This proseminar in literary theory and methods will serve as an intensive crash course in the interpretative practice known as “close reading,” open to any student who may foreseeably benefit from such practice. While the dominant trend in cultural studies East and West has moved away from formal analysis to prioritize content and context, we will reassess the potential merits of close reading by considering a given work’s aesthetic and medium specificity as we collectively exercise our interpretive muscles. Toward this end, we will pair influential literary-critical texts from scholars in various language areas with a range of East Asian fiction, poetry, painting, music, film and photography on which students will conduct weekly close reading exercises.