ENGL 126(S) Stupidity and Intelligence (W)
Stupidity fascinates authors, and they do not merely despise it-they feel it and
make us feel it. Why? Around the same time that psychologists began measuring and ranking intelligence-and stupidity, under various names, of course occupied the space below (average) intelligence-literary authors were finding
types of stupidity within intelligence. What is stupidity? Why can't it stay sequestered from intelligence? Is there such a thing as literary stupidity? (Can one
be specifically a bad reader not only of books but of life?) What are the problems
of intelligence? We shall be reading stories, novellas, novels, and plays by Melville, Poe, Henry James, Kafka, Borges, Stoppard, Faulkner, Flaubert, and others.
Format: discussion/seminar. Requirements: active class participation, and five
papers totaling 20 pages.
No prerequisites. Enrollment limit: 19 (expected: 19). Preference given to first-
year students.