Text-centred theory: close reading and formalist analysis

What this note covers

1. What text-centred approaches share
2. New Criticism: the well-wrought text
3. Structuralism: the text as a system of signs
4. Stylistics: linguistic analysis of literary effects
5. Close reading in practice: a step-by-step method
6. Applying text-centred analysis to genre and structure
7. Writing the text-centred analytical essay

7 sections · 14 key terms & formulas · 6 common mistakes