Thursday, October 30, 2008
A Portrait of the Artists as a Young Man (Synthesizing: Pulling Ideas Together from across the Five Chapters)
In the comments box post any questions, observations, and comments still lingering after the teacher-lead discussion (Friday, October 31). You are evaluated during these discussions and may feel that your contributions during class did not adequately convey your understanding of the novel. If so, post comments.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Chapter 5)
In the comments box post any questions, observations, and comments still lingering after the teacher-lead discussion (Thursday, October 30). You are evaluated during these discussions and may feel that your contributions during class did not adequately convey your understanding of the novel. If so, post comments.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
A Portrait of the Artist (Chapter 4)
In the comments box post any questions, observations, and comments still lingering after the teacher-lead discussion (Tuesday, October 28). You are evaluated during these discussions and may feel that your contributions during class did not adequately convey your understanding of the novel. If so, post comments.
D-block
Summary by Ali O: Stephen disciplines himself at the beginning & in the end allows himself to think about women again. Also, his family is once again moving
Lucy F: interested in the passage in which he is asked if he has a vocation for the priesthood. We looked closely at this passage.
We talked about the priest's comments about Victor Hugo: "had never written half so well when he had turned against the church as he had written when he was a catholic." & how Stephen reacts: "the tiny flame which the priest's allusion had kindled upon Stephen's cheek had sunk down again and his eyes were still fixed calmly on the colourless sky. But an unresting dout flew hither and thither before his mind."
I mentioned the quotation "the priest let the blindcord fall" (Barnes & Noble edition 136) but had meant to quote from 134: "as [the priest] spoke and smiled, slowly dangling and loooping the cord of the other blind..." & then mention all of this in association with the mainy uses of "grave" & "mirthless": "leaned his chin gravely..." "seeing in [the priest's face] a mirthless reflection of the sunken day..." "a mirthless mask" "the life of the college passed gravely over his consciousness. It was a grave and ordered and passionless life that awaited him..." & then another face "the face was eyeless and souravoured and devout, shot with pink tinges of suffocated anger. Was it not a mental spectre of the face of one of the jesuits..."
Look at all that Joyce is saying w/ repetition & imagery (& subtle or implied metaphor); one might even say that Joyce employs a macabre diction).
& Hannah pointed out (B&N 157) where Stephen plays with ivy and ivory. "What about ivory ivy?" She senses his interested in language & sees him, finally, as a poet, an artist.
Several times we alluded to but never delved into the final scene with the woman in the water.
I mentioned the concept of "epiphany". Somewhere in here we talked about the virgin-whore complex.
*
F-block
Summary by Jaclyn
* Stephen assigns himself devotional tasks (rosary) & disciplines himself (not moving in bed, not making eye contact w/ women). Devotion to the Virgin Mary. Thoughts about the Holy Trinity.
* Stephen is asked if he has thought about becoming a priest. ("Les jupes" makes him think of women--never far from his mind.)
* Family struggles (Jaclyn asserts: he seems to feel for his siblings--in their innocence.)
* Friends joke about his name in Greek. (Reader is reminded of Dedalus, etc.)
* Stephen has an epiphany while watching the girl washing.
Allie: provokes conversation about women, especially if Stephen considers/grasps women as independent agents w/ their own consciousness or if he sees them only in relation to himself (as pure, as beautiful, as sexual, etc.) & why might this be significant? Like D-block, we talked briefly about the virgin-whore complex.
Michael asked about the use of "-boro" by a sibiling. We talked about playing with language (& "secret" codes) in the novel and outside it.
Then I became to involved and stopped taking notes until...
* Isabel asked a question about church and state & speculated whether or not Stephen blamed the church for his family's financial difficulties.
* I said I thought he blamed his father.
* Courtland quoted from B&N 214: "[my father is] a medical student, an oarsman, a tenor, an amateur actor, a shouting politician, a small landlord, a small investor, a drinker, a good fellow, a storyteller, somebody's secretary, something in a distillery, a taxgatherer, a bankrupt and at present a praiser of his own past."
Allie read from page 146-147 where Stephen is thinking while seeing the bodies of his friends. Stephen reveals his ambivalence about the body. (This is a major thread in the book. Stephen's ideas about his body &/vs. his soul--& is also a major thread in Western Civ/Christianity.) Allie suggested that Stephen talk w/ Walt Whitman. (This thread is worth following up upon and tracing through the whole work.)
Typing this I remember when I stopped taking notes. I asked a leading question: what statement marks Satan's *fall* (falling falling falling!--Icarus & the Christian fall)? Ans.: "I will not serve" (B&N 103). Then page 145 "...the office he had refused....He had refused. Why?" & earlier on 141 "He would fall. He had not yet fallen but he would fall silently, in an instant...fall...falling, falling, but not yet fallen, still unfallen, but about to fall."
