Close Reading Research Articles

Reading, Again. Reviving Reading

This paper will examine the role of affect as a key force in the experience of reading. I argue reading is an experience rather than an instrument of cognition. The latter, I suggest, gives way to dehumanizing and violating forms of reading as instrument or nomenclature or categorization. I suggest that new relations can be made in, within and from practices of reading that conceive it as a fragile, faltering practice of knowledge production. My reconceptualization of reading derives from Derrida’s notion of deconstruction as learning to read the trace of affect unraveling the normative and/or binary procedures cohering privileged and/or prejudicial understandings of the text. Reading for affect asks researchers to engage in an analysis of the felt and non-evident of people, events and texts. Rather than comprehend in the sense of cognition, we feel the trace of meanings cathected in signs before we know what the sign might mean. My paper will expand on reading as conveying affectivity or the unheard embedded in text. Increasingly there is a demand to read the other’s words with greater attention to feeling for what they do and do not say, can and cannot speak. In studies that purport to do research with humans, it seems to be imperative to engage in a practice of reading that attends to the other meanings indicated by words. This requires the development of a critical or close research reading practice that attends to affect or the interior meanings of articulations and text that words cannot easily convey.

Do I Have to Kill My Child? The Royal Commission on Human Relationships and feminist interpretations of child abuse as maternal violence in 1970s Australia

This article examines the 1977 film Do I Have to Kill My Child? to understand changing responses to child abuse and the cultural influence of second-wave feminism in 1970s Australia. The film emerged from Anne Deveson’s research into child abuse, which she conducted as part of her work as a Commissioner on the Royal Commission on Human Relationships (1974–77). While contemporary explanations of ‘baby battering’ focused on psychological rather than structural factors, the Royal Commission insisted that child abuse be understood within the larger context of family violence and rigid gender roles. Do I Have to Kill My Child? went further, suggesting that patriarchal conceptions of motherhood could drive women to harm their children. A close reading of Do I Have to Kill My Child? – and the convergence of government funding, official inquiries, activism and media-making that produced it – underscores the importance of film as a crucial aspect of feminist activism.

Touching the Divine: Intra-action in the Gospel of Luke

In this article, two passages in which Jesus encounters women who touch him are juxtaposed with Karen Barad's theory of touch (Luke 7:36–50 and 8:43–49). It is shown that an interpretation in the light of critical posthumanism allows a new perspective on the narrative production of bodies in these texts. In a close reading against the background of other ancient texts, the argument is developed that Jesus and the women in these two passages are intra-acting. They emerge as entangled entities in their encounters. Hierarchies associated with binary oppositions and a tradition of separation between an invisible spiritual and a visible material sphere are thus challenged.

Is There a Third Text in Zeina Hashem Beck’s Duets? Translingual Poetics in O

This article traces Zeina Hashem Beck’s development of a new poetic form called the “duet.” Duets include equal parts written in two different languages, English and Arabic for the Lebanese poet whose recent collection, O, includes six such duets. The ideal bilingual reader brings sufficient context in both languages to the understanding of the dialogue between the two duet halves. This study argues, however, that access to the third text hidden in this dialogue is not exclusive to those equally familiar with the different represented languages. Close readings of “daily كل يوم” and “blue أزرق” identify the characteristics and variations of the new poetic form. Analysis of “prophecy نبوة” and “Ode to Babel نشيد الانتظار” centers around translingual poetics. Scrutiny of “Dear white critic, رفيقي في الرحيل,” and “Ode to Leaving غربة” highlights the impact of projected audiences on the duet development. Relying on a comparative analysis of these six examples, the article discusses the benefits of ever improving machine translation, the availability of native speaker consultations, as well as a growing polyglot imaginary as extensions of traditional tools conducive to poetry exegesis.

Returning to Her Spiritual Roots: Sandra Cisneros and the Weaving of Buddhist Motifs in Caramelo

Abstract Sandra Cisneros, one of the most prominent Mexican American authors alive today, began integrating Buddhist themes in her work as early as 1994. This article explores how Cisneros’s Buddhist practice has strengthened over time, with evidence taken from her poetry, archival documents, and interviews. The analysis then turns to a close reading of her 2002 novel, Caramelo, to identify how she incorporates Buddhist themes into the text. Using the motifs of recuerdos/memories, dust/dirt, and the woven rebozo scarf, Cisneros uses the Buddhist concepts of impermanence and interdependence to tell the story of a granddaughter’s growing wisdom and compassion towards her Mexican American family.

