Dealing mainly with the works of William Shakespeare, the essays in Close Readings without Readings reflect Stephen Booth’s lifelong interest in uncovering the ways great literature works upon readers. As the book’s title suggests, the author does not aim to create new or novel interpretations or to uncover the political agendas of literary works, but to notice language patterns—repetitions, analogies, correspondences, echoes, overtones—and other ways in which the choice and the arrangement of words affect readers. For Booth, close reading is a practice of attentiveness. He notices how, why, and in what ways Shakespeare’s works affect his readers. Whether readers agree with the premises of a literary work or not, they subject themselves, knowingly or not, to its effects. For Booth, what we value in literature is the experience. He has devoted his own work to recognizing the nature, process, and functions of reading literature, and to teaching others to do the same. Recent years have seen Booth’s efforts recognized by volumes dedicated both to close reading and to his achievements as editor, scholar, critic, and teacher.

No detailed description available for "Shakespeare Reread".

Techniques of Close Reading is a brief, supplemental text that trains students in an ability to see what texts--be they written, oral, visual, or mediated--may be saying. Renown scholar and teacher Barry Brummett explains and explores the various ways to "read" messages (speeches, cartoons, magazine ads, etc.), teaching students the ability to see deeper levels of meaning and to share those insights with others. Techniques of Close Reading differs from other books in rhetorical criticism, textual analysis, or critical thinking by: - Focusing on the act and techniques of criticism rather than on schools of thought, grand theories, and specific methods, thus helping students to engage in the act of critical close reading in ways that are congenial to a wide range of methods (for that reason, it is highly adaptable to other texts currently in use that are focused on specific methods) - Explaining the relationships among theory, methods, and techniques of rhetorical criticism - Examining the ethics and risk of doing and reading rhetorical criticism via plenty of examples, figures, and exercises taken from everyday life

Elkins argues that writing is what art historians produce, and, whether such writing is a transparent vehicle for the transmission of facts or an embattled forum for the rehearsal of institutional relations and constructions of history, it is an expressive medium, with the capacity for emotion and reflection. Therefore, it needs to be taken seriously for its own sake: it is the testament of art history and of individual historians, and it is only weakened and slighted by versions of history that imagine it either as uncontrolled dissemination or as objective discovery and reporting.

The Common Core State Standards have put close reading in the spotlight as never before. While middle and high school teachers want and need students to connect with, analyze, and learn from both literary and informational texts, many are unsure how to foster the skills students must have in order to develop deep and nuanced understanding of complicated content. Is there a process to follow? How is close reading different from shared reading and other common literacy practices? How do you prepare students to have their ability to analyze complex texts measured by high-stakes assessments? And how do you fit close reading instruction and experiences into an already crowded curriculum? Literacy experts Barbara Moss, Diane Lapp, Maria Grant, and Kelly Johnson answer these questions and more as they explain how to teach middle and high school students to be close readers, how to make close reading a habit of practice across the content areas, and why doing so will build content knowledge. Informed by the authors’ extensive field experience and enriched by dozens of real-life scenarios and downloadable tools and templates, this book explores • Text complexity and how to determine if a particular text is right for your learning purposes and your students. • The process and purpose of close reading, with an emphasis on its role in developing the 21st century thinking, speaking, and writing skills essential for academic communication and college and career readiness. • How to plan, teach, and manage close reading sessions across the academic disciplines, including the kinds of questions to ask, texts to use, and supports to provide. • How to assess close reading and help all students—regardless of linguistic, cultural, or academic background—connect deeply with what they read and derive meaning from complex texts. Equipping students with the tools and process of close reading sets them on the road to becoming analytical and critical thinkers—and empowered and independent learners. In this comprehensive resource, you’ll find everything you need to start their journey.

To be successful, teachers of English in grades 6–12 need more than basic content knowledge and classroom management skills. They need a deep understanding of the goals and principles of teaching literature, writing, oral discourse, and language in order to make sound instructional decisions. This engaging book explores the pedagogical foundations of the discipline and gives novice and future teachers specific guidance for creating effective, interesting learning experiences. The authors consider such questions as what makes a literary text worth studying, what students gain from literary analysis, how to make writing meaningful, and how to weave listening and speaking into every class meeting. Professional learning and course use are facilitated by end-of-chapter reflection questions, text boxes, and appendices showcasing exemplary learning activities.

The essence of Shakespeare, observes David Willbern, is in the details. What matters most in our appreciation of Hamlet is not the staged play but the play of language we find in the words of the Bard. This book explores the expressions of Shakespeare's poetic will—his sexual desire, conscious and unconscious volition, and posthumous legacy—within the linguistic matrix that enfolds his characters and readers. Using a combination of psychoanalytic approaches, Willbern rescues Shakespeare from the limitations and distortions of dramatic performance by showing that his language, scenes, and characters are propelled by the genius of this will and need to be understood primarily as written narrative. In these provocative essays, Willbern examines the deep analogy between poetic creativity and sexual procreation as he explores the parallels between Shakespearean and Freudian representations of fantasy, thus offering readers a heightened awareness of the sexual and bodily substrate of Shakespeare's language. Engaging current debars between psychological and social approaches, he develops new strategies of reading in a search for the limits of Shakespeare's language and our responses to it. He then applies these strategies to all of Shakespeare's genres via detailed analysis of a comedy (Twelfth Night) a history (Henry IV, Part One) a tragedy (MacBeth) and a poem (Lucrece). Additional essays provide an overview of Shakespeare both as a creative agent and as a body of work. Questions of identity, authenticity, and representation­-especially as posed in Hamlet—are a recurrent concern throughout the book. Poetic Will frees the play of language in Shakespeare from its illusory anchors in characters and resituates the experience of reading his work within individual response and reconstruction. Offering practical criticism with a bold, American slant, it emphasizes the rich potential of Shakespeare's poetic language while exploring the interpretive and rhetorical limits of psychoanalytic literary criticism.