Class Discussion Notes: 10.25.2005

 

  • course goals
    •  “know thyself”
    • “know that which is greater than the ego”

 

  • Hopkins vs. Joyce- Ireland
    • Hopkins
      • Hopkins vacationed at Clogwones (Joyce and Stephen’s school)
      • English- subject of a lot of his late poems are about
      • Fits the priest in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
      • “king fishers”
        • know thyself
      • “Duns Scotus’ Oxford”
        • predecessor

 

  • flying
    • Daedulus
      • must make his own liberation
      • (Brian) “”When a man is born in this country there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight.” (203)- Daedulus was put in a labyrinth
      • (Rachel) 2nd paragraph
        • “hawk like man”- Daedalus
        • Thoth- god of wisdom and magic
        • Identifies with Daedalus- fears of self-actualization- conquered fear from page 225- it could be either one because he’s just identifying with flying out of prison
          • self actualization- maslow’s hierarcy of Needs
    • Icarus
      • “”When a man is born in this country there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight.” (203)- father’s warnings prevent freedom
      • “Try to be one of us-repeated Davin-In your heart you are an Irishman but your pride is too powerful.” (203)
      • (Laura) “Old father, old artificer, stand me now and ever in good stead.”(253)- he didn’t even create his own wings, he’s always borrowing from other people
      • (Susan) building up of pride and arrogance makes him more of the Icaraus than the Daedulus figure
      • (Anush) “I will not serve.”

 

  • allusions
    • Stephen says he’s isolating and alienating himself from people but with all of these allusions and connections, he isn’t alone—he’s no creating his own wings
    • 1904- modernism- gives up on the middle class audience

 

  • hermeneutics
    • the art of interpretation
    • you must read to gain the artist’s interpretation
    • impossible to know the artist’s interpretation, so it’s the reader’s response that matters
    • (May) only looking at the text makes it a lot easier to accept beliefs- but when you question why people write things, you see it a lot more clearly and you can criticize it a lot more analytically- you need some grounding