Whole personhood in medical education: Visual thinking strategy, close reading, and creative practice with a diversity and equity lens

Whole personhood in medical education: Visual thinking strategy, close reading, and creative practice with a diversity and equity lens

Negotiating Nigerian national cohesion and the rhetoric of herdsmen attack in Ahmed Yerima’s Hendu

ABSTRACT A contemporary challenge facing the Nigerian state is the contentious clashes between herdsmen and local farmers. This has exacerbated tensions and the quest for peaceful coexistence in pursuit of national unity and ethnic integration within the multi-ethnic Nigerian state. Extant literature on herdsmen attacks in Nigeria largely focused on the causes and conventional resolution strategies to curb the herdsmen menace. The major thrust of this study is to examine Yerima’s ‘Hendu’, as a metaphor for tolerance and harmony anchored on the African philosophy of Ubuntu’s tenets of interconnectedness and humanity towards others as resolution paradigm for herdsmen attacks in Nigeria. The study, therefore, undertakes a close reading of Ahmed Yerima’s ‘Hendu’, revealing the characterisation strategy by Yerima reflecting on unity, forgiveness and social inclusivity which Ubuntu embodies. The study illustrates how the playwright utilises dramatic devices such as situational irony, metaphor, imagery and allusion to accentuate the covert motives behind the numerous herdsmen attacks and the negative perception of predominantly Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria. The study posits that appropriating the Ubuntu values of collective identity, respect for human life, and respect for local communities/farmers’ economic rights by the farmers and government can further address and promote national cohesion in Nigeria.

"Svá daufr orðinn, at hann mátti eigi heyra": a critical exploration of depictions of deaf and non-speaking characters in medieval Icelandic literature.

This article revisits the polarities of oralist and cultural-linguistic approaches to deaf identities through the perspective of the medieval Icelandic sagas, a product of mainly the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries. Through a historically informed close reading of the Sagas of Early Icelanders corpus, 5 saga episodes were selected for further analysis with regard to the meaning of being deaf and/or non-speaking and intersections with other social categories like gender and class. This study suggests diverse ways in which being deaf and/or non-speaking was given meaning before the advent of oralism and the establishment of Deaf communities in Iceland, that is, as traits that lead to social exclusion as well as a part of the identities of individuals with considerable social status. An intersectional perspective shows male deaf characters exerting control over their lives and yielding political power, while deaf and non-speaking women are more portrayed as disenfranchised, regardless of their social class.

Brian Russell Graham, Speech Acts in Blake’s “Milton”

Brian Russell Graham expertly examines Milton a Poem through a close reading that engages with performative speech act theory, using it to demonstrate the importance of the characters’ spoken lines and also to explain how the lack of any direct speech can help to bring about, or forestall, the impending apocalypse. It is this apocalypse that Graham makes the center of his argument, rather than, as one might expect, the overall value of the speech acts themselves. By structuring his theoretical approach around the observation that “everything that happens in Blake’s Prophetic Books either results in progress towards apocalypse or serves to frustrate that process” (1), he is able to create a clear boundary, one that he sticks to throughout.

Corpus Studies, Sonata Typology, and the Nineteenth-Century Violin Concerto: Viotti, Saint-Saëns, and the Challenge of Recapitulatory Compression

Abstract A corpus study of first-movement form in the nineteenth-century violin concerto, encompassing works from Viotti to Elgar, addresses: the New Formenlehre’s lack of attention to the genre, the pitfalls of formal theory’s focus on canonical Austro-German repertoire; and the question of how concepts derived from late eighteenth-century practice need to adapt to nineteenth-century evolutions. In some geographic subcategories of the corpus, recapitulatory compression is as prevalent as the presumably normative tonic return of P and S. Composers explore multiple alternatives: bypassing recapitulation of either of these zones, merging them, or recapitulating neither in a truncated form that flows into the slow movement. These practices unsettle the tendency to treat the Mozartian type 5 form as a yardstick, reveal a heretofore unrecognized type 2 lineage originating in the eighteenth century and stretching across the nineteenth, and expose the shortcomings of over-reliance on canonical repertoire. Two case studies of Viotti and Saint-Saëns highlight related practices across the corpus’s long chronological span and counterbalance the corpus’s bird’s eye view with attention to the aesthetically compelling formal complexities revealed by close reading of individual compositions.

