About this episode

This episode explores the resurgence of close reading in literary studies through various academic papers presented at a symposium.

The second episode derived from the ⁠Modes of Reading Today Symposium⁠ , hosted by the ⁠Townsend Center For The Humanities⁠ assesses what it means that "close reading is having a moment" through papers titled "What is Close Reading?" [8:00], "Finding The Right Place For Close Reading" [30:00], "The Affected Fallacy" [56:00], "On Generalizing" [77:30], and "Close Reading as Field-Making" [100:00] Cast (in order of appearance): Yael Segalovitz, Matt Seybold, Jonathan Kramnick, Toril Moi, Joshua Gang, Dora Zhang, Farah Bakaari Dates Recorded: February 19-20, 2026 Music: Danny Weiss Quartet, Moby

People in this episode

Host: Matt Seybold

Guests: Yael Segalovitz, Jonathan Kramnick, Toril Moi, Joshua Gang, Dora Zhang, Farah Bakaari

Topics covered

• close reading
• literary analysis
• symposium
• academic discussion
• reading methods

Keywords

• close reading
• literary theory
• academic symposium
• reading techniques
• literature analysis

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Townsend Center For The Humanities

Books & works: Modes of Reading Today Symposium

More episodes of The American Vandal

• Reading Machines (Vandal Live at Berkeley) · July 15, 2026 · 1h 52m
• Reading, Sleep, Attention, Grief (Vandal Live at UC-Berkeley) · June 18, 2026 · 2h 31m

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