Hans-Werner Ludwig: Im Netz der Texte: Bausteine zu einer Stoff- und Motivgeschichte der englischen Lyrik. Tübingen: Narr, 2014.

• Rolf Lessenich

As the gigantic and often obstructive wave of poststructuralist theorizing in literary and cultural studies ebbs away, a reconsideration of the merits of close reading of texts is taking place. This new ‘turn’, however, is not merely a return to where John Crowe Ransom, Cleanth Brooks, and William Empson left us. Theoretical insights and models can now prove helpful, defining our concepts and sharpening our perspectives, provided that they are no longer Procrustean beds that squeeze readers into preconceived ideologies.