Monsters

Through a performative and interdisciplinary approach, the video essay Monsters invites viewers to consider the unique ability of comics to represent mental states of young adults and children who struggle with eating disorders (EDs). We use close readings of a selection of panels from two Norwegian comics, the graphic short story “Sulten” (Hunger/Hungry, Neverdahl, 2007) and the graphic novel Hva skjedde egentlig med deg? (What Really Happened to You?) (Jordahl, 2020), to reframe utterances made by ED-patients during therapy. This reframing, which is both literal and metaphoric, is meant to illustrate how comics can create a sensorial space where the difficult emotions associated with EDs can be heard, felt, recognized and articulated. Given the puzzling nature and the social taboo of EDs, the video essay and the accompanying statement bring attention to the therapeutic and pedagogic possibilities inherent in comics like those discussed.

Sufi Aesthetics and Cinematic Journeys: A Close Reading of Bab’Aziz: The Prince Who Contemplated His Soul

Following the 9/11 attacks in the USA, Islamophobia became the popular justification for the U.S.-led global "war on terror." In this paper I read the film Bab’Aziz: The Prince Who Contemplated His Soul as a resistant response to this assault. The film follows the journey of two central characters, Ishtar and her grandfather, Baba Aziz, who embark on a journey searching for a Sufi meeting. I read this journey through the lens of Sufi aesthetics as a search for wisdom and spiritual transformation. The film evokes Sufi consciousness through cinematic choices of mise en scène, cinematography, music and editing to create a transcendental experience, a meditation on the relationship between the cosmos and the human. The film poses a challenge both to Islamic fundamentalism and to Islamophobia; the portrayed journey through the desert acts as a symbolic meeting-ground for people displaced from their homes. The film stands at the intersection of Sufism and cinema, fostering a humanist cross-cultural engagement that challenges the meaningless destruction of war.

Ogunian Metaphysics and the Metaphor of a Knife in Wole Soyinka’s Alapata Apata

The widely celebrated Nigerian Playwright and Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, is unapologetic about his fraternity with his hero-god and muse, Ogun – the Yoruba god of war, of iron and of destruction. Soyinka has, in fact, created many characters in his play-texts along the shores of Ogun’s visceral form. This study, therefore, explores Ogunian metaphysics and the metaphor of a knife in Wole Soyinka’s Alapata Apata. The study uses the textual analysis approach to give a close reading to the selected text and concludes that, Soyinka unveils the hegemonic constructs inherent in the dominant culture of elites. By so doing, he edges the subaltern few over the proletariats and makes the former to be more technically knowledgeable and insightful in the society.

“Plasticene Suite”, de Margaret Atwood: Un análisis ecocrítico para el abordaje de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible en educación superior

This article analyses the sequence of poems “Plasticene Suite,” written by the Canadian author Margaret Atwood, using the critical approach of ecocriticism. The main objective is to show how, through literature in general and through poetry in particular, a teaching-learning process on the Sustainable Development Goals can be carried out in higher education, as they encourage students to stay informed about environmental issues, discuss them in class and work critically on their own ideas and reflections through a close reading and detailed analysis of literary texts.

On epistemic aporias and the coloniality of (my) categories

AbstractThis piece interrogates aporias of epistemic certainty by thinking through categories of medicine and uchawi (witchcraft) in Tanzania. I open with an account of how I misrecognized the meaning of a newspaper article about “head‐switching operations” posted on a hospital bulletin board. I then offer a close reading of the colonial/anthropological archive and its epistemic disavowal of uchawi nearly a century ago to demonstrate this disavowal's similarities to my own mistake. I learned from this mistake to question the grounds on which I (like my colonial predecessors) separate and purify categories like medicine, religion, and witchcraft. I conclude by discussing how to interrupt that impulse: to recognize and refuse the epistemic conceits of singularity and closure, I propose epistemic humility enabled by “not knowing” and by inhabiting the undecided situation. This resists the colonial, anti‐Black violence of the single story about Africa and opens to the possibility of storying otherwise.

Empowering Identities: Cross Cultural Navigation in Mitali Perkins’ Monsoon Summer

The paper titled “Empowering Identities: Cross-Cultural Navigation in Mitali Perkins’ Monsoon Summer” explores the intricate ways in which cultural identity is shaped, negotiated, and empowered through cross-cultural experiences. Set against the backdrop of India and the United States, Monsoon Summer delves into the protagonist Jazz Gardner’s journey of self-discovery as she grapples with her dual heritage, familial expectations, and personal ambitions. This paper critically analyses the interplay of native and acquired cultures, examining how Jazz’s experiences in both countries reflect the broader struggles and challenges of bicultural individuals in navigating multiple cultural identities. Through a close reading of the text, the study highlights the tension between native culture and the pressure to assimilate into an acquired culture, emphasizing how this conflict is common in diasporic communities. Jazz’s inner turmoil as she balances her American upbringing with her Indian roots is explored through various lenses, including family dynamics, social expectations, and personal growth. Moreover, the research focuses on how Perkins presents cultural navigation as a pathway to empowerment, where characters like Jazz learn to embrace their multifaceted identities instead of choosing between them. By illustrating the complexities of biculturalism, the paper reveals how cross-cultural navigation can lead to self-empowerment, offering insights into the broader discourse on cultural identity formation in a globalized world. The study concludes that Monsoon Summer serves as a valuable literary piece for understanding the nuanced ways in which young individuals, especially those from diasporic backgrounds, reconcile their intersecting cultural identities while striving for a sense of belonging.

