Araby-- Lacquer of Meaning

Since we are not really spending any more time with Joyce's "Araby" in class I will do a little blog on it to discuss it a bit further. In the back of my Viking Critical Edition there was one piece that specifically dealt with "Araby" (and about 5 that deal with "The Dead"). After reading the piece of background/ criticism on "Araby" by Harry Stone I found some really useful concepts that Stone puts forth to illuminate our reading of "Araby" and Joyce in general.

Stone mainly deals with the historical basis for "Araby" and also the job of Joyce inserting various allusions and symbolic meaning. While Stone goes into great detail about each of the historical background, allusions, & symbols' meaning, I will just give a simple rundown to sum up this piece and offer some new insight on the piece. Perhaps the most important statement that Stone makes is that Joyce "was careful to lacquer his images and actions with layer after layer of translucent, incremental meaning." This is one of the best ways to understand the collection of Dubliners.

The historical background in "Araby" is fairly present. Like the boy, Joyce himself grew up on North Richmond Street. Joyce and his character attended the same school and both "found it dull and stultifying". Also, it appears that characteristics of the boy's surrogate parents were inspired by Joyce's own parents. Not only do the boy and Joyce share many similarities but the bazaar itself had actually happened in 1894. In one of Stone's claims he says that it seems that "Araby" "is the identical struggle {to A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man} at an earlier stage; "Araby" is a portrait of the artist as a young boy."

Stone also wants to assure us that beyond the historical foundations for the story lie the important lacquering of images mentioned earlier. Here is a list with a quick breakdown of important "meanings" to be grasped.

The Priest & house-- The death of the priest and the withering of a "central appletree" suggest a decay in the Catholic religion. Also the books the boy sees in the priest's death-room are full of meaning (too much to go in to here).

The girl (Mangan's sister)-- Stone says "all women, for Joyce, are Eves: they tempt and they betray". Stone suggests that Mangan's sister is a sort of false Madonna that is actually leading the betrayal and decay of Catholic religion (furthering the last theme).

Silver Bracelet-- Mangan's sister twirls a silver bracelet around her wrist suggesting an idolatry of mammon. The silver bracelet will come back about in the florin the boy carries to Araby.

Araby-- The uncle says how the word "araby" reminds him of a poem that he is going to recite. It turns out that the poem is about betrayal. The Arab's Farewell to His Steed begins with "My beautiful, my beautiful! that standeth meekly by,/ With thy proudly-arched and glossy neck, and dark fiery eye!/ Fret not to roam the desert now with all thy winged speed;/ I may not mount on thee again!-- thou'rt sold, my Arab steed!"

Florin-- The florin coin, or "flower" named because of the presence of the flower represented by the Virgin Mary, the boy clutches is actually the English production which became known as the "Godless and Graceless Florin". The coin itself recalls the silver bracelet the girl wears and also suggests betrayal of the Virgin Mary and Ireland itself.

I have left out mention the last epiphany on purpose. This blog was meant to show the "ooh's" that fill the story and not the "ah!". It is simply astounding to see how Joyce sets up the story with these layers of images (which I barely scratched). It is extremely evident how he could have progressed from these stories to Finnegan's Wake. Getting a further working knowledge of how Joyce structures his stories will reveal the epiphanies to us in more force.

Return to the Golden Age-- More on Epiphanies from "A Short History of Myth"

While finishing up Karen Armstrong's A Short History of Myth I realized just how saturated the book was with discussion on the importance of epiphany. Once I broadened my understanding of epiphany to mean "experiences of the divine" I was illuminated with an interesting perspective on our contemporary placement on the historical scale of experiencing the divine. I will briefly outline the history of man and experiences of the divine. (extremely brief considering it is the history of mankind :) Perhaps Blake would call it an idiotic pursuit! But I think it is useful to know our general place in history in such matters.

In the Paleolithic Period, spanning from c. 20000-8000 BCE, and the Neolithic Period, from c. 8000- c. 4000 BCE, people experienced the divine in everyday life through animals, the earth, and other naturalistic places. Perhaps the time when the divine and the 'commonplace' life of people were mostly intertwined, at least in the sense that people felt their lives depended on the course of the divine.

