Is There a Text in This Class? The Authority of Interpretive Communities

Abstract

PART ONE: Literature in the Reader 1. Literature in the Reader: Affective Stylistics 2. What Is Stylistics and Why Are They Saying Such Terrible Things About It? 3. How Ordinary Is Ordinary Language? 4. What It's Like To Read L'Allegro and II Penseroso 5. Facts and Fictions: A Reply to Ralph Rader 6. the 7. Interpreting the Variorum 8. Structuralist Homiletics 9. How To Do Things with Austin and Searle: Speech- Act Theory and Literary Criticism 10. What Is Stylistics and Why Are They Saying Such Terrible Things About It? Part II 11. Normal Circumstances and Other Special Cases 12. A Reply to John Reichert PART TWO: Interpretive Authority in the Classroom and in Literary Criticism 13. Is There a Text in This Class? 14. How To Recognize a Poem When You See One 15. What Makes an Interpretation Acceptable? 16. Demonstration vs. Persuasion: Two Models of Critical Activity Notes Index