Argufying by William Empson
A compact collection of incisive essays that treats close reading as a kind of argument, showing how poets and critics use ambiguity, paradox, irony and rhetorical manoeuvre to make persuasive claims about meaning and value; it traces how equivocation, puns, misreading and polemic function as deliberate devices and how attention to those argumentative structures changes our response to literature. The pieces range from technical analyses of particular lines and passages to broader reflections on critical method, defending a practice that combines meticulous textual detail with a skeptical, often combative, wit. Throughout, the work insists that interpretation is not a neutral discovery but a contest of reasons and rhetorics, and it models how critical sensitivity to language can expose hidden assumptions and intellectual sleights of hand.
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- Original Language
- English
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