ABSTRACT
I The academic, or not so academic activity known as 'literary interpretation' is in trouble, and for various reasons. It is in trouble because it has, of late, been pushed to what may well turn out to be its outer limits: ' recent critical theory has placed ' undue emphasis on the limitlessness of interpretation. It is argued that, since all reading is misreading, no one reading is better than any other, and hence all readings, potentially infinite in number, are in the final analysis equally misinterpretations" (Said 1983:39). The question then becomes whether there are any rules left in this 'gigantic game of one' upmanship" (McCanles 1981:271) which interpretation has become, or does an interpretation really 'not ' always have to be true or justifiable to be inter esting.
