Tomasz Cieślak-SokołowskiDepartment of Contemporary CriticismFaculty of PolishJagiellonian University The Return of Close Reading in Contemporary Interpretations of 20th Century LiteraturesAbstract The present article offers an insight into contemporary discussions concerning the category of close reading. It is in such a context that the author is able to shed light upon the special status of such forms of contemporary literary criticism that do not attempt to change paradigms, but rather are organized by gestures of corrections and reconfiguration. Postulating the “return of close reading,” the author departs from the basic tenets of New Criticism to illustrate some of the more recent concepts of what close reading is today and how they affect the interpretation of contemporary works of literature and, by extension, texts of culture. Keywords: close reading, New Criticism, interpretation, 20th century literature Powroty do close reading we współczesnych lekturach literatury XX wieku Streszczenie Artykuł skupia się na próbie opisania współczesnych dyskusji na temat kategorii close reading. Jednocześnie autor tekstu zwraca uwagę na szczególny status współczesnych badań literackich, którym nie tyle zależy na zmianach paradygmatów, ile dynamice rewizyjnych korekt, przesunięć i rekonfiguracji. Słowa kluczowe: close reading, Nowa Krytyka, interpretacja, literatura XX wieku.
PL
Tomasz Cieślak-SokołowskiKatedra Krytyki WspółczesnejWydział PolonistykiUniwersytet Jagielloński The Return of Close Reading in Contemporary Interpretations of 20th Century LiteraturesAbstract The present article offers an insight into contemporary discussions concerning the category of close reading. It is in such a context that the author is able to shed light upon the special status of such forms of contemporary literary criticism that do not attempt to change paradigms, but rather are organized by gestures of corrections and reconfiguration. Postulating the “return of close reading,” the author departs from the basic tenets of New Criticism to illustrate some of the more recent concepts of what close reading is today and how they affect the interpretation of contemporary works of literature and, by extension, texts of culture. Keywords: close reading, New Criticism, interpretation, 20th century literature Powroty do close reading we współczesnych lekturach literatury XX wieku Streszczenie Artykuł skupia się na próbie opisania współczesnych dyskusji na temat kategorii close reading. Jednocześnie autor tekstu zwraca uwagę na szczególny status współczesnych badań literackich, którym nie tyle zależy na zmianach paradygmatów, ile dynamice rewizyjnych korekt, przesunięć i rekonfiguracji. Słowa kluczowe: close reading, Nowa Krytyka, interpretacja, literatura XX wieku.
The quarterly “Tematy”, edited by Paweł Mayewski, was published in the years 1961–1969. In 32 issues the editors published reprints of essayistic texts from elite American magazines, presenting works in the field of sociology, political science and literary criticism. There were also many translations poems of the greatest contemporary American poets. The eminent professors of American universities, as well as many Polish emigre writers, cooperated with Mayewski. Those appeared mainly in the role of translators. Mayewski’s magazine was part of the ideological offensive against communism and the place of presentation of the complex image of American society in the times of the Black people’s struggle for equality, student rebellion against the establishment, counterculture successes and at the same time the triumph of the consumerist model of society. All these issues as well as disputes among American intellectuals about the place of literature in the modern society found expression in the Mayewski’s quaterly. The sixties were a period of exhaustion of the potential of the New Critics’ school and the search for new ways of interpreting literary works. Also in this dimension, the quarterly addressed to the Polish reader has become a place for the presentation of new ideas.
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