In the early civilizations, from c. 4000- c. 800 BCE, the divine shifted from the naturalistic places to the structures of cities. "These early city-dwellers saw their cultural attainments as essentially divine" (Armstrong 61). With greater reliance now on human ingenuity "people began to see themselves as independent agents" (Armstrong 72). The gods still existed in the myths of the people but were beginning to become more distanced and ineffective on everyday life.

The Axial Age, from c. 800- c. 200 BCE, was coined because "it proved to be pivotal in the spiritual development of humanity; the insights gained during this time have continued to nourish men and women to the present day" (Armstrong 79). People began to rely on themselves even more thus increasing the distance between mankind and divinity. People "yearned for transcendence, but the sacred now seemed remote, and even alien" (Armstrong 82). One of the major developments during this time was the Greek logos-- a development that definitely impacts our notions of divinity today. Another main tenant of this age was a rise in the importance of rejecting violence and the belief in the Golden Rule.

The Post-Axial Age, from c. 200 BCE- c. 1500 CE, is marked by the flourishing of the three major Western monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. These religions all began searching for their place in history, thus relying on logos to explain their history. People of the day were at odds with trying to explain the mythic stories with logos and thus began the shift towards logical reasoning rather than mythic explanation.; the Post-Axial Age marks the beginning of the decline in the cultural prevalence of myth and the end of 'advancement' of our spirituality.

The Great Western Transformation, from c. 1500 CE- c. 2000 CE (present?), marks the rise of the "new hero of Western society", the "scientist or the inventor, who was venturing into uncharted realms for the sake of his society" (Armstrong 121). "The heroes of Western modernity would be technological or scientific geniuses of logos, not the spiritual geniuses inspired by mythos" (Armstrong 121). This became the time when myth, and the divine, became purged from society unless it was scientifically 'provable' to exist. This is the age in which the divine has the smallest place allotted in society... although it does still exist.

Essentially, Armstrong's whole argument is, in regards to experiencing the divine, as we moved forward through history the 'distance' between humans and the divine increases making it increasingly more difficult and rare for us to have divine experiences-- even to the point where Armstrong says "because of out suppression of mythos we may even have regressed" (Armstrong 135). (Consider this in the same context as what Dr. Kollin often refers to as the "Progressive Myth of History") This seems like a pretty bad thing for us-- the people most current in the linear scope of history. However, she seems to support that we are actually not in the 'most distanced' time which, according to her, occurred approximately between 1900-1950 with the First and Second World Wars, attempted genocides, flourish of alienation and nihilism, etc. Humanity's relationship with the divine appears to be on the rise, however slightly. Interestingly, she makes the point that we are experiencing the divine not through religious means but rather through art forms such as visual art and literature (I don't think she mentioned music but you could probably throw that in there too). She mentions some specific authors including Joyce and literary movements such as Magical Realism (I hope to write a blog in the future about the movement of Magical Realism and it's assimilation of the epiphany into everyday life). Whether or not our current age will be a turning point back to frequent manifestations of the divine or just a small spike in the history of humanity is yet to be seen. The future of this relationship is undetermined and up to us to see how far along it comes.


*Hopefully their will be more beer in The Golden Age.

It seems to me that the project of our class, to experience divine manifestations through epiphanies, is the new heroic quest. Perhaps it is the wrong pursuit to actively search for the divine (does it go against the unexpected revelatory nature of epiphany?) but I think that experiencing the divine, so essential to epiphanies, is an important concept to embolden. Coming off the heels of an age determined to exterminate all that wasn't supported by logos, including much of myth, spirituality, and a greater sense of the divine in everyday life, it is the contemporary challenge to once again see the importance of the divine in our lives. In a historical sense, according to the basic 'progression' outlined above, even the epiphanies we have had and have yet to experience are a 'return' to an age where man and gods lived in closer proximity to one another. This return should not be considered a descent or return to barbarism, but as a return to an age with certain qualities superior to our own. As the band TV on the Radio puts it we must look forward to "The age of miracles, The age of sound, Well there's a Golden Age, Comin' round, comin' round, comin' round". This "Golden Age", a mythic time that often occurred in the distant past, can give modernity, with it's tendency to look to the future, a positive spin. As T.S. Eliot opens up the "Four Quartets" in Burnt Norton "Time present and time past/ Are both perhaps present in time future,/ And time future contained in time past." Eliot seems to have founded the same theme that TV On the Radio sings; despite the current negativism toward the divine, as captured in "The Waste Land", we will undergo a great return to "The Golden Age, comin' round, comin' round, comin' round..."



