ENGL 3906: Methods of Literary Study
Dr. Sigler
The following assignment asks you to develop a close textual analysis (also
known as a close reading or Explication de texte) of a short passage or scene (between one paragraph and one page in length) from Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. Your close
analysis should be approximately 4 double-spaced pages (in other words, the
correct length to meet the Portfolio requirement—about 1200-1400 words).
Part of this assignment will include uploading a final version of your essay
into Portfolio (which we’ll be going over in a later class).
A close textual analysis offers a detailed interpretation of a passage of prose, showing how the details of the text—the fictional situation, narrative technique, the nuances of language, allusions, images and/or rhetorical figures (symbols, metaphors, etc)—relate to the central themes of the story or novel. In other words, a close reading looks closely at a specific scene or moment in order to make an argument about how a specific “part” of the story contributes and relates to the “whole.” You must decide what total effect the writer achieves in a selected passage and support your argument with quotes from the text. The argument you make should be about how the text works (its internal functions, dynamics, and structures). It should not use the text to argue about an external generality (e.g. about the way life is) or an internal generality (e.g. about the nature of a certain character), nor should it use the text to "explain" the the historical context.
Requirements: What does a Close Textual Analysis Essay Usually Have?
In a sense, the first phase of this assignment involves thinking about an appropriate topic or topics for this short paper. If, in reading Jane Eyre , you decide you are particularly interested in focusing on the subject of imperialism, you will need to think about the story, perhaps rereading selected passages, to reconstruct what sparked your interest. Once you have decided what most interests you, you will be able to focus your topic more specifically. As a rule of thumb, you will want to do more with less: when explicating textual complexities, a twenty-line paragraph is a better choice than a two-page scene. Handouts on grading criteria, essay form and style are available online on the 3906 “Handouts” Web page, along with a link to a sample close textual analysis essay.
Below are some key scenes from Jane Eyre as the focus for close textual analysis, though you are welcome to choose any passage that interests you, as long as it comprises no more than a page of text:
1. Opening scenes at Gateshead
2. Jane and Rochester's meeting
3. The "chapter on governesses" scene at Thornfield
4. Jane's conversations with Helen Burns
5. Rochester's proposal in the walled garden; Jane's response
6. Meeting Bertha
7. "Reader, I married him..."
8. Concluding paragraphs about St. John
General guidelines for doing close-readings:
1. Briefly identify some of the major issues, conflicts, ideas, and ideologies reflected in the passage. You might begin by rereading the passage you've chosen with a pencil in hand, annotating the text as you read. "Annotating" means underlining or highlighting key words and phrases--anything that strikes you as surprising or significant, or that raises questions--as well as making notes in the margins. When we respond to a text in this way, we not only force ourselves to pay close attention, but we also begin to think with the author about the evidence--the first step in moving from reader to writer.
2. Identify the context in which the passage appears and analyze its significance. In other words, where exactly does the passage appear in the piece (in the beginning, after an important scene, at the end, etc.) and why is its placement important? Also, who is doing the speaking in the passage (or about whom is the passage) and why is that significant?
3. Look for patterns in the details (words, images, metaphos) you've noticed about the text--repetitions, contradictions, similarities.
4. Analyze the implications of the language in the passage. Without worrying about authorial intention, ask yourself why the writer might have chosen those particular words or that style in that particular excerpt. Explore the subtler connotations of the words, allusions, expressions used. What kinds of metaphors and other figures of speech does the passage employ? Is that passage similar to or different from others, if so, how? How does the style and words choice tie into larger issues in the novel, story, or essay? This is a very key step in close-reading.
5. Draw some comparisons and conclusions about the passage in terms of its relevance to the rest of the piece: how is it specifically related to other parts? What does it reveal about a character or an issue that you see earlier or later in the piece? Offer a brief example. Why is this particular passage (as compared to others) important?
6. Support your analysis with evidence from the text (that is, textual specifics, description, and quoted details). Always include particular details to support your readings.Need More Help?
Edgar Roberts provides the following useful questions for close readings of passages based on their location in a narrative:
- For an Early Passage: Does the passages occur early in the work? If it does, you may reasonably expect that the author is using the passage to set things in motion. Thus you should try to determine how ideas, themes, characterizations, and arguments that you find in the passage are related to these matters as they appear later in the work. You may assume that everything in the passage is there for a purpose. Try to find that purpose.
- For a Later, Midpoint Passage: Does the passage come later in the work, at a time that you might characterize as a "pivot" or "turning point"? In such a passage a character's fortunes take either an expected or unexpected turn. If the change is expected, you should explain how the passage focuses the various themes or ideas and then propels them toward the climax. If the change is unexpected, however, it is necessary to show how the contrast is made in the passage. It may be that the work is one that features surprises, and that the passage thus is read one way at first but on second reading may be seen to have a double meaning. Or it may be that the speaker has had one set of assumptions while the readers have had others, and that the passage marks a point of increasing self-awareness on the part of the speaker. Many of the part of works are not what they seem at first reading, and it is your task here to determine how the passage is affected by events at or near the end of the work.
- For a Concluding Passage: If the passage occurs at or near the end of the work, you may assume that it is designed to solve problems or to be a focal point or climax for all the situations and ideas that have been building up in the work. You may need to show how the passage brings together all themes, ideas, and details. What is happening? Is any action described in the passage a major action, or a step leading to the major action? Has everything in the passage been prepared for earlier in the work?
(Edgar Roberts. Writing Themes About Literature, 5th ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1983: 187-88.)
For more detailed suggestions, see Steps for Close Reading or Explication de texte: Patterns, polarities, problems, paradigm, puzzles, perception or How to Do a Close Reading.