French Literature Reviews - 2026
Zakir Paul, Disarming Intelligence: Proust, Valéry, and Modern French Criticism
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics
In the late nineteenth century, psychologists and philosophers became intensely interested in the possibility of quantifying, measuring, and evaluating “intelligence,” and using it to categorize and compare individuals. Disarming Intelligence analyzes how this polyvalent term was consolidated and contested in competing discourses, from fin de siècle psychology and philosophy to literature, criticism, and cultural polemics around the First World War.
Zakir Paul examines how Marcel Proust, Henri Bergson, Paul Valéry, and the critics of the influential Nouvelle revue française registered, negotiated, and subtly countered the ways intelligence was invoked across the political and aesthetic spectrum. For these writers, intelligence fluctuates between an individual, sovereign faculty for analyzing the world and something collective, accidental, and contingent. Disarming Intelligence shows how literary and critical styles questioned, suspended, and reimagined what intelligence could be by bringing elements of uncertainty and potentiality into its horizon. The book also explores interwar political tensions—from the extreme right to Walter Benjamin’s engaged essays on contemporary French writers. Finally, a brief coda recasts current debates about artificial intelligence by comparing them to these earlier crises of intelligence.
By drawing together and untangling competing conceptions of intelligence, Disarming Intelligence exposes its mercurial but influential and urgent role in literary and cultural politics.
The period surrounding the First World War saw a significant shift in how intellectual capacity was defined, as psychologists and philosophers became interested in quantifying, measuring, and evaluating intelligence. This transition occurred alongside the rise of psychology as a formal discipline, which sought to categorize individuals. By focusing on the interplay between literature and philosophy, Disarming Intelligence situates the writings of Proust, Bergson, and Valéry within a broader cultural landscape where the concept of intelligence became a site of debate, influencing both aesthetic production and the political discourse of the era.
The intellectual climate of the early twentieth century was marked by a tension between individual subjectivity and collective pressures. Disarming Intelligence examines how writers registered, negotiated, and countered the ways intelligence was invoked, tracing how these perspectives evolved through the interwar years, including the critical reception of French literature by figures such as Walter Benjamin. Readers interested in the historical development of cognitive concepts and their intersection with cultural politics may find this exploration of early debates relevant, particularly as they relate to contemporary discussions regarding artificial intelligence.
Read the introduction and browse the table of contents on the publisher's website…