Naomi was right! He has not yet fallen--he has merely refused to become a priest--but he will fall & we see that in chapter five. (But is this "falling" is another kind of rising or flying: When the soul of a man is born in this country there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight. You talk to me of nationality, language, religion. I shall try to fly by those nets" (180). By refusing the call he may be able to avoid the net of the priesthood & may fly. But does he fly like Dedalus (successful) or like Icarus (doomed).
We also talked about Stephen's discussion w/ the director (priest) about becoming a priest (having a vocation). Much of what we talked about was also discussed in D-block see the commentary above.
Now your turn. Write!
D-block
Summary by Ali O: Stephen disciplines himself at the beginning & in the end allows himself to think about women again. Also, his family is once again moving
Lucy F: interested in the passage in which he is asked if he has a vocation for the priesthood. We looked closely at this passage.
We talked about the priest's comments about Victor Hugo: "had never written half so well when he had turned against the church as he had written when he was a catholic." & how Stephen reacts: "the tiny flame which the priest's allusion had kindled upon Stephen's cheek had sunk down again and his eyes were still fixed calmly on the colourless sky. But an unresting dout flew hither and thither before his mind."
I mentioned the quotation "the priest let the blindcord fall" (Barnes & Noble edition 136) but had meant to quote from 134: "as [the priest] spoke and smiled, slowly dangling and loooping the cord of the other blind..." & then mention all of this in association with the mainy uses of "grave" & "mirthless": "leaned his chin gravely..." "seeing in [the priest's face] a mirthless reflection of the sunken day..." "a mirthless mask" "the life of the college passed gravely over his consciousness. It was a grave and ordered and passionless life that awaited him..." & then another face "the face was eyeless and souravoured and devout, shot with pink tinges of suffocated anger. Was it not a mental spectre of the face of one of the jesuits..."
Look at all that Joyce is saying w/ repetition & imagery (& subtle or implied metaphor); one might even say that Joyce employs a macabre diction).
& Hannah pointed out (B&N 157) where Stephen plays with ivy and ivory. "What about ivory ivy?" She senses his interested in language & sees him, finally, as a poet, an artist.
Several times we alluded to but never delved into the final scene with the woman in the water.
I mentioned the concept of "epiphany". Somewhere in here we talked about the virgin-whore complex.
*
F-block
Summary by Jaclyn
* Stephen assigns himself devotional tasks (rosary) & disciplines himself (not moving in bed, not making eye contact w/ women). Devotion to the Virgin Mary. Thoughts about the Holy Trinity.
* Stephen is asked if he has thought about becoming a priest. ("Les jupes" makes him think of women--never far from his mind.)
* Family struggles (Jaclyn asserts: he seems to feel for his siblings--in their innocence.)
* Friends joke about his name in Greek. (Reader is reminded of Dedalus, etc.)
* Stephen has an epiphany while watching the girl washing.
Allie: provokes conversation about women, especially if Stephen considers/grasps women as independent agents w/ their own consciousness or if he sees them only in relation to himself (as pure, as beautiful, as sexual, etc.) & why might this be significant? Like D-block, we talked briefly about the virgin-whore complex.
Michael asked about the use of "-boro" by a sibiling. We talked about playing with language (& "secret" codes) in the novel and outside it.
Then I became to involved and stopped taking notes until...
* Isabel asked a question about church and state & speculated whether or not Stephen blamed the church for his family's financial difficulties.
* I said I thought he blamed his father.
* Courtland quoted from B&N 214: "[my father is] a medical student, an oarsman, a tenor, an amateur actor, a shouting politician, a small landlord, a small investor, a drinker, a good fellow, a storyteller, somebody's secretary, something in a distillery, a taxgatherer, a bankrupt and at present a praiser of his own past."
Allie read from page 146-147 where Stephen is thinking while seeing the bodies of his friends. Stephen reveals his ambivalence about the body. (This is a major thread in the book. Stephen's ideas about his body &/vs. his soul--& is also a major thread in Western Civ/Christianity.) Allie suggested that Stephen talk w/ Walt Whitman. (This thread is worth following up upon and tracing through the whole work.)
Typing this I remember when I stopped taking notes. I asked a leading question: what statement marks Satan's *fall* (falling falling falling!--Icarus & the Christian fall)? Ans.: "I will not serve" (B&N 103). Then page 145 "...the office he had refused....He had refused. Why?" & earlier on 141 "He would fall. He had not yet fallen but he would fall silently, in an instant...fall...falling, falling, but not yet fallen, still unfallen, but about to fall."
