Beginagains

Having just been to a great talk on the importance of dynamic blogging, I've decided to try to start again.

My name is Siobhán Purcell and I'm a first-year PhD student in NUI Galway with research interests that variously involve:
- The Writings and Disjecta of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett
- Phenomenology, particularly lived experience of disability and illness
- Philosophical approaches to sense
- Fascism and Modernism

So... huge areas. But Disability Studies is a priority of mine. And as it's a small subject area, particularly within massive subjects like Irish/Joyce/Beckett studies, I need to start reaching out to a community of scholars to guide me with insights. Furthermore, with a subject that deals with marginalised groups of people, it's crucial to be as democratic as possible. Is the internet more democratic? I don't know yet but I'd like to learn.

I'm only beginning with my PhD but past research has investigated theories of pain, Deafness in Joyce's works, the dialectic between blindness and reading and the lived experience represented through art. My primary focus is ethical but I'm worried that moralises an issue that needs further historical depth.

Hmm....

I don't know anyone researching these areas so it would be great to hear back from people who are. I was directed to this on one of my many frantic Google searches and would love to attend. For now, I'll just attach a link to a very interesting article I found that outlines the plight of those with facial injuries after The Great War. Some allusions are made to amputees being heroised after the war, but I can't find any sources for this. Does anyone know? Also, I've heard that Boardwalk Empire features a man with a tin mask but I haven't watched it yet. Is it worthwhile?

Oh and on the subject, what do we make of a new film like Hugo (Martin Scorsese) that makes a guard with a creaking splint the butt of most of its jokes? Spoiler: A clockwork limb seems to validate him fully but what does that mean? What does it comment on?

And why, oh why, is a Joyce-a-like (replete with glasses) featured in the opening scenes?!