Chapter 6 attempts to put back on the theoretical table a crucial component of the literary/ art event that is widely neglected by contemporary literary study: aesthetic experience. I argue against what I call ‘interpretationalism’ – the reduction of literary study to interpretation, resulting from a tendency to treat the experiential aspect of literature and art as subordinate to, and ultimately at the service of, its conceptual content. An implicit theoretical assumption underlying interpretationalism is that artworks/ literary texts are ‘ostensive stimuli’, that is, objects ultimately designed to achieve effects at the conceptual level by communicating such and such meanings, by being interpreted and understood. In grappling with this issue, the chapter also embarks on a valuable exploration of Relevance Theory. With aesthetic experience back in the picture, there is a good chance that much of what literary individuals refer to when they speak of the ‘inadequacy of language’ or their ‘agony of expression’ might amount to describing in impressionistic terms the symptoms of what in reality is an agony for aesthetic achievement; it is only by focusing on the latter that we might get an idea of the complex psychological and sensory states underlying linguistic pessimism.