“The Epiphany as the Evanescent Moment: Flashes of Unintellectual Light in James Joyce’s Dubliners” was my final project for my WR 100 class, a writing seminar that focused on the concept of the avant-garde. Towards the end of the semester, my professor presented the class with a rather open-ended assignment. Our task was to select any piece of work that either we or other historians would consider as falling under the umbrella of the “avant-garde” and construct our own argument from the essay based on what we noticed about the work.
I was frightful of this assignment. I was not used to choosing what I would be writing about, let alone coming up with my very own claim based on no class discussions about the work itself. I decided that the best place to start would be where my interests lie, and that is with books. In my previous essays, I had focused on avant-garde musicians, including John Cage and Yoko Ono. In this upcoming essay, I wanted to focus on a writer. After a quick search on the Internet, I was fortunate enough to discover that one of my favorite writers, James Joyce, occupied the avant-garde era. I have not read much of his work, but grew fascinated with Dubliners when I was in high school. After I found something exciting to write about, I was all the more eager to begin my essay.
Nonetheless, the task proved more work than I thought it would be. Devising a claim occupied most of my time. I have gleaned from classes and scholarly essays that Dubliners is a piece of work that highlights the notion of epiphanies, the idea that each character arrives at some sort of life-changing revelation at the end of each short story. I have always disagreed with this assertion. Every time I read a story in Dubliners, I find that characters never do arrive at a conclusion; they are always at a loss. My claim was still a little loose at this point, but nevertheless, it was a start.
My finished product was accomplished through many rereads by classmates, writing tutors, and of course, my professor. Though I meant for this essay to be avant-garde in the experimental sense, I am pleased to say that I have learned more from the experience than I thought I would. My epiphanies are as follows: incorporating sources strengthens claims, circular reasoning is better left neglected, and write where your interests lie . . . always.
NAVRAJ N. NARULA is an international student from India who resides in Thailand when she is away from her home in Boston, Massachusetts. As a sophomore in Boston University’s School of Education, Narula’s passion for teaching has encouraged her to pursue a career in which she would devote her time to helping students realize their potential by assisting them with both academic and social tasks in the classrooms. She aims to choose English language or world literature as her subject of expertise.