Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century

by Dan Sinykin, Johanna Winant

A user’s guide to the fundamental practice of literary studies, providing context, examples, and practical exercises

Close reading—making an argument based in close attention to a text—is the foundation of literary studies. This book offers a guide to close reading, treating it as a skill that can be taught and practiced. It first explains what close reading is, what it does, and how it has been used across theoretical schools ranging from affect studies to Black studies to queer theory to Marxism. It then presents a series of master classes in the practice, with original contributions by scholars from a range of different institutions. Finally, it provides practical materials, worksheets, and suggested activities for instructors to use in the classroom. The tone throughout is encouraging and accessible, inviting readers of all backgrounds to hone their craft.

The book divides the practice of close reading into five steps, coining a term for each scene setting, noticing, local claiming, regional argumentation, and global theorizing. It traces the roots of close reading, showing how it has spread far beyond its origins in practical criticism and New Criticism. In twenty-one short chapters, contemporary scholars discuss close readings by such prominent literary critics as Erich Auerbach and Helen Vendler, describing how their arguments work and how to achieve similar results. An essential resource for instructors and students at the undergraduate level and beyond, this book shows how understanding close reading can make us better readers, thinkers, and writers.

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy, Contemporary, Theory, Literary Criticism, Reference

288 pages, Hardcover

First published October 21, 2025

Reviews

[Matt Ryan]

The five-step approach to close reading is cleverly framed: 1) scene setting, what matters in the text; 2) noticing, close attention to a precise detail; 3) local claiming, how to understand the detail that was noticed; 4) regional argumentation, connecting the local claim to the entire text; 5) global theorizing, making an argument that goes beyond the text.

The authors specifically say this book is for undergraduates (ehh), graduate students (sure), professors (absolutely) and every reader (no). I had hoped that the models of close reading would be helpful for my high school students. They would not be. All (or certainly most) demand cultural literacy that even skillful young readers don’t yet have. Perhaps an edition geared toward the high school reader will be considered.

[Charlie Mansfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect collection of essays for lesson-planning. The short chapters provide teaching and learning resources for a year-long module. Ideal for writing centres in universities.

[Florence ✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

“You read a poem, play, essay, story, or novel; you start with someone else's words; you see something in those words that means something to you, though you probably don't know what yet. Maybe what you see confuses you or riles you up, maybe it surprises you, maybe it charms or delights you. You pause; you reread; suddenly the thing you noticed starts to feel central, or even crucial, like a hidden center of gravity that draws in and changes everything around it. The work of literature becomes clearer, or more complicated, or both, and is slightly or maybe tremendously reshaped. No longer just something to read, the work becomes something to study.”

“And now you might look up from the text because you want to show what's happened to someone else. You want to explain something to another person: your own reader. You want to persuade, to teach. You want to say, you should understand this poem, play, essay, novel, or story in light of this detail, you should understand it this way.”