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UID:news8@english.philhist.unibas.ch
DTSTAMP;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20180211T192754
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20171205T081500
SUMMARY:A Matter of Scale: Is Close Reading to American Studies What Place 
 Is to Space?
DESCRIPTION:In my talk I try to answer a seemingly simple question: after d
 ecades of contextual criticism\, dominated by issues of race\, gender\, an
 d class\, why and to what end should American Studies – or the humanitie
 s at large\, for that matter – turn to close reading as an important cri
 tical tool?\\r\\nTo answer this politically loaded question I propose an a
 nalogy with one of the field’s core areas of study: close reading is to 
 American Studies what place is to space. Like the study of concrete places
  close reading enables us to understand a text by registering its specific
 ity and uniqueness rather than its universality. To look at geographically
  and historically specific places merely through the prism of a preconceiv
 ed notion of their relationship with larger\, often opaque entities such a
 s the ‘New World\,’ the American ‘West\,’ the ‘transnational\,
 ’ or\, more recently\, the ‘planetary’ is to miss out on much of the
 ir locally accreted cultural density and idiosyncrasies.\\r\\nThe similari
 ties are obvious and noteworthy: recent efforts to resuscitate close readi
 ng as a viable technique for the production of non-ideological knowledge s
 eem to mirror similar attempts to inscribe American places with new\, non-
 exceptionalist meaning. At the end of the day it’s all a matter of scale
 \, of how to engage with the small and near-by\, how to resist the urge to
  constantly paint with a very broad brush\, how to take the single particu
 lar on its own terms rather than making it – as in much of modernist clo
 se readings – stand in for an abstract theory of life and art.
X-ALT-DESC:In my talk I try to answer a seemingly simple question: after de
 cades of contextual criticism\, dominated by issues of race\, gender\, and
  class\, why and to what end should American Studies – or the humanities
  at large\, for that matter – turn to close reading as an important crit
 ical tool?\nTo answer this politically loaded question I propose an analog
 y with one of the field’s core areas of study: close reading is to Ameri
 can Studies what place is to space. Like the study of concrete places clos
 e reading enables us to understand a text by registering its specificity a
 nd uniqueness rather than its universality. To look at geographically and 
 historically specific places merely through the prism of a preconceived no
 tion of their relationship with larger\, often opaque entities such as the
  ‘New World\,’ the American ‘West\,’ the ‘transnational\,’ or\
 , more recently\, the ‘planetary’ is to miss out on much of their loca
 lly accreted cultural density and idiosyncrasies.\nThe similarities are ob
 vious and noteworthy: recent efforts to resuscitate close reading as a via
 ble technique for the production of non-ideological knowledge seem to mirr
 or similar attempts to inscribe American places with new\, non-exceptional
 ist meaning. At the end of the day it’s all a matter of scale\, of how t
 o engage with the small and near-by\, how to resist the urge to constantly
  paint with a very broad brush\, how to take the single particular on its 
 own terms rather than making it – as in much of modernist close readings
  – stand in for an abstract theory of life and art.
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20171205T100000
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