Close reading was adapted from literary criticism for interpreting culture.

Evidence

Fourth, there was the methodological innovation evidenced in Hoggart’s adaptation of the literary-critical method of “close reading” to the sociological task of interpreting the lived meanings of a culture. One says “sociological,” but clearly something more innovative than standard empirical sociological methods was required—nothing less than a kind of “social hermeneutics” is implied in these interpretive procedures: “we have to try to see beyond the habits to what the habits stand for, to see through the statements to what the statements really mean (which may be the opposite of the statements themselves) to detect the differing pressures of emotion behind idiomatic phrases and ritualistic observances” (Hoggart 1958: 17). — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 151

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘social hermeneutics’ as the methodological core Hoggart introduced to cultural study.