SOURCE: "Values," in Flaubert: The Uses of Uncertainty, Cornell University Press, 1974, pp. 157-232.
In the following excerpt, Culler discusses the function of "stupidity" in Flaubert's themes, symbols, narrative strategies, and characters. Culler connects the idea of stupefaction with Flaubert's notion of the experience of "reverie" and the incomprehensible as the goal of art.
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