Reading & Composition
Being Wrong: Mistakes, Mishaps, and Errors in Judgment (Canceled as of 07/30/20)
“Fallor ergo sum.” (“I err, therefore I am.”)
—St. Augustine, 5 th century
“C’est plus qu’un crime, c’est une faute.” (“It’s more than a crime, it’s a mistake.”)
— Antoine Boulay de la Meurthe, 1804
The quotes above encapsulate two radically different—and paradoxically simultaneous—views that we hold about error. While we commonly agree that it’s only human to make mistakes, we nevertheless seem perpetually afraid of actually making them. Of course, we may “learn from our mistakes,” but doing so runs the risk of inviting the critical verdict: #FAIL. In art, too, errors produce multitudes, as both the machine of tragedy and the stuff of comedy. This class will examine literature, essays, and films that broadly explore the idea of error: from minor slip-ups, to grave miscalculations, to everything in between. We will think about error thematically, ranging from blundering characters, to cases of mistaken identity, to comedic and tragic misunderstandings. As we consider the potential and danger of error, we’ll also ponder what happens when authors miss the mark, and when works’ very features themselves contain formal flaws. When are mistakes—in judgment, taste, execution, conception—productive, and when are they intolerable? Do they possessvalue only as a pedagogical tool, or could we come to value them in their own right?
This is a Reading and Composition course, in which we’ll work to hone our close-reading skills and to craft clear, compelling, and relevant arguments about how texts work. To that end, substantial class time will be devoted to writing workshops and peer reviews. In addition to completing frequent essay assignments and revisions, students will be expected to read up to 100 pages of literary and scholarly texts each week, and to participate actively in class and virtual discussions.
Likely texts include:
Sophocles, Oedipus Rex (429 BC)
Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors (1594)
Alexander Pope, “An Essay on Criticism” (1711)
Nikolai Gogol, The Government Inspector (1836)
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (1861)
Elizabeth Bishop, selected poems
Anne Carson, “Essay on What I Think About Most” (2000)