If, as Stanley Fish Argues, an Individual Reader Interprets a Text

question 115

Multiple Choice

If, as Stanley Fish argues, an individual reader interprets a text and thereby gives it meaning, then there are an infinite number of potential meanings for any given text. Why, then, do so many people interpret things in the same ways?

• A) People tend to look to a small number of critics to explain any particular piece of culture.
• B) People have very little imagination and don't like to focus too much on any given text.
• C) People who consume the same texts come from similar backgrounds and have similar interpretive frameworks.
• D) People passively absorb meanings from the media that lead them to see the world in the same ways.
• E) The meaning of any text is encoded by the author or producer, and it is very hard for an individual to see another meaning.

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Definitions:

Pleasure

A feeling of happiness, satisfaction, or enjoyment derived from sensory experiences or emotional encounters.

Bipolar Disorder

A mental health condition characterized by extreme mood swings that include emotional highs (mania or hypomania) and lows (depression).

Manic Episode

A period of abnormally elevated or irritable mood, arousal, and/or energy levels, often seen in bipolar disorder.

Unipolar Episode

A period characterized by a severe mood that is consistently in one emotional state (usually depression), without episodes of mania.