ABSTRACT
On the basis of this initial account, one would expect each of these three theories to lead to different strategies for studying language and literature from the viewpoint of their involvement in particular social conflicts. One would expect to learn from Althusser how to identify the relationships between different types of domination and the ideas, practices, and institutions which legitimate them; from Derrida, how to invalidate the universal and absolute claims of metaphysics by revealing the particular realities and contradictions which they conceal; and from Fish, how to identify the community interests which authorize certain interpretive strategies and exclude others. These insights should in tum provide criteria for determining the conflicting purposes which literary texts as well as other forms of public discourse serve, both in their production and reception.
