Student Blogs

Although I’m happy to be ending this exhausting and long semester I’m sad to conclude this course. I have found Romance Studies interesting and eye-opening and I loved the format of the course. I liked the use of contract grading and wish I had more classes that used the same format, as it was a […] read full post >>

 At the start of this semester, I was unsure of what to expect from the texts. I was excited at the prospect of reading new books every week by authors that I would not have explored otherwise. This course allowed me to become acquainted with more cultures, literary movements, and geographical regions. Moreover, it allowed me to explore new themes such as betrayal, family, and death in unique ways. 

I also thoroughly enjoyed the discussions in class because of the varying opinions that we got to explore. More than anything, I appreciated the fact that we were able to express all of our opinions, both negative and positive. I believe that allowed us to really understand the various layers of the text and analyze the texts in the best way possible. I also enjoyed writing the blog posts and how they allowed us to explore whichever part of the text we felt the strongest about. 

The text that stood out to me from this course would be The Shrouded Woman by María Luisa Bombal. I enjoyed her writing style and the storyline immensely. Moreover, I enjoyed the narration of the plot from beyond the grave. It was unlike anything that I had ever read before, and I enjoyed reading about the family dynamics and relationships of the narrator. 

All in all, I really enjoyed this course and am super glad to have come across it! It allowed me to step outside my comfort zone with the books I read and definitely honed my critical thinking skills. It was great meeting and interacting with everyone 🙂

read full post >>

 At the start of this semester, I was unsure of what to expect from the texts. I was excited at the prospect of reading new books every week by authors that I would not have explored otherwise. This course allowed me to become acquainted with more cultures, literary movements, and geographical regions. Moreover, it allowed me to explore new themes such as betrayal, family, and death in unique ways. 

I also thoroughly enjoyed the discussions in class because of the varying opinions that we got to explore. More than anything, I appreciated the fact that we were able to express all of our opinions, both negative and positive. I believe that allowed us to really understand the various layers of the text and analyze the texts in the best way possible. I also enjoyed writing the blog posts and how they allowed us to explore whichever part of the text we felt the strongest about. 

The text that stood out to me from this course would be The Shrouded Woman by María Luisa Bombal. I enjoyed her writing style and the storyline immensely. Moreover, I enjoyed the narration of the plot from beyond the grave. It was unlike anything that I had ever read before, and I enjoyed reading about the family dynamics and relationships of the narrator. 

All in all, I really enjoyed this course and am super glad to have come across it! It allowed me to step outside my comfort zone with the books I read and definitely honed my critical thinking skills. It was great meeting and interacting with everyone 🙂

read full post >>

This is another surreal novel，which are often associated with those ethereal things, just like the theme of this novel-dream or a dreamer. Under Jose’s pen, his articles are very beautiful and colorful. You can see rainbows, blue houses, blue whales in the sky, avocado trees and more. We found a reunion of four different type … Continue reading Review of The Society of Reluctant Dreamers → read full post >>

I really enjoyed this book and I wish I had more time to spend reading and enjoying it. I found there to be a lot of different dimensions within it, such as the relationships and dynamics between the girls and the other characters, the opposing classes, the use of language and education, the violence, the […] read full post >>

Hi there, It’s been a long 13 weeks of intense reading, writing thought-provoking posts, and commenting on others’ interpretations of... read full post >>

In my previous post, “The Society of Reluctant Dreamers”, I mentioned that I am currently feeling a little foggy because of Covid. Today is supposed to be my last day of exile… I mean quarantine… so hopefully, I will see you all in class tomorrow? Anyway, my thoughts on the class; I really enjoyed this […] read full post >>

I must say this course was a breath of fresh air (cliche, I know…). But for real, being able to guide ourselves through each week was nice. It wasn’t just sitting in a lecture hall with a professor talking at you and expecting you to retain all information imaginable for a test in a couple […] read full post >>

I am going to be honest, I tested positive for Covid on Wednesday of last week and because of that reading, this book was quite difficult. I don’t know if it’s the book or the illness my body is trying to fight off but I found the plot very difficult to follow. I am half-tempted […] read full post >>

I really liked how this book begins. It made the read more intriguing that it began with the disappearance of... read full post >>

