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Close Reading without Readings

Essays on Shakespeare and Others

Stephen Booth

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.

University Press Copublishing Division / Fairleigh Dickinson University Press

Pages: 200 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-61147-890-7 • Hardback • December 2015 • $96.00 • (£74.00)

978-1-61147-892-1 • Paperback • April 2017 • $52.99 • (£41.00)

978-1-61147-891-4 • eBook • December 2015 • $50.00 • (£38.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / Shakespeare, Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Performing Arts / Theater / General

Close Reading without Readings

Essays on Shakespeare and Others

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

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.

Details

University Press Copublishing Division / Fairleigh Dickinson University Press

Pages: 200 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-61147-890-7 • Hardback • December 2015 • $96.00 • (£74.00)

978-1-61147-892-1 • Paperback • April 2017 • $52.99 • (£41.00)

978-1-61147-891-4 • eBook • December 2015 • $50.00 • (£38.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / Shakespeare, Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Performing Arts / Theater / General

Author

Stephen Booth is professor emeritus of English at the University of California, Berkeley.

Table of Contents

Foreword
1. Poetic Richness, A Preliminary Audit: Antony and Cleopatra 3.10
2. The Acquiescent Audience
3. Desdemona’s Eyes and the Aesthetics of Blindness
4. 2 Henry IV and the Aesthetics of Failure
5. Faith in The Winter’s Tale and Faith in The Winter’s Tale
6. A Discourse on the Witty Partition of A Midsummer Night’s Dream
7. Twelfth Night and Othello: Those Extraordinary Twins
8. Deviation, Variation, and Variety in Stanza One of Venus and Adonis
9. On the Eventfulness of Hero and Leander
10. Prelapsarian Eroticism: Paradise Lost
11. On the Aesthetic Significance of Non-Signifying Signification in Romeo and Juliet
12. Liking Julius Caesar
13. On the Value of Hamlet
Index

Reviews

This collection of 13 essays by influential scholar Stephen Booth includes some heretofore unpublished conference papers and some previously published works. As a deconstructionist pioneer, Booth discusses the unsettled meanings in literary works, some 'irritants,' and insists (as Prospero does with Miranda) that readers must be attentive to primary texts. Booth offers, for example, close readings of Julius Caesar—a play that 'makes fools of its audience'—and the 'editor-made text' of Hamlet. Booth also explores Marlowe’s Hero and Leander, Milton’s Paradise Lost, and Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet, The Winter’s Tale, Twelfth Night, and Othello. In all of the essays, Booth’s tone is humorous and vital, even visceral. As in every perfect piece of literature, form and content meet in this book as Booth uses stylistic practices similar to those he explores. For example, in 'Witty Partition of A Midsummer Night’s Dream,' Booth uses a conversational, direct address challenging the audience to experience the beauty in literature. A demanding writer, Booth admits to offering 'painful exercises' in these readings and unapologetically commands readers to 'engage in some [them]selves.' Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.
— Choice Reviews

There is much to learn from this collection, especially for students new to the game. As ever, the lesson is simple: pay attention to the object of literary art—not just to its subject—and to the behavior of your mind as it pays attention. Read Booth’s book, therefore, and again and again; and, this time, may the lesson take.
— Modern Philology

Close Reading without Readings

Essays on Shakespeare and Others

Stephen Booth

Close Reading without Readings

Essays on Shakespeare and Others

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