explication de texte

American  

[ek-splee-kah-syawn duh tekst] / ɛk spli kɑ syɔ̃ də ˈtɛkst /

noun

French.

plural

explications de texte

1. an approach to literary criticism involving close examination, analysis, and exposition of the text of a work, and concentrating on language, style, content, and the interrelationships of the parts to the whole in regard to meaning and symbolism.

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explication de texte British  

/ ɛksplikɑsjɔ̃ də tɛkst /

noun

1. a close textual analysis of a literary work

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Etymology

Origin of explication de texte

Literally, “explanation of text”

Example Sentences

Suddenly, we’re all obsessed with explication de texte.

From Washington Post

He had Proust’s page published in the French literary journal Les Cahiers du Mois. In an article accompanying the document, titled “About a Lucky Find,” Berge offered a subtle psychoanalytic explication de texte—noting, for instance, that for the “idea of misery” question Proust had first written “to be away from Mother,” and then crossed it out and replaced “to be away” with “to be separated.”

From The New Yorker

Columnist William F. Buckley Jr., while concurring in Agnew's description of an "effete corps of impudent snobs," felt impelled to deliver an explication de texte: "The rhetorical arrangement is extremely unsatisfactory," wrote Buckley.

From Time Magazine Archive