After reading Elena Ferrante’s “My Brilliant Friend”, a novel I found out late is the first in a four part series titled the “Neapolitan novels”, I found myself completely spellbound and enraptured by a novel in a way that I hadn’t been in a while. On its surface this feeling perplexed me, as I found […] read full post >>

This novel was, in a sense, eye-opening for me. I find this to be mainly due to the unfortunate circumstances that Lila and Elena endured from such a young age. From poverty to violence and just a struggle of trying to find a way to be something when surrounded by negativity. It really brought a […] read full post >>

I am honestly having a minor crisis about nearly being done with my first year of uni because I basically feel 16 still but I going to ignore that for now. This term has been genuinely awful in many way but this class was actually not a contributer for that which was very pleasant for me. I have not read as much as I did this term in so long and while I definitely did not enjoy all the books I picked I always found them interesting. Not even going to try to pretend I always closely read the book of the week, sometimes it was more of a 'yes I am certainly reading a book right now' vibe when I really just wanted to get the general plotline down and finish a blog post but, there was more times than I expected when I genuinely sat down and got really into what I was reading. Great example would be me curled up under my desk (it just seemed right) to read the entirity of Bounjour Tristesse with only a small break in order to cringe at everything I just read. 

Anywayyy. I literally said this in my last blog post but I was incredibly skeptical of how on Earth these books could share similarities when they are all so different in origin. It was really interesting to begin to make connections between them all, even the ones I didn't understand too well. I am not going to even try to speculate ~why~ they all share these things because it honestly makes no sense and I almost feel like without also reading texts from not romance languages theres no way to tell that this isn't just like a overall thing I hadn't thought about before. Language is really weird, the fact that a common language family could be the cause of like an underlying similarity isn't exactly surprising to me but it's still really cool. This class will probably stick in my mind a bit for the rest of my life, I do not think I'll be able to read any book again without taking a moment to see if it also shares similarities or not. Not upset about it by any means, usually I forget everything I learn as soon as I am done with a class but it is always nice when something sticks with me, makes me feel accomplished I guess. My final question relates to this, does anyone else think these similarities and connections we learnt about will affect the way they look at literature from here on out? 

Thats enough rambling from me 😀 

Good luck on finals everyone :)) 

read full post >>

I am honestly having a minor crisis about nearly being done with my first year of uni because I basically feel 16 still but I going to ignore that for now. This term has been genuinely awful in many way but this class was actually not a contributer for that which was very pleasant for me. I have not read as much as I did this term in so long and while I definitely did not enjoy all the books I picked I always found them interesting. Not even going to try to pretend I always closely read the book of the week, sometimes it was more of a 'yes I am certainly reading a book right now' vibe when I really just wanted to get the general plotline down and finish a blog post but, there was more times than I expected when I genuinely sat down and got really into what I was reading. Great example would be me curled up under my desk (it just seemed right) to read the entirity of Bounjour Tristesse with only a small break in order to cringe at everything I just read. 

Anywayyy. I literally said this in my last blog post but I was incredibly skeptical of how on Earth these books could share similarities when they are all so different in origin. It was really interesting to begin to make connections between them all, even the ones I didn't understand too well. I am not going to even try to speculate ~why~ they all share these things because it honestly makes no sense and I almost feel like without also reading texts from not romance languages theres no way to tell that this isn't just like a overall thing I hadn't thought about before. Language is really weird, the fact that a common language family could be the cause of like an underlying similarity isn't exactly surprising to me but it's still really cool. This class will probably stick in my mind a bit for the rest of my life, I do not think I'll be able to read any book again without taking a moment to see if it also shares similarities or not. Not upset about it by any means, usually I forget everything I learn as soon as I am done with a class but it is always nice when something sticks with me, makes me feel accomplished I guess. My final question relates to this, does anyone else think these similarities and connections we learnt about will affect the way they look at literature from here on out? 

Thats enough rambling from me 😀 

Good luck on finals everyone :)) 

read full post >>

To conclude the term, I want to say that this course is different from what I had initially expected. I did not expect to be exploring the themes that I have in this class, including but not limited to; memory, war, betrayal, and loss. To start off, I enjoyed most of the texts in the […] read full post >>