“To the question 'of what use are the humanities?', the only honest answer is none whatsoever. And it is an answer that brings honor to its subject. Justification, after all, confers value on an activity from a perspective outside its performance. An activity that cannot be justified is an activity that refuses to regard itself as instrumental to some larger good. The humanities are their own good. There is nothing more to say, and anything that is said diminishes the object of its supposed praise”
PhD. from Yale 1962
Faculty at Berkley, John Hopkins, University of Illinois Chicago, Duke, Florida International University teaching English and law.
Primary Works: John Skelton's Poetry, Surprised by Sin: The Reader in Paradise Lost, There's No Such Thing As Free Speech, and it's a Good Thing, Too
Prominate Milton scholar though I became one by accident at Berkley when asked to teach a course on the Author without any prior study.
Reader Response critic developed an offshoot called “Interpretive Communities” which states that meaning in Text derives from a set of cultural assumptions inherent in the text and in our own minds. They are called communities however due to their nature it is impossible to define boundaries or set limits to the communities.
Sarah Palin might call Fish a bit of a Maverick due to some of my controversial antics including my criticisms of political statements made by Universities and faculty bodies outside of their professional areas of expertise as well as my tenure as the Chair of the Duke University English Department
attracts a lot of criticism from other academics partially due to his ambiguous political beliefs, seemingly relativist theories, and public visibility. Many call him a “Sophist”
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