Course Close Reading Revisted Poetics and Politics

Course description

Intro/framing

In recent years, “close reading” has reappeared at the very forefront of criticism. Animated by recent adversaries, such as “reparative,” “distant,” and “surface” reading, a plethora of articles, anthologies, books, conferences, handbooks, and special-issues have sought to excavate the history of close reading. Rather than probing what close reading was, this course is interested in what close reading is. It takes the participants into the engine room of analysis to improve a practice transmitted through imitation, but rarely dissected. How do we read closely now? And why does it matter?

Using a five-step model, based on the most famous close readings of the past hundred years, the course aims to scaffold critical self-awareness, enabling the participants to become better readers, and by extension, better thinkers and writers. During the course, we will discuss what a good close reading is. We will go use and probe the five-step model. We will produce, share, and offer feedback on our own close readings.

26/11: Introduction

• In the first workshop, we will discuss the state of close reading and examine inspirational cases. As preparation, the students will read select literature and bring an example of a close reading significant to their project. Based on the discussion of these close readings, the participants will present the reading they intend to make, i.e., how it intersects or differs from the example they’ve brought with them, but also, what local and global function it serves in their article/chapter and dissertation.

03/12: Scene setting, noticing, and local claiming

• In the second workshop, we will discuss the first three steps of a close reading. As preparation, the students will begin a close reading (1-2 p.), in which they move from scene setting to local claiming: from introducing a reading to extending analytical discoveries. Through peer-to-peer feedback and class discussion, the participants will reflect on each other’s ways of setting and extending the analytical scene.

10/12: Regional documentation and global theorizing

• Moving from the art of setting the analytical scene, the third workshop will interrogate regional documentation and global theorizing. As preparation, the students will continue their close reading (1-2 p.), leveraging the analytical scene to inform the general work, before reaching the pinnacle of telling us something new about the world. Through peer-to-peer feedback and class discussion, the participants will reflect on each other’s ways of scaling up the analytical scene to the region of the work, then the world.

Aim/Learning outcomes

• Produces a close reading (min. 5 p.) that fit into the participants’ dissertations.
• Stimulates readerly self-awareness, enabling the participants to conduct critical interpretations attuned to their research agenda.
• Assists the participants in developing a sense of other scholars’ critical methodology, providing insights for the meta-academic part of their dissertations.
• Offers intimate glances into the analytical approaches of the participants through collaborative identification, encouraging discussion, and mutual inspiration.

Target group/Participants

• The target group is PhD students in the humanities at all stages of their PhD; no matter what kind of aesthetic object they read closely.

Language 

• English (unless everyone speaks fluent Danish)

Lecturers

• Sebastian Egholm Lund

Literature

• Erica Delsandro & Jennifer Mitchell, Reading Postures: On Close Reading, Feminism, and Academic Life. Punctum Books, 2026.
• Dan Sinykin and Johanna Winant, Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century. Princeton University Press, 2025.
• John Guillory, On Close Reading. University of Chicago Press, 2025.
• Jonathan Kramnick, Criticism and Truth: On Method in Literary Studies. University of Chicago Press, 2025.
• Ronan McDonald, “Care and Attention: Literary Studies and the Distraction Economy.” Journal of Language, Literature and Culture 72, no. 1 (2025): 52–66.
• Gallop, Jane, Eric Hayot, E. L. McCallum, and Gary Weissman. “Forum 1: The Ethics of Close Reading?” Symploke 32, no. 1 (2024): 303–74.

Course dates

• 26 November 2026 09:00-15:00
• 03 December 2026 09:00-15:00
• 10 December 2026 09:00-15:00

Venue

TBA

Course dates:

• 26 November 2026 09:00 - 15:00
• 03 December 2026 09:00 - 15:00
• 10 December 2026 09:00 - 15:00