*Apparently this is a CD cover for some psychedelic band. Looking at the track list it is evident that this band supports the Mayan "end of the world" in 2012 concept. However, they obviously think that instead of this being a plunge into darkness it will be a return to more simplistic times based on agriculture (note the forefront image of the tree and the divine colors, psychedelic images, that are sprouting upwards from it).*

Myth & Epiphany

This semester I'm taking the "Mythologies" class taught by Danell Jones. For our first text we have been reading A Short History of Myth by Karen Armstrong, one of the world's foremost authorities on the subject of religion. The book appears as part of the Canongate "Myth Series"-- a series of texts and essays by contemporary authors such as Phillip Pullman, Jeanette Winterson, Margaret Atwood, and others taking a modern look at enduring myths. Some of the authors chose to academically discuss myths while others chose to retell various myths. Due to part of the task of this capstone class, to be the crown of our English Lit. experience, I think bringing in works from other classes and relating them to this class is extremely appropriate if not necessary.

Anyway, back to the subject of epiphany & myth, I found some really interesting claims in Armstrong's A Short History of Myth that really got me thinking about the prevalence to epiphanic experiences in mythology. On page 42., shortly into an introduction to the chapter "The Mythology of the Farmers", she says "the crop was an epiphany, a revelation of divine energy, and when farmers cultivated the land and brought forth food for their community, they felt that they had entered a sacred realm and participated in this miraculous abundance." Armstrong continues to say how myths created by these farmers came to be largely about the relationship between the cycle of growth and harvest through the earth. One can see how the crop rising would be highly epiphanic. Firstly, the crop is growing and rising up; the dimension of height and of ascending have much importance in the placement of the divine.


*This is kind of a cool image tying together the growth of the field to the divine, represented by the church.


Another characteristic of this description of mythic epiphany that I really like is it's characteristic of sustenance giving. Looking back to my Joyce post about epicleti the term epiklesis, for which Joyce found the word epicleti useful, refers to the invocation of the Holy Spirit (the divine) to bless the bread and wine with the holy presence. If you remember, Joyce said of his work "there is a certain resemblance between the mystery of the mass and what I am trying to do... to give people a kind of intellectual pleasure or spiritual enjoyment by converting the bread of everyday life into something that has permanent artistic life of its own... for their mental, moral, and spiritual uplift." Like the epiphanic characteristic of light and dark touched on in my last post, there seems to also be another strong tie between food or sustenance and hunger. The reception of food by the "hungry" tied to the gain of divine knowledge is one of the strongest themes perpetuated in our culture, mainly through the Genesis 3 fruit-of-the-tree-of-knowledge story. As we all know, Eve ate of the Fruit, gave some to Adam, and then "their eyes were opened". This epiphanic moment is most popularly represented through the image of the apple (even physiologically represented in the naming of the Adam's apple bulge on the neck-- think myths aren't at work explaining our world to us?). Like the relationship of light/dark, food/hunger seems to suggest a sort of filling of the empty. This concept should be very important in our further study.


Although I didn't really talk to much about very many specific myths, I think that this introduction helped me quite a bit to show some of the more archetypal representations of what is going on in various mythologies. An interesting project would be to go look for some specific myths, popular and obscure, with strong epiphanic moments. It might be useful for us, while trying to get at the abundance of epiphanies in literature to consider the revelations in myths. From Prometheus bringing fire down to mankind and the character of Hermes, the divine messenger, it seems that epiphanies have played an important role in the ancient tradition at the roots of stories.

