Stanley Eugene Fish's Books

Surprised by Sin

The Reader in Paradise Lost

By: Stanley Eugene Fish

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Surprised by Sin

The Reader in Paradise Lost

By: Stanley Eugene Fish

In 1967 Milton studies was divided into two camps: one claiming (per Blake and Shelley) that Milton was of the devil's party, the other claiming (per Addison and C. S. Lewis) that the poet's sympathies were obviously with God and his loyal angels. Fish has reconciled the two camps by subsuming their claims in a single overarching thesis.

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440

Publisher

Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

067485747X

ISBN 13

9780674857476

Surprised by Sin

Reader in "Paradise Lost"

By: Stanley Eugene Fish

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Surprised by Sin

Reader in "Paradise Lost"

By: Stanley Eugene Fish

Stanley Fish's Surprised by Sin argues here that Paradise Lost is a poem about how its readers came to be the way they are and therefore the fact of their divided responses makes perfect sense.

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354

Publisher

Springer

Published Date

ISBN 10

1349001465

ISBN 13

9781349001460

How Milton Works

By: Stanley Eugene Fish

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How Milton Works

By: Stanley Eugene Fish

Stanley Fish's Surprised by Sin, first published in 1967, set a new standard for Milton criticism and established its author as one of the world's preeminent Milton scholars. The lifelong engagement begun in that work culminates in this book, the magnum opus of a formidable critic and the definitive statement on Milton for our time. How Milton works "from the inside out" is the foremost concern of Fish's book, which explores the radical effect of Milton's theological convictions on his poetry and prose. For Milton the value of a poem or of any other production derives from the inner worth of its author and not from any external measure of excellence or heroism. Milton's aesthetic, says Fish, is an "aesthetic of testimony": every action, whether verbal or physical, is or should be the action of holding fast to a single saving commitment against the allure of plot, narrative, representation, signs, drama--anything that might be construed as an illegitimate supplement to divine truth. Much of the energy of Milton's writing, according to Fish, comes from the effort to maintain his faith against these temptations, temptations which in any other aesthetic would be seen as the very essence of poetic value. Encountering the great poet on his own terms, engaging his equally distinguished admirers and detractors, this book moves a 300-year debate about the significance of Milton's verse to a new level.

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640

Publisher

Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674004655

ISBN 13

9780674004658

The Trouble with Principle

By: Stanley Fish

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The Trouble with Principle

By: Stanley Fish

The author explains that history and context determine a principle's content and power and that "intellectual and religious liberty ... are artifacts of the very partisan politics they supposedly transcend."--Jacket.

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Page Count

348

Publisher

Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674910125

ISBN 13

9780674910126

Professional Correctness

Literary Studies and Political Change

By: Stanley Eugene Fish

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Professional Correctness

Literary Studies and Political Change

By: Stanley Eugene Fish

In recent years, the world of literary and cultural studies has been riven by a fierce debate between those who would transform interpretative work and those who fear that their work would destroy the very essence of literary criticism.

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168

Publisher

Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

067471220X

ISBN 13

9780674712201

There's No Such Thing As Free Speech

And It's a Good Thing, Too

By: Stanley Fish

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There's No Such Thing As Free Speech

And It's a Good Thing, Too

By: Stanley Fish

In an era when much of what passes for debate is merely moral posturing--traditional family values versus the cultural elite, free speech versus censorship--or reflexive name-calling--the terms "liberal" and "politically correct," are used with as much dismissive scorn by the right as "reactionary" and "fascist" are by the left--Stanley Fish would seem an unlikely lightning rod for controversy. A renowned scholar of Milton, head of the English Department of Duke University, Fish has emerged as a brilliantly original critic of the culture at large, praised and pilloried as a vigorous debunker of the pieties of both the left and right. His mission is not to win the cultural wars that preoccupy the nation's attention, but rather to redefine the terms of battle. In There's No Such Thing as Free Speech, Fish takes aim at the ideological gridlock paralyzing academic and political exchange in the nineties. In his witty, accessible dissections of the swirling controversies over multiculturalism, affirmative action, canon revision, hate speech, and legal reform, he neatly eviscerates both the conservatives' claim to possession of timeless, transcendent values (the timeless transcendence of which they themselves have conveniently identified), and the intellectual left's icons of equality, tolerance, and non-discrimination. He argues that while conservative ideologues and liberal stalwarts might disagree vehemently on what is essential to a culture, or to a curriculum, both mistakenly believe that what is essential can be identified apart from the accidental circumstances (of time and history) to which the essential is ritually opposed. In the book's first section, which includes the five essays written for Fish's celebrated debates with Dinesh D'Souza (the author and former Reagan White House policy analyst), Fish turns his attention to the neoconservative backlash. In his introduction, Fish writes, "Terms that come to us wearing the label 'apolitical'--'common values', 'fairness', 'merit', 'color blind', 'free speech', 'reason'--are in fact the ideologically charged constructions of a decidedly political agenda. I make the point not in order to level an accusation, but to remove the sting of accusation from the world 'politics' and redefine it as a synonym for what everyone inevitably does." Fish maintains that the debate over political correctness is an artificial one, because it is simply not possible for any party or individual to occupy a position above or beyond politics. Regarding the controversy over the revision of the college curriculum, Fish argues that the point is not to try to insist that inclusion of ethnic and gender studies is not a political decision, but "to point out that any alternative curriculum--say a diet of exclusively Western or European texts--would be no less politically invested." In Part Two, Fish follows the implications of his arguments to a surprising rejection of the optimistic claims of the intellectual left that awareness of the historical roots of our beliefs and biases can allow us, as individuals or as a society, to escape or transcend them. Specifically, he turns to the movement for reform of legal studies, and insists that a dream of a legal culture in which no one's values are slighted or declared peripheral can no more be realized than the dream of a concept of fairness that answers to everyone's notions of equality and jsutice, or a yardstick of merit that is true to everyone's notions of worth and substance. Similarly, he argues that attempts to politicize the study of literature are ultimately misguided, because recharacterizations of literary works have absolutely no impact on the mainstream of political life. He concludes his critique of the academy with "The Unbearable Ugliness of Volvos," an extraordinary look at some of the more puzzing, if not out-and-out masochistic, characteristics of a life in academia. Penetrating, fearless, and brilliantly argued, There's No Such Thing as Free Speech captures the essential Fish. It is must reading for anyone who cares about the outcome of America's cultural wars.

