On Close Reading - by John Guillory (Paperback)

About the Book

"At a time of debate about the future of "English" as a discipline and the fundamental methods of literary study, few terms appear more frequently than "close reading." But what exactly is close reading, and where did it come from? Here John Guillory, author of the acclaimed Professing Criticism, takes up two puzzles. First, why did the New Critic--who supposedly made close reading central to literary study--so seldom use the term? And second, why have scholars not been better able to define close reading? Guillory treats these as intertwined puzzles. In fact, the purported fathers of close reading, he argues, weren't aiming to devise a method of reading at all. And this lack of specificity is one of close reading's greatest virtues. As our first reader says, "What is likely to attract the greatest attention and inspire the most heated debate is [Guillory's] argument that the so-called method wars have failed to appreciate how much close reading should be understood as a non-ideological technique, a practice that cannot be prescribed simply in words but that relies on the imitation and emulation that are central to education." Guillory's short book will be essential reading for all college teachers of literature. An annotated bibliography provides a guide to key documents in the history of close reading and a valuable resource for further research"--

Book Synopsis

John Guillory considers close reading within the larger history of reading and writing as cultural techniques.

At a time of debate about the future of "English" as a discipline and the fundamental methods of literary study, few terms appear more frequently than "close reading," now widely regarded as the core practice of literary study. But what exactly is close reading, and where did it come from? Here John Guillory, author of the acclaimed Professing Criticism, takes up two puzzles. First, why did the New Critics--who supposedly made close reading central to literary study--so seldom use the term? And second, why have scholars not been better able to define close reading?

For Guillory, these puzzles are intertwined. The literary critics of the interwar period, he argues, weren't aiming to devise a method of reading at all. These critics were most urgently concerned with establishing the judgment of literature on more rigorous grounds than previously obtained in criticism. Guillory understands close reading as a technique, a particular kind of methodical procedure that can be described but not prescribed, and that is transmitted largely by demonstration and imitation.

Guillory's short book will be essential reading for all college teachers of literature. An annotated bibliography, curated by Scott Newstok, provides a guide to key documents in the history of close reading along with valuable suggestions for further research.

Review Quotes

"Guillory's corrective intervention in On Close Reading, and it's a very good one, is to demonstrate the degree to which the practice that we call 'close reading' is in fact a broader (if still rarefied) action that is best viewed in light of the history and practice of reading in general, as a way of demarcating a specific (and, yes, professionalized) practice in the age of mass literacy."

--Kimberly Quiogue Andrews "The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory"

"Recently, the critic John Guillory argued that close reading is a cultural technique and offered a definition that covers both senses: 'showing the work of reading'. . . . 'Techniques are transmitted rather by demonstration and imitation.' We must learn, it seems, from example."-- "Dublin Review of Books"

"The most important intervention of John Guillory's On Close Reading may be that it tames our excitement . . . Guillory's sense that close reading is 'rarified' is significant, because part of what his book's trying to do is establish it as a disciplinary practice . . . a worthwhile reminder of what it is we actually do when we close-read . . . There's something brilliant about Guillory's incisive simplicity, one which is rare in the current critical landscape . . . Guillory's analysis is indispensable."
--Michael Rizq "Cambridge Quarterly"

"What is close reading? And when did it become the prevailing practice among those who teach and write about literature for a living? John Guillory's short book, On Close Reading, demonstrates that these questions are surprisingly difficult to answer. . . . If the 'what' and 'when' of close reading have no clear cut answers, Guillory finds the 'why' much easier to explain. He has, of course, spent over thirty years pondering the history and tribulations of literary criticism as a profession."-- "American Literary History"

"This study gets to the bottom of the question of why there is currently a tireless interest in different forms of reading. . . What Guillory sees is a return of New Criticism, a movement back to the study of the work as an autonomous entity cut off from its social context, the author's biography, or the reader's emotions. The preoccupation is linked to the identity crisis that literary studies has undergone in the last twenty years. As the glow from 'turns' such as gender theory, post-criticism, reception studies and even digital humanities begins to fade, there is a need to refocus on 'the words on the page' to return to what was once the core of the subject: the text."-- "Dagens Nyheter"

"In his slim new volume, On Close Reading, John Guillory sets out to explain what close reading is and 'why it has been so difficult to define' by way of a fascinating anthropology of reading that makes available new arguments in defense of the practice. At first glance, the book might appear to be an addendum to Guillory's 40-plus-year project to clarify what literary study achieves--and, pointedly, what it doesn't. But On Close Reading is more than that: It helps to clarify the stakes involved in reading to begin with, even if we might quarrel with its conclusions."-- "The Nation"

