Happy end-of-September! I’m delighted to introduce Close Reading, a newsletter focused on women, history, and the details that matter. For those of you who have been subscribed for a while, Close Reading is the same newsletter as before, but with a new title, new graphics, and a slightly honed focus. For those of you who are new subscribers — welcome! I’m so pleased you’ve decided to join us.
What is close reading, you might ask? Close reading is a way of approaching a text or image, of building an analysis of the whole by looking closely at a small part. Literary scholars are very familiar with the concept, but almost anything can be read closely and anyone can be a close reader — close reading simply means paying attention to the details and thinking about their relation to the larger picture.
I’ve been reading this way ever since I had to play the defense lawyer for Melville’s Billy Budd during a junior-year English project in high school. I spent hours poring through the text of Billy Budd, studying the tiny elements — a shift in tone, for example, or the presence of a specific word in a phrase, perhaps a repetition threaded through the text — to prove Billy’s innocence. I lost the case in the end (the seniors who served as the jurors determined that there is never a justifiable excuse for murder). But I got an A+ on the assignment.
In my years writing about women, close reading has served me well. In women’s history, the small details are often the most important — and yet are so frequently dismissed as trivia. The small details can tell us who these women were. They can show us what it means to be a woman, both then and now.
In each issue of Close Reading, you will likely find the following:
A short foray into a specific detail pulled from the life of historical or contemporary women. I’ll unpack that detail, run with it, and think about why it matters. Put simply, I’m inviting you to accompany me on a thinking journey, to help build a community of close readers. And although I will write mostly about women and history, I reserve the right to write about other topics and people, too. After all, history should be committed to exploring what has previously been overlooked, no matter the person, gender, race, identity.
Also featured in each issue: a section called Read With Me. Think of this as a kind of book club, a place for recommendations, but more like a discussion space for what I’m reading — history, biography, memoir, fiction, and everything in between. Comments welcome, of course!
Finally, from time to time you might also see this crown icon above, heralding the “Queen of the Week.” Historically, queens were hybrid, fluid figures. They lived within the system but also negotiated their way around it — and sometimes against it. “Queen of the Week” is a shoutout to anyone — of any gender — who calls something out in the name of politicial and social justice. Anyone can be a queen! If you’d like me to feature a specific person as “Queen of the Week” in the coming issues, please do not hesitate to nominate them in my Queen Queue, which you can find on my website.
As always, thank you for subscribing and for supporting my work. If you think of anyone else who might enjoy Close Reading please do not hesitate to share!
Congratulations on the clarity and honing here!
Love everything about this (including the header)!