Close Reading

"This scintillating book shows that the alleged death of close reading at the hands of theory and the turn away from literary works themselves have been greatly exaggerated." --Gerald Graff, University of Illinois, Chicago "A history, a tool for teaching, a work of learned analysis, this book mediates importantly for a divided discipline, between 'formalists' and those who do 'cultural studies.' 'Close reading, ' it shows, necessarily connects" all" serious criticism, and its argument becomes the basis for a strong pedagogy and for disciplinary rethinking."--George Levine, Rutgers University