Paper: Close Reading
This is a 4 page paper that presents a close reading of two passages from a single text we have read so far (The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, Antigone, or The Symposium, or the selection of love poetry). A passage is a manageable section of a text. Do not compare passages from different texts; select two passages from the same text.
(1) Before you start writing, pick two passages and perform a detailed close reading as defined below. The result of your close reading will be a claim about how the language of the text works.
(2) This claim is now the thesis of your short paper. Your paper will simply argue your main claim by using the text as evidence. In other words, repeat your close reading in the form of analytical writing.
Close Reading
Close reading is the most basic technique of literary analysis; it is the core skill of all literary criticism and scholarship. Close reading is so important because it is not just a kind of reading. In fact, its all about writing. Academic essays about works of literature are really made out of close readings. They are the building blocks of academic arguments about literature. Just like a play or a movie moves from scene to scene, an essay about a work of literature moves from one close reading to the next. The reason for this is really simple: arguments always rest on evidence, and for literary critics, the evidence is always from the text. Your evidence will always be a quote. Close reading is the technique we use to analyze textual evidence.
When you close read, you select a single passage from the larger work in order to observe the facts and details about the text. Your goal is to notice all the striking features of the text. And because texts are really just words, you do this by examining the way in which the text is written. You might notice:
–Rhetorical features, like Homers invocation of the Muse at the opening of the Odyssey, or Odysseuss clever use of persuasion and deceit. Another example of rhetoric is the way in which Antigone confronts her uncle. What function do such rhetorical devices have within a text?
–Style and Literary Language. For example, the complex epic similes in The Odyssey.
–Structural elements. Is there something striking about the way in which a text is organized? How are the different parts put together?
–Patterns in the treatment of specific themes. In other words, are there patterns in the way certain topics are talked about?
–Patterns of correspondence or opposition. Are some ideas always associated with others? Are some ideas always opposed to each other?
–Historical references. How are historical events represented by the text? Are there inconsistencies or omissions? Do those patterns tell us something about the context in which it was produced? Is there a particular filter at work? This kind of work requires extensive historical research. Note: it is helpful to keep such historical questions in mind, but please set it aside for this assignment. We havent covered nearly enough of the historical context for this to be practical.
Please note that in this handout uses the framework developed by Jarrel D. Wright, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh. I suggest you take a look at his website. His description of close reading is very helpful:
http://teachingcollegelit.com/tcl/?page_id=255
Every Close Reading has three steps: (0) Understanding, (1) Noticing, and (2) Explaining.
Always Read with a pencil or pen in hand. Annotate the text. Highlight key words and phrases. Write in the margins. When you notice a feature that seems significant, write it down. Close reading is already writing.
(0) Understanding
First, you must gain an accurate understanding of the texts surface meaning. What precisely is happening in the text? What is its context? Who is speaking? Do you understand all the words? Which words, phrases or sentences are being used literally and which words and phrases are being used figuratively? (In other words, which descriptions tell us what is actually happening and which descriptions are being used metaphorically to tell us something specific about what is actually happening?) If you understand the text in this sense, you are able to summarize and paraphrase it. Getting here is already a lot of work, but it is only step zero because close reading goes beyond mere summary and paraphrase. In your analytical writing, use as little paraphrase or summary as you can. Close reading only happens after understanding.
(1) Noticing / Observing
Once you are sure you understand the surface meaning of the text, read it again. You should already have been reading with a pencil, but it bears repeating: highlight key words and phrases. Write in the margins. What stands out in the way the text is written? When you notice a feature that seems significant, write it down. Here you are reading with a microscope. Pay attention to small details in the way the text is written. Our assumption here is that the details of the text even the choice of a single word matter. The text might always have been written in a different way, with different words, different sentences, different rhythms. What difference does it make that the text has been written in this particular way?
Now step back and look for patterns in the things youve noticed about the text: repetition, contradiction, similarity. Interpret your observations. This is called inductive reasoning: you move from the observation of facts (your data) and to the interpretation of them. What conclusions can be inferred from the patterns you have observed? What are the effects of these miniscule textual details? What effects to their patterns have within the larger text? How does the pattern work? Why does it work in that way? What function does the pattern have within the whole? What literary or aesthetic role does it have? Are there concepts behind the text? Do the patterns of words indicate a network of ideas?
(2)
Explaining
In answering these questions, you are moving on to the third and final step, (2) explaining. You are now transitioning from interesting features of the text to making reasoned claimed about what features are significant in the text. If you think you can describe in a sentence or two what makes these features significant and why, then you have a thesis. By the end of your close reading you now have the thesis of a paper and you are able to defend that thesis by performing that close reading in writing. Close reading is both the work you do to arrive at your main idea and your main method for arguing and defending it. In observing striking features and noticing patterns, you have collected a mass of data. This data is the evidence you provide in the form of quotes. Your job in writing is thus to show, step by step, how the text is working and why.
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