Critical Reading in Literature Critical reading, also called close reading or active reading, is reading for academic purposes. It calls for one to review, analyse, report or argue about what one has read. In its broadest sense, critical reading with regards to literature, involves analyzing a piece of literary work into ‘fine details’ and thereafter making comments as a reader on the authors’ argument strategy and style. Critical reading is not merely reading for pleasure. This means that, in addition to enjoying reading a literary work, one can make a claim and ‘put up a defence’ for their claim by extracting substantial evidence from the read literary work. The act of non-critical reading involves simply recognising what a literary piece of writing says about a topic, and thereafter holding the views of the author as the ultimate truth. Critical reading is thus an analytical activity that calls for one to re-read a text, identifying patterns or elements of information and even ...
Literature reviews