Scholarship English Day

In English today, we were presented four lectures on a range of different topics relating to English. These lectures included subjects as broad as narratology theory, rhetorical theory, philosophy, and Shakespeare.

I especially liked thinking about how to apply each of these lectures to texts I had read, and in particular how Todorov's equilibrium theory could apply to the work of Faulkner. To focus in on Todorov, he had the theory that a narrative can be segmented into five stages. These stages include the initial state of equilibrium, the disruption of that equilibrium, the recognition of that disruption, the attempt to repair that disruption, and the reinstatement of equilibrium. In Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, we may consider the equilibrium to be the antebellum Southern United States, the disruption to that is the Civil War and resulting decay of the utterly destroyed and humiliated postbellum South. These first two stages are also mirrored with the corresponding initial prestige and then disgrace of the Compson family before and after the Civil War. And so thus, there are parallel narratives here, whereby the Compson family stands in as allegory for the Old South. One way in which the third and fourth stages are manifested is through Jason Compson chasing after Miss Quentin who has run away with a northerner. However, the fifth stage does not return to the first stage, but rather to the second stage, thereby implying that the past is irreversible, but yet nonetheless dictates our present and future. Other theorists that could be connected to The Sound and the Fury include Strauss, especially with his idea of binary opposites, which in the novel could extend to white versus black (the Compsons and their servant family, within the broader context of the South); young versus old as well as female versus male (Miss Quentin and Jason); as well as the overarching notion of the antebellum South and the postbellum South. Barthes' theory about code also comes into play here with regard to the fact that Miss Quentin ran away with a northerner - which reinforces the sense of humiliation the South felt following the Civil War through mirroring it with Jason's humiliation at his niece's promiscuity with northern gentlemen (although I'm not entirely sure which code this subtle fact relates to - I definitely need to research Barthes' theories more!).

All in all, I gained a lot from this day - the new ideas about narratological theories being just one aspect which I enjoyed learning about, in addition to rhetorical theory with regard to Baudrillard's hyperreality and Burke's Pentad, as well as discussing some ethical philosophy about the trolley problem and its different variations, to the Great Chain of Being (which I had never heard about before - and which was very interesting to learn about). Each of the lectures revealed many new fascinating ways of looking at literary texts and I would like to thank each of the teachers who presented today for their very enjoyable and useful presentations.

Theories of Personhood

In English recently we have been learning about the notion of the self and personhood; we have chosen a philosopher of interest to us and researched their theories pertaining to the self. I have chosen nineteenth-century Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard—the father of existentialist philosophy— and his perspective on what the self is, as linked below.

The Self in Kierkegaardian Thought

Furthermore, today we looked specifically at four questions on the self, and our opinions on each question.

1. Define human; and, 2. define person.

A human is a person and a person is a being with a self and a self is the self we derive from the Self—the primordial Self—the Ur-Self: God's Self: God.

3. What are your thoughts on Sandra the Orangutan receiving personhood.

The law is predicated on a utilitarian subjectivity, but that subjectivity does not necessitate the truth, for the truth is not subjective but objective. It means nothing for the "law" to grant an orangutan personhood, for that goes well beyond the law's jurisdiction; the law has no right to make claims of the objective when it is no more than a subjective construct. To that construct we owe obedience only so far as the legal realm extends, and no more. The fact of an orangutan "becoming" a person means nothing, for the law cannot bestow a self—a distinctly human attribute—onto an orangutan, as it can a word such as personhood, a word and only a word, which outside the courtroom means nothing. Thus, the law here does not need be recognised as legitimate, for it goes beyond its own jurisdiction, thereby rendering it null and void.

4. Do you think the idea of personhood will become more complicated in the future with the rise of artificial intelligence?

No—it makes no difference. Artificial intelligence will never become human nor a person, no matter how closely it imitates us; it is, on a fundamental, inherent level, inhuman and thus impersonal.