Naomi was right! He has not yet fallen--he has merely refused to become a priest--but he will fall & we see that in chapter five. (But is this "falling" is another kind of rising or flying: When the soul of a man is born in this country there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight. You talk to me of nationality, language, religion. I shall try to fly by those nets" (180). By refusing the call he may be able to avoid the net of the priesthood & may fly. But does he fly like Dedalus (successful) or like Icarus (doomed).
We also talked about Stephen's discussion w/ the director (priest) about becoming a priest (having a vocation). Much of what we talked about was also discussed in D-block see the commentary above.
Now your turn. Write!
Friday, October 24, 2008
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Chapter 3)
In the comments box post any questions, observations, and comments still lingering after the student-lead discussions (Wednesday, October 22 and Friday, October 24). You are evaluated during these discussions and may feel that your contributions during class did not adequately convey your understanding of the novel. If so, post comments.
Over the weekend I'll get the notes up from Friday's discussion. In both classes, the best A Portrait discussion sessions yet. Interesting to me how deep, specific, and serious both discussions were, yet how different. By reading the notes when I post them you'll have access to both threads of conversation.
Over the weekend I'll get the notes up from Friday's discussion. In both classes, the best A Portrait discussion sessions yet. Interesting to me how deep, specific, and serious both discussions were, yet how different. By reading the notes when I post them you'll have access to both threads of conversation.
Monday, October 20, 2008
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Chapter 2)
In the comments box post any questions, observations, and comments still lingering after the student-lead discussions (Monday, October 20 and, for D-block, Tuesday, October 21). You are evaluated during these discussions and may feel that your contributions during class did not adequately convey your understanding of the novel. If so, post comments.
D-Block (Write quick summaries for Tuesday to ground our analysis.)
E-Block (Write quick summaries for Wednesday to ground our analysis.)
* Examined parallels between the end of chapter 1 (falling, soft, grey) and chapter 2 (swoon, soft, dark).
* Thought about a few of the various moments in chapters 1 and 2 where women, intimacy, and sexuality are issues--and how this is related to other aspects of his identity: church and father specifically. More to be examined here.
* Discussed significance of Mr Tate (jokingly, with "a short loud laugh" 68) accusing Stephen of heresy and of Stephen's fight w/ mates over Tennyson and Byron. Linked this to Stephen's outsider status.
* Note: re: Courtland's comments: This is what I get for making inferences without the text in front of me. I re-read the red/white rose (Lancaster/York) passage (page 9) and noticed that Stephen (not just the narrator) is aware of the link between his face and the colors: "Stephen felt his own face red" and later "He thought his face must be white". Here as elsewhere Stephen obsesses with aesthetics (beauty: the colors are "beautiful to think of") and imagination (green rose) over practicality (the contest at hand) and identification (he is a white rose but identifies w/ the other colors as much as with the white).
* Much more to be said. The summaries will help.
D-Block (Write quick summaries for Tuesday to ground our analysis.)
E-Block (Write quick summaries for Wednesday to ground our analysis.)
* Examined parallels between the end of chapter 1 (falling, soft, grey) and chapter 2 (swoon, soft, dark).
* Thought about a few of the various moments in chapters 1 and 2 where women, intimacy, and sexuality are issues--and how this is related to other aspects of his identity: church and father specifically. More to be examined here.
* Discussed significance of Mr Tate (jokingly, with "a short loud laugh" 68) accusing Stephen of heresy and of Stephen's fight w/ mates over Tennyson and Byron. Linked this to Stephen's outsider status.
* Note: re: Courtland's comments: This is what I get for making inferences without the text in front of me. I re-read the red/white rose (Lancaster/York) passage (page 9) and noticed that Stephen (not just the narrator) is aware of the link between his face and the colors: "Stephen felt his own face red" and later "He thought his face must be white". Here as elsewhere Stephen obsesses with aesthetics (beauty: the colors are "beautiful to think of") and imagination (green rose) over practicality (the contest at hand) and identification (he is a white rose but identifies w/ the other colors as much as with the white).
* Much more to be said. The summaries will help.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (Chapter 1)
In the comments box post any questions, observations, and comments still lingering after the student-lead discussions (Friday, October 17). You are evaluated during these discussions and may feel that your contributions during class did not adequately convey your understanding of the novel. If so, post comments.
D: After a strong summary from Hannah B. D-block talked about...
* How determining one's place in the world--in one's religion, one's school, one's country, one's family, one's language--is one of the major themes dealt with in chapter one.
In relation to the issue of finding one's place in the world...
