24. The Institutional Construction of Literary Study

Introduction to Theory of Literature (ENGL 300)

In this lecture on critical identities, Professor Fry examines the work of Stanley Fish and John Guillory. The lecture begins by examining Tony the Tow Truck as a site for the emergence of literary identities, then brings the course's use of the children's story under scrutiny through the lens of Fish. The evolution of Fish's theory of interpretive communities is traced chronologically through his publications and examined in close-up in Milton's Paradise Lost. John Guillory's work on interpretive communities and the culture wars leads to a discussion of the Western canon and multiculturalism.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Identity in Theory
09:14 - Chapter 2. Identity in Tony the Tow Truck
13:24 - Chapter 3. Introduction to Interpretive Communities
22:17 - Chapter 4. Stanley Fish: First Take on Interpretive Communities
27:15 - Chapter 5. Stanley Fish: Second Take on Interpretive Communities
33:52 - Chapter 6. The Limits of Interpretive Community
39:52 - Chapter 7. Guillory: The School and Other Interpretive Communities

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Spring 2009.