{"id":198559,"date":"2026-07-23T17:58:50","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T01:58:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=198559"},"modified":"2026-07-23T17:59:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T01:59:54","slug":"my-stanley-fish-reading-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=198559","title":{"rendered":"My Stanley Fish Reading List"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is There a Text in This Class?<\/em><\/a> (1980). The interpretive communities<\/a> book. His argument that meaning comes from communities of readers rather than from texts or authors connects to everything I write about coalitions and knowledge production.<\/p>\n

There’s No Such Thing as Free Speech, and It’s a Good Thing, Too<\/em><\/a> (1994). Fish at his most provocative on how speech regimes always serve some interests and exclude others. <\/p>\n

Professional Correctness<\/em><\/a> (1995). His case that literary criticism should stop pretending to do politics and accept its disciplinary limits. A book about what fields can and cannot do, which maps onto my Bourdieu<\/a> work.<\/p>\n

The Trouble with Principle<\/em><\/a> (1999). Fish argues that neutral principles are a mirage and that all argument is interested argument.<\/p>\n

Save the World on Your Own Time<\/em><\/a> (2008). Short, punchy, aimed at professors who confuse teaching with activism. His clearest statement on institutional role morality.<\/p>\n

How Milton Works<\/em><\/a> (2001). The scholarly monument. Forty years of Milton<\/a> work distilled. <\/p>\n

Surprised by Sin<\/em><\/a> (1967). The book that made his name at 29. His reading of Paradise Lost<\/em><\/a> as a trap for the reader remains the model of a career-making intervention.<\/p>\n

Winning Arguments<\/em><\/a> (2016). Fish for a general audience on rhetoric in politics, law, and marriage. Lighter, but shows how he translates his academic positions into trade prose.<\/p>\n

Doing What Comes Naturally<\/em><\/a> (1989). Dense essays on rhetoric, law, and theory. The chapters on law and interpretation feed his later anti-foundationalism.<\/p>\n

Versions of Academic Freedom<\/em><\/a> (2014). He sorts the competing schools of academic freedom<\/a> and picks the narrowest one. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is There a Text in This Class? (1980). The interpretive communities book. His argument that meaning comes from communities of readers rather than from texts or authors connects to everything I write about coalitions and knowledge production. There’s No Such … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14100],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-198559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t