Close reading
In literary studies , close reading describes the careful interpretation of a text passage, ie a precise reading that traces all text details, nuances of meaning and linguistic effects, which places the text as an object in the center of interest. Such an approach places great emphasis on the special compared to the general, pays close attention to individual words, syntax and the order of sentences and words.
Close reading was developed by the so-called New Criticism in the middle of the 20th century and is now considered a fundamental method of more recent literary criticism and interpretation. The methodological pioneers of close reading include the English literary scholar IA Richards and his student William Empson : Empson's study Seven Types of Ambiguity is considered a classic of New Criticism. In the style of Richards, the principle of close reading was also known in England under the keyword of practical criticism .
Careful close reading of a 200-word poem could result in exploration of thousands of words without exhausting all potential possibilities of observation and insight. For example, Jacques Derrida's essay Ulysses Gramophone devoted more than 80 pages to the interpretation of the word “yes” in James Joyce 's novel Ulysses .
Web links
- Close Reading of a Literary Passage . On: Carson Newman University . Retrieved March 26, 2014. (English)
- How to Do a Close Reading . On: Harvard University Writing Center . Retrieved March 26, 2014. (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Peter Wenzel: New Criticism . In: Ansgar Nünning (ed.): Basic concepts of literary theory . Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart and Weimar 2004, ISBN 3-476-10347-1 , pp. 191-195, here pp. 192f.
- ^ Peter Wenzel: New Criticism . In: Ansgar Nünning (ed.): Basic concepts of literary theory . Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart and Weimar 2004, ISBN 3-476-10347-1 , pp. 191–195, here p. 193. See also Jeremy Hawthorne: New Criticism . In: Jeremy Hawthorne: Basic Concepts of Modern Literary Theory · A Handbook . Translated by Waltraud Korb. Francke Verlag, Tübingen and Basel 1994, ISBN 3-8252-1756-6 , pp. 218-224, here pp. 221-223.
- ↑ See the chapter: The principle of “close reading” in more detail, also with regard to method-critical aspects . In: Robert Weimann : "New Criticism" and the development of bourgeois literature , Beck Verlag , 2nd edition Munich 1974, ISBN 3-406-05014-X , pp. 96-100.
- ^ Peter Wenzel: New Criticism . In: Ansgar Nünning (ed.): Basic concepts of literary theory . Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart and Weimar 2004, ISBN 3-476-10347-1 , pp. 191–195, here p. 193.