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345

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

019983928X

ISBN 13

9780199839285

How Milton Works

By: Stanley Eugene Fish

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How Milton Works

By: Stanley Eugene Fish

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640

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Harvard University Press

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ISBN 10

0674004655

ISBN 13

9780674004658

Surprised by Sin

Reader in "Paradise Lost"

By: Stanley Eugene Fish

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Surprised by Sin

Reader in "Paradise Lost"

By: Stanley Eugene Fish

Stanley Fish's Surprised by Sin argues here that Paradise Lost is a poem about how its readers came to be the way they are and therefore the fact of their divided responses makes perfect sense.

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Page Count

354

Publisher

Springer

Published Date

ISBN 10

1349001465

ISBN 13

9781349001460

Professional Correctness

Literary Studies and Political Change

By: Stanley Eugene Fish

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Professional Correctness

Literary Studies and Political Change

By: Stanley Eugene Fish

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Page Count

168

Publisher

Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

067471220X

ISBN 13

9780674712201

How to Write a Sentence

And How to Read One

By: Stanley Fish

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How to Write a Sentence

And How to Read One

By: Stanley Fish

A New York Times bestseller—“Part ode, part how-to guide to the art of the well-constructed sentence” (NPR). Some appreciate fine art; others appreciate fine wines. Stanley Fish appreciates fine sentences. The New York Times columnist and world-class professor has long been an aficionado of language. Like a seasoned sportscaster, Fish marvels at the adeptness of finely crafted sentences and breaks them down into digestible morsels, giving readers an instant play-by-play. In this entertaining and erudite gem, Fish offers both sentence craft and sentence pleasure, skills invaluable to any writer (or reader). How to Write a Sentence is both a spirited love letter to the written word and a key to understanding how great writing works; it is a book that will stand the test of time. “Both deeper and more democratic than The Elements of Style” —Adam Haslett, Financial Times “A guided tour through some of the most beautiful, arresting sentences in the English language.” —Slate

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Page Count

180

Publisher

Harper Collins

Published Date

ISBN 10

0062006851

ISBN 13

9780062006851

The Shocking History of Electric Fishes

From Ancient Epochs to the Birth of Modern Neurophysiology

By: Stanley Finger,Marco Piccolino

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The Shocking History of Electric Fishes

From Ancient Epochs to the Birth of Modern Neurophysiology

By: Stanley Finger,Marco Piccolino

This beautifully illustrated and scholarly book examines the importance of electric fishes in science and medicine and how three species in particular shaped neurophysiology. Anchored in the philosophy and science of past epochs, it is the story of one of Nature's greatest puzzles. Over a long and tortuous path, it focuses on how some numbing fishes helped to make physiology modern.

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Page Count

485

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0195366727

ISBN 13

9780195366723

There's No Such Thing as Free Speech

And It's a Good Thing, Too

By: Stanley Eugene Fish

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There's No Such Thing as Free Speech

And It's a Good Thing, Too

By: Stanley Eugene Fish

A consideration of the ideological gridlock paralyzing academic and political exchange in the nineties. The author dissects the controversies over multiculturalism, affirmative action, canon revision, hate speech, and legal reform, and takes both the left and the right equally to task.

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Age

Page Count

332

Published Date

ISBN 10

6610527784

ISBN 13

9786610527786

Book's by Stanley Eugene Fish

Surprised by Sin

Surprised by Sin

Surprised by Sin

Surprised by Sin

How Milton Works

How Milton Works

The Trouble with Principle

The Trouble with Principle

Professional Correctness

Professional Correctness

There's No Such Thing As Free Speech

There's No Such Thing As Free Speech

How Milton Works

How Milton Works

Surprised by Sin

Surprised by Sin

Professional Correctness

Professional Correctness

How to Write a Sentence

How to Write a Sentence

The Shocking History of Electric Fishes

The Shocking History of Electric Fishes

There's No Such Thing as Free Speech

There's No Such Thing as Free Speech

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