Close Reading, My Own Thoughts

In reviewing for the Roundtable discussion, I have been reviewing particular critics and have identified what interests me most. I am intrigued by the historical examination of the moment such as wit Said or Barthes, but I am also intrigued by this idea of consciousness - perhaps with Lowes and his desire for unconscious process and  privileging the experience of poetry, or perhaps Auerbachs fascination with a multi-personal representation of consciousness. I guess I am most fascinated by it because I don't enirely grasp it, I understand wanting to situate a text within it's time period but what's to be said of the author's intention for the piece? My own proposal for a method of close reading will surround something that examines this - perhaps having to do with the process of poetry. I sometimes wish I could examine a piece from the authors eyes, was there a political masking that was intentional? Of conservatism? Was the piece merely a moment and the interpretations fell in later? I know I couldn't possibly answer these questions on my own but I am hoping my own method, in examining a writers conscious v. unconscious state, will help me come to better conclusions about close reading. I have also wondered how a particular place in a moment would affect this. If there were ways to determine where an author was in their writing state - outdoors, inside their bedroom - how would placement in a moment affect the conscious (or unconscious) state? This is a brainstorm.