Collins Brooks, a British and American new critical theorist, first mentioned the concept of "close reading of texts" in his book The Exquisite Urn. The new criticism emphasizes the importance of intensive reading, text-centered, and the influence of internal organizational structure and context on semantic analysis.
In the context of new criticism, close reading is a method to study works. This research method refers to the subtle and true perception, interpretation and analysis of literary texts from the literary concept of the recipients.
In the close reading of the text under the new criticism theory, a work, even a short lyric poem, should be analyzed in detail from the structure and semantics, and other factors outside the text should be excluded. There are usually many misunderstandings about the close reading of texts. Some scholars have clearly pointed out that one is to understand and read closely, that is, to close literary criticism in the text and exclude the study of writers, the world and readers. The other is to interpret close reading as putting literary works under a microscope for careful examination, or putting them on a jeweler's magnifying glass for repeated scrutiny, or squeezing the meaning of text words like lemon juice, squeezing every drop of words as much as possible.
In this regard, Brooks made a thorough and detailed study of "close reading". He pointed out that close reading means complete reading, that is, when reading literary works, we should respect the text, study the language and structure of literary works from details, and let readers read the tension in the works.
Therefore, the close reading of the text under the new critical theory is not a word-for-word close reading or repeated reading in the traditional sense, but an internal study of the literary text based on the text.