Stanley Fish

Stanley Fish is a well-known American literary theorist and legal scholar who emphasizes that how we interpret texts depends heavily on the context, community, and cultural background of the reader. He argues that meaning isn’t fixed or universal but is shaped by the language, rules, and assumptions of specific interpretive communities. Fish believes that what a text means can change based on different perspectives and that understanding depends on the context in which it’s read. His work challenges the idea of objective, absolute meaning, highlighting the active role of interpretation in shaping understanding.