Close/Read is an undergraduate journal housed in USC’s Department of Comparative Literature. We publish essays that bring literary and cultural theory into dialogue with texts across traditions, genres, and media. Our mission is to champion the comparative method of study, transform theory into practice, and encourage inquiry in literature, film, philosophy, and visual culture.

We are committed to cultivating scholarship that is both rigorous and accessible, as it is our goal to make literary theory approachable and engaging to readers of all disciplines. Literary theory should not be confined to the impenetrable archive—it belongs in the hands of all readers, at the margins where interpretation begins and thought comes to life.