Research on Epiphany #2-- General Research

In my last "research on epiphany" post I went into some depth into our study of epiphany. I used an article that discusses the background to James Joyce to really get at epiphany, a term that is used abundantly in Joyce criticism, and the term epicleti-- Joyce's personal choice for what he referred to his stories as. Now, after going into depth with a specific, I would like to step back and really just pursue a broad understanding of the word epiphany. I may hit on some of the same points as in my previous post but I would like to explore them deeper.

The word epiphany has roots that run back to Greek. Etymologically, epi- means something like "forth"-- think of epicenter, epidermis, etc. The root phan- is "to appear" or "to show"-- for phan- think of words like phantom, phantasm, phantasmagoria, and some spellings phantasy. Thus, an accurate definition of epiphany could be understood as a showing forth. Traditionally this showing forth is typically understood through some sort of manifestation of the divine, thus giving the word its revelatory status-- a sudden manifestation of the divine through an unveiling.

The term epiphany in the Christian tradition refers to a holiday celebrating "the revelation of God made Man in the person of Jesus Christ" (Wiki). Apparently the celebration typically falls on January 6th or, in some faiths, the Sunday between January 2nd and January 8th. The western faiths typically commemorate the visitation of the magi to baby Jesus while eastern faiths focus on the baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan by John. The holiday can also be called "Theophany"-- appearance of God.

It would appear that this religious understanding of epiphany as the "appearance of God" has even appeared in pop culture symbolical depictions of an epiphany-- most famously depicted as a light bulb popping on over someones head. There appears to be an obvious theme of ignorance as darkness and divine knowledge as light (consider how often churches light candles for Christ, or think of calling Christ the "light of the world" from John 8:12 or "light in the dark"). Also, in the western culture light and dark often are representative of good and evil respectively. From this understanding the epiphany can be understood as the manifestation of good and the supplant of evil. From these considerations we should consider the concept of illumination valuable to the understanding of epiphany. It would be very interesting to study epiphany in terms of bringing light to dark.

While I've tried to explore quite a bit here and in my last post I'm sure that there is plenty left to reveal! The more I consider the term, the more paths that I find myself being led down. It makes me extremely excited to really get going and do justice to the study of such a culturally important concept. In the great Hall of Epiphany the light I have shed only a small speck of a candle towards illuminating the darkness.

Magical Realism-- Literature of the Asssimilated Epiphany

Wiki article

Hybridity—Magical realists incorporate many techniques that have been linked to post-colonialism, with hybridity being a primary feature. Specifically, magical realism is illustrated in the inharmonious arenas of such opposites as urban and rural, and Western and indigenous. The plots of magical realist works involve issues of borders, mixing, and change. Authors establish these plots to reveal a crucial purpose of magical realism: a more deep and true reality than conventional realist techniques would illustrate.

Irony Regarding Author’s Perspective—The writer must have ironic distance from the magical world view for the realism not to be compromised. Simultaneously, the writer must strongly respect the magic, or else the magic dissolves into simple folk belief or complete fantasy, split from the real instead of synchronized with it. The term "magic" relates to the fact that the point of view that the text depicts explicitly is not adopted according to the implied world view of the author. As Gonzales Echevarria expresses, the act of distancing oneself from the beliefs held by a certain social group makes it impossible to be thought of as a representative of that society.
Authorial Reticence—Authorial reticence refers to the lack of clear opinions about the accuracy of events and the credibility of the world views expressed by the characters in the text. This technique promotes acceptance in magical realism. In magical realism, the simple act of explaining the supernatural would eradicate its position of equality regarding a person’s conventional view of reality. Because it would then be less valid, the supernatural world would be discarded as false testimony.

The Supernatural and Natural—In magical realism, the supernatural is not displayed as questionable. While the reader realizes that the rational and irrational are opposite and conflicting polarities, they are not disconcerted because the supernatural is integrated within the norms of perception of the narrator and characters in the fictional world.

