Academic-Literary Stupidity in Brazil

The article discusses academic stupidity in Brazil by focusing mainly on the way it is evidenced in literary studies. In terms of methodology, the text takes, as its object of analysis, the structural processes that generate said stupidity, rather than its specific manifestations, regardless of how eloquent they can be in some cases. The article discusses three aspects: 1) the relationship between a research-oriented university and the Brazilian national development project; 2) the erroneous social representation of the area of literary studies; and 3) the consequences of a scientistic conception of how to approach literature.