Journal 2 - Enos

I believe close reading to be a "beyond" surface analysis of a piece of literature. I believe everything to have meaning and a close reading is one to which meaning and purpose can be extracted. By looking at the details of a piece of literature and visualizing why certain things were said or why certain things were placed, one performs a close reading. The purpose of it is to in some way create a purpose for its use. Whether to support or explain something, one engages in a close reading to reveal this connection.

As I engage in close reading, I actually do find out a lot about myself. Before I even started this assignment, I would have had no idea that my gender identity was shaped through the viewing of certain movies. Now that I'm really thinking about where my identity came from, these close readings really helped me to understand the shaping that occurred and why.