Due Date is Here!! A Word on Hockaday's Video and More Paper Talks from Oakridge!!

Papers Are Due Nov. 15th for the Dubliners 2013 Oakridge Paper Colloquium. Please Email Submissions to Mr. Colley as an Attached Word Document. 

Thanks to Hockaday Philosophy class and Dr. Moreland for posting their fascinating conversation of Dubliners, the Moral Life, and the philosophies of Aristotle and Cornel West.  As a class, we enjoyed viewing the discussion, and we took a lot from it. In fact, we were inspired to watch more videos of Dr. West.

As Hockaday pointed out, there are many divisions in Joyce's Dublin: gender, class, religion, nationality, etc., and these interpellating categories cause so much "tension" between characters.  Cornel West reminds us, however, that what binds us together more strongly as a humanity is our commonly shared experience of being-towards-death - an insight he takes directly from German Philosopher, Martin Heidegger. I like how Cornel West emphasizes that the "examined life" is one that practices how to die well, something the characters of Dubliners do not always succeed at doing... Hockaday students also put forward the thought that perhaps the characters of Joyce's collection live in extreme or deficient situations such that there is no "happy medium" - no moderate mean - to be chosen at that given time. Perhaps Aristotle's caveat about material conditions is an attempt to get at this same insight, which of course directs our critical focus back to the social space of Dublin. One Hockaday student mentions that when faced with extreme and/or deficient choices, a person's thought process becomes stagnant - that's a very interesting thought, and I think we see forces of stagnation at work as we progress from child-centered stories of Dubliners to those of the dreary adult world. But then, of course, we come to Gabriel - a character we hope escapes from the stagnant cave of automated thought as he realizes Cornel West's humanist truth that "[snow falls] upon all the living and the dead." Thank you Hockaday! Cornel West's words have elevated the discourse all the more here at Oakridge.

On another note, we have more videos to be posted here at Oakridge. David R., for instance, has written a paper on "Araby," exploring how the main character's both physical and intellectual powers of action become compromised by the structures of his environment. West of course was also interested in the power structures of social existence that interpellate, limit, and sometimes determine us as subjects. Well, let's see what David has to say:



Thanks David! We can't wait to read your paper. And yes, we'll see you at the conference this February 2013!!

Here's Connie T. talking about her paper on "A Painful Case" and the paradoxical experience of Alienation in the modern urban/suburban environment. Check it out:



Thank you Connie! We look forward to reading your paper!!

Adam Schrock will be examining the Joyce's notion of the epiphany in the stories "After the Race" and "The Dead." Here's his video:



Thanks Adam! Your paper sounds fascinating!

Here's one more video for today's posting. Lejla is writing on the story of "Eveline" from a 21st century female perspective. Let's hear what she has to say about it:



Thanks to everyone for their video postings!! Remember, papers are due tomorrow, Nov. 15th!! Email submissions to Mr. Colley at either (1) jcolley@theoakridgeschool.org or (2) dubliners.conference@gmail.com, and make sure the document is attached to the email in Word format. Thanks everyone!!