatically at Notes
odds. Engaging, lucid, provocative, this book will immediately find its place among the
seminal works of modern literary criticism.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

6.6 Key-Words

1. Close reading : ‘Method’ of reading emphasized by new critics which pays careful attention
to ‘the words on the page’ rather than the historical and ideological context,
the biography or intentions of the author and so on. Glose reading, despite
its name, brackets questions of readers and reading as arbitrary and
irrelevant to the text as an artifact (see affective fallacy). It assumes that the
function of reading and criticism is simply to read carefully what is already
‘there’ in the text.
6.7 Review Questions

1. Discuss the Theory of Stanley Fish.
2. Briefly explain ‘Is Their Text In This Class’.
3. What is the normative or literal or linguistic meaning of Is There a Text in This Class? Discuss.
Answers: Self-Assessment
1. (i)(b) (ii)(d) (iii)(c) (iv)(c)

6.8 Further Readings

1. Lodge, David and Nigel Woods (eds.) Modern Criticism and Theory: A Reader,
2nd edition, New Delhi: Pearson Education Ltd., 2005.
2. Guerin, Wilfred L. & et. al. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, 5th
edition, New Delhi: OUP, 2007.
3. Barry, Peter, Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory,
1st edition, Manchester: MUP, 2002.
4. Bloom, Harold et. al, Deconstruction and Criticism. London: Routledge, 1979.
5. Handy, William and Max Westbook, (eds,) Twentieth Century Criticism, New
York: Free Press, Macmillan, 1977.

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