This week has been an important one for me, to be able to participate an event that I didn’t even know exist at all, yet been searching for it for years. That event is a symposium slash conference where undergraduate students, particularly from the Humanities background like me, can amplify their views on literature, philosophy, social life, world in that matter. I’ve been looking for this kind of event for years, and failed successfully. It’s not until my last year as an undergraduate students (now) that I discovered it. Turned out Ege University Izmir has been organizing this kind of event for years, and this time was their 7th. The joke is on me people, Ege University is just 30 minutes away from my university, and yet I could miss the news for years. Actually I have always found information regarding events like this, but the ones I found normally required participants to pay some amount of money (which I don’t have at all,) beside submitting paper. And it’s normally attended by professional academician I would say, people like our professors at Uni. So I refrained from participate. Now that I know it’s not the only option, I use all my power to be part of it. And to finally get to participate this year’s batch is such a great honor.
In my opinion, this event is very important and necessary because not only it enables young scholars to think critically about the world but it also encourages them to continue the old tradition of enhancing and expanding the critical thinking tradition. One of the chair women from the session said that she hoped that this event can give birth to a future Derrida, Lacan, Julia Kristeva etc. I know that’s such a high hope, but there is no harm in hoping, right?
Additionally, this event is such a great opportunity for me to meet with people with such great enthusiasm for things they believe in. They all come with voices that they want to amplify. And I believe, we all come for the same purpose. Sometimes, in our Uni, though we thirst for discussion, that’s just not happening. I don’t know what cause that to happen, perhaps the lack of forum or perhaps there is this phenomenon where only one or two people in a Uni that really go for such thing. Hence, forum or event like this is a good time for them to really go for things they love.
IUS (International Undergraduate Symposium) is an annual event organized by Ege University Izmir to give young scholars from all over the world (particularly from universities across Turkey) a place to present their views and knowledge regarding literature, social life, and even the world. This year’s theme was “Dream” which opens lots of opportunities for participants to approach it with various lens. Having attended presentations for two days make me very positive that the old tradition of thinking critically won’t be forgotten easily. Contrary to that, it will continue to live forever. There are presenters who approach “Dream” with Psychoanalytic Criticism, Postmodernism, Feminism, and etc. Some even approach “Dream” in relation to movie making, poetry from the Romantics period, novel etc.
I for one particularly approach “Dream” in relation to a Psychoanalytic Criticism by taking Kundera’ “Life is Elsewhere” as a case study. What I was trying to prove is that in Kundera’s novel, Kundera creates a character whose profession is also a writer. And along the way the character Kundera created, Jaromil, also creates another fictional character named Xavier. Xavier is an unconventional character. He lives from dream to dream. And in one particular dream he gets to live in he falls in love with a married woman. When her husband returned, instead of staying away from them, he initiated to kill the husband by locking him in an oak closet where he dies and turns into a skeleton. I argue that, although on the surface it seems like it’s a fictional story created by Jaromil, when analyzed further however, it’s actually part of Jaromil’s repressed desire. By comparing a work of fiction to a dream, I then analyze it like a psychiatrist would by taking Jaromil’s entire life consideration. I argue that Jaromil suffers Oedipus complex by giving three reasons: 1. His childhood and his anxious phase of lacking masculinity; 2. His choice of women; and 3. His character as a person. This obviously is a short version of my paper.
So yes, it was such a great event that I would love to join again next time. Except there is no next time. I will finish my undergraduate education next June, hence I won’t be able to join it anymore. But I would love to join an event like this one wherever it is. I believe we can find it everywhere right?
You too can join. For further information regarding event like this you can check department website of the university.
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