This centrally focused collection of articles and lectures examines literary interpretation and the relation of literature to language. The first of the book's three parts introduces the distinction between natural discourse and fictive discourse (verbal structures that function as representatives of natural utterances). It also deals with the relation of utterances to inscriptions and of literary "mimesis" to representation in other art forms. The second part examines the characteristic functions of literature in relation to the social economics of verbal transactions and describes the conditions under which verbal structures acquire value by serving esthetic functions. The final part presents a critique of the claims, methods, and theoretical assumptions of contemporary stylistics and literary structuralism. (FL)