"Guillory's book helps explain the conception of literary value--enduring rereadability--that motivates this scholarly practice, and the consequent neglect (and perhaps newly emerging appreciation) of reading for the plot."-- "Public Books"

"I admire and commend Guillory's book as an incisive reflection on the nature of close reading . . . On Close Reading is a helpful and thought-clarifying book on the central technique of literary study, but it's also of interest to all teachers who want to inculcate in their students the habits of careful, justified interpretations of books. It is gracefully written, original, and exhaustive in its research. It is, in fact, a remarkably comprehensive text, given its small size." -- "Front Porch Republic"

"As one of English literature's most prominent U.S. academics, Guillory's books never fail to make a splash . . . On Close Reading provides a provocation for the ongoing debates about literary education, clarifying both the historical contingencies and enduring complexities of the method. Guillory's insistence on close reading as techne rather than a rigidly proceduralized act offers a compelling framework for both scholars and teachers navigating its contemporary mandate and relevance."-- "Teachers College Record"

"On Close Reading has all the richness we have come to expect from [Guillory] . . . Put together, the efforts of Guillory and Newstok make On Close Reading a book that is incredibly valuable for thinking about the concepts our work relies upon--and for putting these concepts into practice."-- "Modern Philology"

"A formidable historian of academic criticism, Guillory strikes a moderate tone in the book, one that is both sceptical of assumptions made about close reading--and yet one that affirms the value of the literary word . . . Guillory's book is a necessary reminder that accepted critical terms and tendencies should be questioned and reconsidered, lest they lead to lazy reading and thought." -- "Catholic Herald"

"Guillory has devoted his career to examining the social functions performed by the academic discipline of literary studies . . . Like everything English professors do, close reading has been loaded down with baggage both by its proponents and its critics. Thus one of Guillory's primary goals in his latest book is to clear away all of the associations that have accumulated around it . . . Guillory's terse, no-nonsense defense avoids the risk of overplaying his hand--a risk courted by close reading's early advocates."--Timothy Aubry "Chronicle of Higher Education"

"Guillory's goal in this slim volume to convince us that reading, and in particular, the practice of 'close reading, ' is a technique . . . Guillory wants to avoid endlessly theorizing close reading because like all techniques, he says, it is better understood via demonstration and imitation."-- "3 Quarks Daily"

"Close reading, [Guillory] proposes, may not be in and of itself a virtue, but it may offer a small private resistance to wide-scale industrialization and automation. It may not save literature, but it will make sure that certain forms of phenomenal experience remain open to us . . . the idea of close reading as something modelled and handed down may offer a kind of companionship: that collaborative exchange Guillory calls 'mutual imitation'."-- "Times Literary Supplement"

"On Close Reading is destined to become a classic. Guillory offers a fresh account of the practice of close reading and its place in the work of academic literary critics. On Close Reading mounts a powerful argument for viewing technique as a form of knowledge--that is, as a form of science."-- "Frances Ferguson, University of Chicago"

"As always, Guillory comes in cool, concise, and comprehensive, demystifying one crucial thread in our discipline's myth of origins. In and even after the age of mass literacy, close reading remains an underspecified method, a vital practice we use both to approximate and to negate scientific knowledge, the last ember of a Promethean fire that still defines the literary humanities."-- "Jed Esty, University of Pennsylvania"

"In this compact and incisive study, Guillory shows how close reading is attended by mysteries that have long escaped discussion, then untangles these perplexities with meticulousness and flair. Alert to the institutional pressures shaping literary study, yet committed to close reading's social value, our leading historian of criticism presents an inquiry as groundbreaking as it is air-clearing. Scott Newstok's annotated bibliography, a treasure in itself, elegantly complements Guillory's investigation."-- "Douglas Mao, Johns Hopkins University"

"No one has illuminated the situation of literary studies in our time with more power than Guillory. This marvelous volume lays bare the history and theory of a technique so central to the discipline that it is usually taken for granted, but which Guillory reveals as a sign of literature's vexed relation to a wider world."-- "Mark McGurl, Stanford University"

About the Author

John Guillory is the Julius Silver Professor of English at New York University. He is the author of Cultural Capital: The Problem of Literary Canon Formation and Professing Criticism: Essays on the Organization of Literary Study, both also published by the University of Chicago Press. Scott Newstok is professor of English and executive director of the Spence Wilson Center for Interdisciplinary Humanities at Rhodes College. He is the author of How to Think like Shakespeare and the editor of several books, including the forthcoming How to Teach Children, a volume of Montaigne's essays on education. His closereadingarchive.org documents what scholars have written about close reading from the prehistory of modern literary studies to the present.