* We talked about the significance of Stephen's conversations with Athy. {This was Lucy F's contribution. }(We talked about Athy's "gossip" (Lucy F's apt word choice) about "smugging" (Ryan O provided the footnote) & the relationship of his name (a town and county in Ireland) to Stephen's strange name. (page 6)
* We talked about the Christmas dinner and the significance of the argument between Dante (loyalty to the Catholic religion) and Mr Casey/Mr Dedalus (loyalty to the Irish cause). (23+)
* We talked about the significance of Stephen's thoughts about Dieu and the names for God (13) which are preceded by Stephen's list of his relationship to "the universe" and by Fleming's rhyme about Stephen's place in the world.
* We talked about the significance Stephen saying "he was going to marry Eileen" (4)
* We talked about the significance of the question "do you kiss your mother?" and of Stephen's thoughts (and sensory impressions) of kissing. (11)
* Near the end I threw out the assertion "For Stephen every relationship is a problem or issue to be questioned and considered; nothing about his identity and his relationship to his social environment seems easy or natural."
* Also, Michael H helped out by digging up a passage in reference to a question I asked--but I can't remember the question. Michael H, do you remember?
* We should think a bit more about these and other moments in relation to what Joyce is suggesting about identity development (bildungsroman) [and artistic development (kunstlerroman)] and the social environment (family, schoolmates, school authority, religion, country, language, etc.)
* Finally, after class I wondered about Joyce's technique of having the narrator present Stephen's inner impressions and associations without explanation (as opposed to objective, fly-on-the-wall descriptions with explanation). Why might Joyce have made this narrative choice? Does the technique itself suggest something about Joyce's view of the nature of the self and identity?
E: After Isabel P's excellent summary E-block talked about...
* Stephen's funeral fantasy (and other imaginings: "green roses") and how this might be related this to his development as an artist (Isabel P);
* How the book is structured by Stephen's sensations and associations not by linear storytelling (this happened, then that, then that);
* How the narrator doesn't stop to explain Stephen's sensations and associations leaving the reader to infer;
* How Joyce seems to want the reader to experience Stephen's sensations and associations as opposed to just reading an explanation of them;
* [I stopped writing notes for the last ten minutes or so, while I tried to direct a quick discussion. I'm not sure what I've left out. I do know that I am missing comments or questions by Sarah J and Allie L. Do you remember what you said?]
D: After a strong summary from Hannah B. D-block talked about...
* How determining one's place in the world--in one's religion, one's school, one's country, one's family, one's language--is one of the major themes dealt with in chapter one.
In relation to the issue of finding one's place in the world...
* We talked about the significance of Stephen's conversations with Athy. {This was Lucy F's contribution. }(We talked about Athy's "gossip" (Lucy F's apt word choice) about "smugging" (Ryan O provided the footnote) & the relationship of his name (a town and county in Ireland) to Stephen's strange name. (page 6)
* We talked about the Christmas dinner and the significance of the argument between Dante (loyalty to the Catholic religion) and Mr Casey/Mr Dedalus (loyalty to the Irish cause). (23+)
* We talked about the significance of Stephen's thoughts about Dieu and the names for God (13) which are preceded by Stephen's list of his relationship to "the universe" and by Fleming's rhyme about Stephen's place in the world.
* We talked about the significance Stephen saying "he was going to marry Eileen" (4)
* We talked about the significance of the question "do you kiss your mother?" and of Stephen's thoughts (and sensory impressions) of kissing. (11)
* Near the end I threw out the assertion "For Stephen every relationship is a problem or issue to be questioned and considered; nothing about his identity and his relationship to his social environment seems easy or natural."
* Also, Michael H helped out by digging up a passage in reference to a question I asked--but I can't remember the question. Michael H, do you remember?
* We should think a bit more about these and other moments in relation to what Joyce is suggesting about identity development (bildungsroman) [and artistic development (kunstlerroman)] and the social environment (family, schoolmates, school authority, religion, country, language, etc.)
* Finally, after class I wondered about Joyce's technique of having the narrator present Stephen's inner impressions and associations without explanation (as opposed to objective, fly-on-the-wall descriptions with explanation). Why might Joyce have made this narrative choice? Does the technique itself suggest something about Joyce's view of the nature of the self and identity?
E: After Isabel P's excellent summary E-block talked about...
* Stephen's funeral fantasy (and other imaginings: "green roses") and how this might be related this to his development as an artist (Isabel P);
* How the book is structured by Stephen's sensations and associations not by linear storytelling (this happened, then that, then that);
* How the narrator doesn't stop to explain Stephen's sensations and associations leaving the reader to infer;
* How Joyce seems to want the reader to experience Stephen's sensations and associations as opposed to just reading an explanation of them;
* [I stopped writing notes for the last ten minutes or so, while I tried to direct a quick discussion. I'm not sure what I've left out. I do know that I am missing comments or questions by Sarah J and Allie L. Do you remember what you said?]
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