Kafka and the Struggle for Epiphany

*AFTER YOU POST MAKE SURE TO EDIT RESEARCH #1 POST AND ADD LINK TO THIS POST!

In my last blog about Joyce, epiphany, and epicleti I prophesied this post. It seems that examining Kafka and epiphany is important (maybe only to me) even though no Kafka is on the list for reading in this class. So important in fact that I would even consider this an early musing about a topic for THE term paper in this class... unless something about Italo Calvino usurps it (God I'm a nerd).

Research on Epiphany #1-- Joyce, Epiphany, and Epicleti

One of our first tasks on the blog is to research and explore the word "epiphany". Instantly I thought of a great source to begin my thoughts. While in Wisconsin to present a paper at NCUR (National Conference of Undergraduate Research) I went into a second-hand bookstore and bought "The Viking Critical Library" edition of James Joyce's Dubliners. The copy, which once belonged to Raymond A. Nelson, is full of great insight into Joyce. At the time, one of the shorter pieces really caught my attention-- a short essay titled "Epiphanies and Epicleti" presumably by the editors Robert Scholes and A. Walton Litz. Considering that "Dubliners" is one of our texts this source seems like a great starting point.

The article begins by discussing the term epiphany by saying "literally, the word 'epiphany' refers to a showing forth, a revelation. In Greek drama it can refer to the climactic moment when a god appears and imposes on the scene before him. In the Christian religious tradition the Feast of the Epiphany celebrates the revelation of Christ's divinity to the Magi. Joyce... employed the term 'epiphany' to refer to moments in which things or people in the world revealed their true character or their essence. According to the article "Joyce himself actually did collect a 'book of epiphanies'". The articles mainly uses Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and the novel's inspiration Stephen Hero to illuminate Joyce's working understanding of epiphanies. This essay contends that Joyce's epiphanies can be grouped into two distinct styles-- "'memorable phases' of the young artist's own mind, or instances of 'vulgarity of speech or of gesture' in the world around him". The way that I consider these groupings (and I may be misguided) is the "memorable phases" refer to those aha moments where an internal revelation takes place about the world around you. I think of the "vulgarity of speech or of gesture" in Freudian terms; we tend to make moves in speech and gesture that stem from our unconscious and actually reveal our true, unmediated self-- a moment of epiphany for Joyce.

When reading Dubliners "critics have applied the notion of epiphany to that moment... when some sort of revelation takes place." It is furthered to mean "a moment of revelation or insight such as usually climaxes a Dubliners story. Some characters merely reveal themselves or give themselves away; others achieve insight into their situations". There is some specific mention of epiphanic moments in both "Araby" and "The Dead" but, to borrow a metaphor from Studies in a Major Author, I don't want to let too many cats out of the bag... yet. Telling you what moments are considered epiphanies would ruin the nature of epiphany itself!

Interestingly enough, Joyce never used the word "epiphany" when discussing Dubliners but he did use another related word-- "epicleti". In a letter to Constantine Curran in August of 1904 Joyce wrote "I am writing a series of epicleti-- ten-- for a paper... I call the series Dubliners to betray the soul of that hemiplegia or paralysis which many consider a city." We notice that epiphany and epicleti have the same "epi" prefix which means "on, upon, above"; other than that notable quick etymological discovery what is this word "epicleti" and what does it have to do with epiphany?

"Epicleti" refers to epiclesis. Epiclesis refers to the invocation of the Holy Ghost to performing transubstantiation-- the act of transforming the wafer and wine to the body and blood of Christ. Joyce defends his statement of the choice of the term epicleti by saying "there is a certain resemblance between the mystery of the mass and what I am trying to do... to give people a kind of intellectual pleasure or spiritual enjoyment by converting the bread of everyday life into something that has permanent artistic life of its own... for their mental, moral, and spiritual uplift." I understand the relationship between "epiphany" and "epicleti" as epicleti being the catalyst that leads to the epiphanic moment.

