An anthology of exemplary readings by some of the twentieth century's foremost literary critics, "Close Reading" presents a wide range of responses to the question at the heart of literary criticism: how best to read a text to understand its meaning. The lively introduction and the selected essays provide an overview of close reading from New Criticism through poststructuralism, including works of feminist criticism, postcolonial theory, queer theory, new historicism, and more.

From a 1938 essay by John Crowe Ransom through the work of contemporary scholars, "Close Reading" highlights the interplay between critics--the ways they respond to and are influenced by others' works. To facilitate comparisons of methodology, the collection includes discussions of the same primary texts by scholars using different critical approaches. The essays focus on "Hamlet," "Lycidas," "The Rape of the Lock," "Ulysses, Invisible Man, Beloved, "Jane Austen, John Keats, and Wallace Stevens and reveal not only what the contributors are reading, but also "how" they are reading.

Frank Lentricchia and Andrew DuBois's collection is an essential tool for teaching the history and practice of close reading.

"Contributors." Houston A. Baker Jr., Roland Barthes, Homi Bhabha, R. P. Blackmur, Cleanth Brooks, Kenneth Burke, Paul de Man, Andrew DuBois, Stanley Fish, Catherine Gallagher, Sandra Gilbert, Stephen Greenblatt, Susan Gubar, Fredric Jameson, Murray Krieger, Frank Lentricchia, Franco Moretti, John Crowe Ransom, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Helen Vendler

An extraordinary collection of lyrics showcasing rap's poetic depth and diversity From the school yards of the South Bronx to the tops of the Billboard charts, rap has emerged as one of the most influential musical and cultural forces of our time. In The Anthology of Rap, editors Adam Bradley and Andrew DuBois explore rap as a literary form, demonstrating that rap is also a wide-reaching and vital poetic tradition born of beats and rhymes. This pioneering anthology brings together more than three hundred rap and hip-hop lyrics written over thirty years, from the "old school" to the "golden age" to the present day. Rather than aim for encyclopedic coverage, Bradley and DuBois render through examples the richness and diversity of rap's poetic tradition. They feature both classic lyrics that helped define the genre, including Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five's "The Message" and Eric B. & Rakim's "Microphone Fiend," as well as lesser-known gems like Blackalicious's "Alphabet Aerobics" and Jean Grae's "Hater's Anthem." Both a fan's guide and a resource for the uninitiated, The Anthology of Rap showcases the inventiveness and vitality of rap's lyrical art. The volume also features an overview of rap poetics and the forces that shaped each period in rap's historical development, as well as a foreword by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and afterwords by Chuck D and Common. Enter the Anthology to experience the full range of rap's artistry and discover a rich poetic tradition hiding in plain sight.

So what if I left language by the pier. Metaphor's a raft, declares Andrew DuBois as he leads readers through a fractured past and present -- from "slummy memories of streets" to a "a charnelhouse (?) of possible clowns" -- defamiliarizing, critiquing, and satirizing a wide range of conversational forms in the style of Wallace Stevens and Michael Palmer. Yet, as "lives at time degenerate into victory competitions," and the poet alternates between searching for an escape from the mundane and accepting that "merely being there together is a dull catastrophe," we recognize that a formally wry, almost flippant, voice has become caught in language's web. The surfaces of the poems begin to feel like thin ice, a brittle coating over which we skate for as long as it lasts. Danger lurks here: the poet must play the puppet, not the puppeteer and we must surrender, body and soul, into language as element.

Literary Nonfiction. Poetry. In this wide-ranging collection, Andrew DuBois rounds up some 200 reviews of contemporary Canadian poets (from Jordan Abel to Jan Zwicky); American poets, memoirists, and novelists; and twenty-first century literary critics. With an approach that balances careful attention to aesthetics and style with an over-arching commitment to the crucial role of the arts in our personal and social lives, DuBois describes the objects under his discussion with a clarity and precision that aims to be both fair to the artists and enlightening for the reader. Eschewing obscurity, exiling jargon, and resisting political boilerplate, START TO FIGURE is a compelling record of over twenty years of critical response, from a lover of genuine art, meant to educate and entertain.