On Close Reading

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. Fi