Epicleti has another meaning that may have had possible influence on Joyce's working understanding of the term he employed. "An epiklesis can also refer to a reproach or an imputation. And epikletos can mean 'summoned before a court,' or 'accused'. Thus the epicleti may be considered the accused, summoned up by Joyce to stand trial as specimens of Irish paralysis". According to the essay, these two different functions of epicleti are much like the "priestly powers of transubstantiation and judgment of the sinful". As a reader of Kafka (link to my next blog about Kafka and the struggle for epiphany) , I find this legal-minded definition of epikletos very interesting. It seems that Joyce is using example to teach us to arraign "the common", summon it into a court or place of judgment, rethink our typical valuation, and seek to have an epiphaninc revealing of the depths of "the common". I hope this is helping... perhaps it is a little dense... I kind of feel that I don't even quite get how I'm trying to understand this concept, but I feel that I'm on my way!

Looking more closely back to Joyce's statement of what he was trying "to do" I love the mention of "converting the bread of everyday life". I think that this is something that this class should strive to do. We should seek to convert the bread of everyday life into something revelatory of the fantastic!

With this framework in mind I hope you have happy reading of Dubliners and the other stories. Keep an eye out for epiphanies and I'm sure you will find that this assistance in understanding Joyce's epiphanies will reveal itself to you!

Alpha post

Welcome! I extend the salutation from my blog to the class and from the class to my blog. It seems that after 4 years of walking through the courtyard into Wilson for English classes (and the occasional random lit. class in Roberts or AJM Johnson) this is to be my symbolic last; the port where I return, leave Bozeman and see the world with fresh eyes... at least until I return to academia:)

When I heard that Dr. Sexson was teaching the Capstone and the theme was to be "epiphanies" I was ecstatic. I can only imagine how much potential our class has to really have a memorable experience through our shared revelations. Remember this idea of "potential". We have a chance to really make the most out of the next semester.

For this blog, one of the main tenants was to give an overview of my career as an English major. Well... I have loved it. At times I may joke with friends that I major in "being poor" but I think that there are other ways in which I have become wealthy. For me, I believe that pursuing a study of literature has been a highly entrepreneurial move; I have taken a risk towards the advancement of my person and can now look back and realize that the small sand-grain of knowledge I began with has expanded into universes.

At times (and I'm NOT afraid to admit it) I look into the not-so-distant "real world" future and doubt whether or not I should have gone with the -lish ending over the -ineering ending to Eng_____. I would think that many of us have had those dark thoughts-- (holding book) "how is THIS going to help me get a job? If only I was an -ineer. I could have been rich!" However, I think that we all come to terms with our choice. We know that the path we have undertaken has not been trod in vain. Perhaps, over the hills, we all can make out something that draws us near. It looks surprisingly similar to all of us. Henry David Thoreau states in Walden-- "Instead of noblemen, let us have noble villages of men". Ours is truly a noble endeavor-- to inhabit the noble village.

Looking back over the syllabus, one particular idea really attracts me. Sexson writes that a capstone should be "the defining course in the career of the English major". The concept of "definition" is a wonderful way that I wish to approach the class. Over the past couple of years I have built up a mass of knowledge-- WE have built up a mass of knowledge. Now, in this class, the focus should be not only to learn, but to really mold, shape, and define this mass into something of firm purpose and with beautiful aesthetic.

At times during the semester, especially in those dread times, I can see how we will be tempted to slack. Let us not fall into that temptation (intended religious voice) and surmount it together. The only way for us not to have epiphanies is to not keep our eyes, ears, and mouths open. The epiphanies that will be revealed in this class (of which I can only now make out shrouded shadows) are out there waiting for us to discover them. I like to think that our search for epiphanies should share in the same spirit of Walt Whitman in Leaves of Grass. Whitman concludes his democratic wanderings through America with the line "Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,/ Missing me one place search another,/ I stop somewhere waiting for you". We should "keep encouraged" and seek to have our own epiphanic experiences blossom before us.

To sum up my hopes about 494 I can only say I have high expectations for this class. I look forward to it being a real capstone-- a crown on the structure of my amassed knowledge as an English Lit. major at MSU.