This paper explores the interplay between data visualisation and close reading through a computational literary study of Swedish book reviews. Revisiting the dataset from literary scholar Lina Samuelsson’s study The Order of Criticism (Kritikens ordning: Svenska bokrecensioner 1906, 1956, 2006, (2013)), we integrate digital and traditional literary approaches, illustrating how different qualitative and quantitative methods can complement one another to further our understanding of literary criticism and its historically situated discursive practices. Employing a dialectical mixed methods approach and utilising data visualisations, our study identifies patterns that both confirm and challenge previous findings, prompting a re-examination of familiar texts and interpretations and, thus, showcasing the potential of computational tools to advance literary inquiry. Drawing on Victor Shklovsky’s concept of defamiliarization, we also argue on a more theoretical level that these data visualisations do more than represent data – they disrupt automated perceptions, encouraging the renegotiation of familiar assumptions. Viewing literary criticism through a radically different lens does not necessarily yield entirely new discoveries but may uncover patterns and details that might otherwise remain unnoticed. We conclude by arguing that the methodological significance of data visualisations as tools for defamiliarization in our context lies in their ability to shift perspectives, offering multidimensional approaches to the study of literary criticism.