But your question is how to compare and contrast Foucault and Stanley Fish, and that’s a great question. Does Fish’s concept of “intepretive communities” adequately describe the whole dynamic social situation of reading? Does he address the question of power relations as Foucault does? If not, is he right to exclude it from the debate about how we go about interpreting poems? If so, then does his concept of intepretive communities help us see how the penal system is a part of everyone’s life whether we know it or not?

Does Foucault believe that the “author” is a form of this power? If so, perhaps Fish’s motivation for encouraging viewing works as “free-standing” enforces Foucault theory. I like the idea of Fox being the danger, for they are the ones spreading their interpretation that they have chosen to be negative.