Phenomenology of Identity: Narrative Medicine Curricula in the Care of Eating Disorders.

A growing body of literature explores the intersection of eating disorders and identity formation-an entanglement that makes eating disorders particularly challenging to treat. Narrative medicine is a discipline of the health humanities that is interested in bearing witness to patients' stories with a closeness and rigor that enhances clinical care. The pedagogy of the field is the narrative medicine workshop, which mobilizes close-reading of works of art and reflective writing to improve our understanding of Self and Other. Narrative medicine workshops can be a compelling tool in enhancing the care of eating disorders by helping patients and their providers embrace uncertainty and challenge a singular narrative of illness. We facilitated parallel workshop series for patients and providers at a residential eating disorder treatment center and conducted qualitative interviews with four patients and three staff participants. Through a close read of participants' accounts, we constructed three themes: Phenomenology of Illness, Phenomenology of Change, and Orientation to Treatment. Group participants shared how workshops illuminated the embodied experience of eating disorders, fostered agency, and provided a sense of recognition and belonging. Providers particularly expressed newfound allyship with patients. This study highlights the value of narrative medicine workshops in shifting a patient's perspectives towards treatment and in promoting a patient-as-partner approach in the treatment of eating disorders-outcomes that situate the pedagogy of narrative medicine as a promising supplement to traditional eating disorder treatment.

Styl transcendentalny we współczesnym kinie festiwalowym na przykładzie filmu W żółtym kokonie (Bên trong vỏ kén vàng) Pham Thiên Âna

Contemporary mediascapes are increasingly infl uenced by transnational logics. One of the most important factors contributing to that situation is the network of international film festivals that in recent decades have evolved into complex multifaceted institutions shaping cinema around the globe. Researchers like Cindy Wong point out that programmers have numbers of predilections towards certain qualities. This has led to the creation of the socalled “festival film genre.” We want to examine these issues through a case study of Pham Thiên Ân’s Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (2023), a Vietnamese movie that was awarded the Caméra d’Or at Cannes. In my close reading I give consideration to institutions that fund the movie, as well as recurring religious and local themes. Most importantly, I draw my formal analysis from notions of slow cinema and Paul Schrader’s transcendental style, demonstrating that they are both closely related to the aesthetics of the “festival film.”

Why Natural Language Processing is Not Reading: Two Philosophical Distinctions and their Educational Import

This paper explores two important ways in which close reading differs from natural language processing, the use of computer programming to decode, process, and replicate messages within a human language. It does so in order to highlight distinctive features of close reading that are not replicated by natural language processing. The first point of distinction concerns the nature of the meaning generated in each case. While natural language processing proceeds on the principle that a text’s meaning can be deciphered by applying the rules governing the language in which the text is written, close reading is premised on the idea that this meaning lies in the interplay that the text prompts within readers. While the semantic theory of meaning upon which natural language processing programs are based is often taken for granted today, I draw from phenomenological and hermeneutic theories, particularly Wolfgang Iser and Hans-Georg Gadamer, to explain why a different theory of meaning is necessary for understanding the meaning generated by close reading. Second, while natural language processing programs are considered successful when they generate what epistemologists call true beliefs about a text, I argue that close reading aims first and foremost at the development, not of true belief, but of understanding. To develop this distinction, I draw from recent scholarship on the epistemology of education, including work by Duncan Pritchard, to explain how understanding differs from true belief and why attainment of the latter is less educationally significant than the former.

Selimiye as a commemorative monument in modern Turkey

ABSTRACT Selimiye, an Ottoman dynastic mosque, became a contested site of memory in the 20th century. As the Ottoman Empire disintegrated, Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey all had ambitions and even temporary control over Edirne during the first decades of the 20th century. Its unique location at the crossroads of nation-states provides fertile ground for investigating the role of architectural heritage in the formation of a nation’s collective memory, with a consideration of transnational influences. This article investigates the development and reception of commemorations involving the monument through close readings of newspaper reports from Greece, Turkey, and Bulgaria, as well as international media. It reveals the transnational dimension in forming a national frame of remembrance for the liberation of Edirne.