Phillip Fisher

Philip Fisher (1923–2009) was an American literary critic and professor at Harvard University. He wrote on American literature and aesthetics, with influential studies of realism, representation, and the experience of art. Fisher’s books include *Hard Facts: Setting and Form in the American Novel* (1985) and *Wonder, the Rainbow, and the Aesthetics of Rare Experiences* (1998). He also edited *The New American Studies: Essays from Representations* (1991), a collection associated with interdisciplinary approaches to American culture. Across his scholarship, Fisher examined how literary form and visual culture shape perception, feeling, and public life in the United States.