“Close Reading”: How to Perform a Literary Analysis

What is a Close Reading?

“Close Reading” involves examining a selected passage or short work of literature in minute detail in order to appreciate two things:

the way that the passage itself is constructed word-by-word and line-by-line;

and

the way that its structural details contribute to the meaning of the work as a whole.

In other words, we look at a work’s structure through a microscope in order to see how its form complements its meaning.

How to Perform a Close Reading

1. Always work with a hard copy of the text.

2. Annotate the text: Read with a pencil/pen in hand and mark up the page in a meaningful way. Underline significant small portions or draw a vertical line in the margin alongside important longer portions. Write your reactions in the margin (e.g. a “!” to indicate your surprise). Write questions that a comment raises. If you discover a connection between one element in your passage and an earlier or later part of the text, you might want to put the correlating page numbers in the margin. If there are correlations within your passage, you may want to connect them by drawing an arrow between two circled portions.

3. Make sure you understand every word you are reading: If you come to a word in the text that you don’t understand, go to a reputable dictionary (the Oxford English Dictionary is the best, most complete scholarly dictionary and is available to UTM students online). You may be tempted to skip this step, but then you won’t be performing a close reading.

4. Read the passage aloud (particularly if it is a poem or has an oral origin, like a fairy tale). Even with long novels, you will make discoveries by following my advice here.

5. If the text has a scholarly apparatus (introduction and end notes) then you should read that. You can make this easier by working with two bookmarks as you read (one for your place in the text and one for your place in the endnotes) or, better yet, a pen(cil) as one of your bookmarks. Again, it might seem tempting to skip this step, but computer programmers have a saying: “garbage in: garbage out.” If you don’t apply yourself, you won’t learn much and your work will be mediocre at best.

Things to Look For at the Micro Level (a necessarily incomplete list)

· First Impressions: what do you notice first? Are there any elements here (e.g. suspense, surprise) that you won’t retain on a second reading?

· Diction (word choice): What words are most noticeable or prominent? Are any words repeated (how often and when)? Are words used in an old-fashioned (archaic) way or is the language modern? How formal is the language (and does that degree of formality vary)? Are any words used in a strange or unexpected way (pay extra attention to these)? Do words have multiple meanings or connotations?

· Sound and Rhythm: Does the passage have a regular or irregular rhythm? Does it speed up or slow down (punctuation and long vowels will be useful signals here, but you’ll have to read aloud to be sure). Can you detect sound devices like alliteration, assonance, rhyme, consonance, euphony, cacophony, onomatopoeia. If it’s a poem, does it rhyme (regularly? In what pattern?)? If it’s a prose passage, are there different voices within it (e.g. a narrator as well as character dialogue)? How do these sound cues relate to the meaning of the passage?

· Rhetorical Devices: Pay attention to the analogies (metaphors, similes, metonyms, etc.) used in the passage. Note any symbols or allusions to outside texts. How do these relate to other elements of the passage, to the meaning of the passage or to the work as a whole? How do they relate to each other?

· Syntax (sentence structure): Are the sentences long or short? Are there any incomplete sentences? What kind of punctuation is used? If you’re studying a poem, do the sentences always end at the end of a line or couplet? Pay close attention to deviations from the passage’s usual pattern. How are the sentences structured? Are there interesting suspensions, inversions, parallels, oppositions, repetitions? Does sentence structure contribute to the passage’s emphases, rhythm, ambiguities?

· Structure: How is the passage organized? Are there climaxes and turning points? How many types of writing are in the passage? (For example, narration, description, argument, dialogue, rhymed or alliterative poetry, etc.)

· Imagery: What sorts of things does the passage lead you to visualise? What do those things have in common? How do the images relate to the meaning of the passage? How does the imagery develop as you work through the passage? Does the passage favour one sense over another (e.g. scent imagery instead of visual imagery)?

· Tone: What cues are there in the passage to direct our attitude to the passage? How is irony used (if it appears)? What is the speaker or narrator like? Are we supposed to agree with that speaker or is it somehow undermined (how? By the implied author?)? What is the speaker’s attitude toward his/her hearers? Does the speaker have a limited, partial or omniscient point of view?

· Context: If your passage is part of a larger text, where does it appear? Is it near the beginning, near a dramatic scene, near the climax? How closely does it resemble adjacent material? What role does the passage play in the overall text? Why does this passage deserve special attention? If you are examining a whole work (e.g. a poem), consider the context of the poem’s production or publication: what other works was the poet writing before or after this one? How was this poem presented to the public?

· Silences: Can you find omissions, caesura, ellipses? What does the passage leave out? Does the author fail to talk about something you would expect to be discussed?

The Macro Level: Finding Patterns

· Look for patterns in the things you’ve noticed about the text: repetitions, contradictions, similarities, movement (e.g. low to high, closed to open).

· Ask questions about the patterns you have found in the passage: particularly how (how does this work? How is this effect achieved?) and why (what is the author “up to”?).

· Have you found elements that remind you of aspects elsewhere in the text? Where? What’s the connection?

· How do the details you have found fit into the structure of the work as a whole?

· How does your passage relate to the whole (an antithesis? a microcosm? an aspect?)?

· What are the big issues of your text as a whole? What does the story discuss at the surface level? How does that surface story relate to the patterns you have found?

· What ideological issues (e.g. about gender or race or religion) are at stake in the text? How do they relate to the way that the text conducts itself?