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Hey everyone! It is (sadly) the last blog on a book. This week’s read The society of Reluctant Dreamers by... read full post >>

    Reaching the end of this course, I am filled with an appreciation for the Romance World. Beginning with “Combray” and spanning eleven other great works, I was exposed to authors I would normally glance over on the shelves of libraries or bookstores in my native country; through the guidance of lectures and my peers, my […] read full post >>

This was by far the most interesting literature course I have taken so far. The format allowed me to be flexible in the way I was reading the novels. While in previous literature classes I have taken I was required … Continue reading → read full post >>

 This feels very weird to be writing my final blog post (in terms of readings) of the semester. It feels like I was just beginning to read these new kinds of books I had never read before, and now here I am reading my last one. 

This week I chose to read The Society of Reluctant Dreamers. And not only does the title directly point out a major theme but the book itself clearly highlights the most common theme we've seen throughout this course, dreams. 

Although I feel myself being a little repetitive discussing dreams in every blog post, this one would feel wrong to not discuss it. While reading this book, I found myself consistently thinking about my own dreams, especially when Daniel Benchimol finds the camera in the water as the woman he sees in the pictures is someone he has seen before in his dreams. 

I was glad to see that this was also brought up in this weeks lecture on the book because it helped me dig even deeper into the thoughts I was having while reading. It's an interesting concept because I am someone who dreams a lot, and I know other people who never dream (or at least can't remember them). I always wonder what this means and I also always wonder who these "characters"are that are appearing in my dreams.. Are they real people and I just do not know it? And if they aren't, how is my mind creating completely fictional people if I have never seen them before? 

I also enjoyed the idea of Freuds take on dreams mentioned in the lecture as well. Freud states that "dreams are derived from the past in every sense".. which is interesting to think about considering Daniel Benchimol is dreaming of people he has never met, how is that possible? I think the same thing for myself. 

Overall, the only struggle I had with this book was not having enough knowledge on the historical contexts taking place, but it was good to be educated on something new, as I usually am each week with our readings. Which bring me to mention that war has also been a common we have been seeing in our readings lately. Other than that (which isn't really a bad thing at all), I enjoyed this novel a lot despite there being a lot going on, I managed to grasp the concepts a good amount and considering we have read so much involving dreams. 

I feel as though I have become an expert at differentiating between what is a dream and what is reality (although still a little hard to tell sometimes I won't lie). But that is what keeps me invested in reading, I love the back and fourth between the two states. 

read full post >>

 This feels very weird to be writing my final blog post (in terms of readings) of the semester. It feels like I was just beginning to read these new kinds of books I had never read before, and now here I am reading my last one. 

This week I chose to read The Society of Reluctant Dreamers. And not only does the title directly point out a major theme but the book itself clearly highlights the most common theme we've seen throughout this course, dreams. 

Although I feel myself being a little repetitive discussing dreams in every blog post, this one would feel wrong to not discuss it. While reading this book, I found myself consistently thinking about my own dreams, especially when Daniel Benchimol finds the camera in the water as the woman he sees in the pictures is someone he has seen before in his dreams. 

I was glad to see that this was also brought up in this weeks lecture on the book because it helped me dig even deeper into the thoughts I was having while reading. It's an interesting concept because I am someone who dreams a lot, and I know other people who never dream (or at least can't remember them). I always wonder what this means and I also always wonder who these "characters"are that are appearing in my dreams.. Are they real people and I just do not know it? And if they aren't, how is my mind creating completely fictional people if I have never seen them before? 

I also enjoyed the idea of Freuds take on dreams mentioned in the lecture as well. Freud states that "dreams are derived from the past in every sense".. which is interesting to think about considering Daniel Benchimol is dreaming of people he has never met, how is that possible? I think the same thing for myself. 

Overall, the only struggle I had with this book was not having enough knowledge on the historical contexts taking place, but it was good to be educated on something new, as I usually am each week with our readings. Which bring me to mention that war has also been a common we have been seeing in our readings lately. Other than that (which isn't really a bad thing at all), I enjoyed this novel a lot despite there being a lot going on, I managed to grasp the concepts a good amount and considering we have read so much involving dreams. 

I feel as though I have become an expert at differentiating between what is a dream and what is reality (although still a little hard to tell sometimes I won't lie). But that is what keeps me invested in reading, I love the back and fourth between the two states. 

read full post >>

I really enjoyed this book. Maybe the most interesting (hey, I’ve used this word in all my blogs so far, why break the trend now?) thing I found in this story was the relationship between Elena and Lila. With both of them beginning in a poor neighbourhood in 1950s Naples, there is an seemingly unbreakable […] read full post >>

I remember writing my introduction post before all of the readings that I contracted for in this course and it has only left me with more thoughts about the real reason Romanticism has ever existed, realized and even created by those who see the world differently. On the other hand, maybe there is no reason […] read full post >>

 Sadly, this will be the last blog post i'll be writing for this class. I'm not going to lie, when I first signed up for this class I wasn't expecting it to go the way it did. Firstly, I didn't do much research as to what the course content was, I just knew it would fill my final lit requirement. I honestly thought this course had to be something actually related to romance, or what we refer to as romance nowadays. Boy, was I wrong. That being said, I am in no way disappointed with the outcome of this course. This will definitely land somewhere in my top 10 list for favourite courses! Although the "novel a week" idea seemed extremely intimidating at first, i found it to be much more manageable than I initially thought. Being able to pick what grade i wanted depending on the amount of work I was willing to do, really took a huge weight off of my shoulders. On top of that, I genuinely enjoyed most of the books we read too! Some of them were a little difficult to pickup, or follow but for the most part, reading didn't even seem like homework. I'd have to say my favourite was Agostino; a very easy and engaging read! Another thing I really enjoyed about the course, was writing our blogs. I really liked being able to give my honest opinion without fear of losing marks. 

Anyway, I had loads of fun in this class and it was really nice to be able to meet you all in person, thank you for reading! :)) 

read full post >>

 Sadly, this will be the last blog post i'll be writing for this class. I'm not going to lie, when I first signed up for this class I wasn't expecting it to go the way it did. Firstly, I didn't do much research as to what the course content was, I just knew it would fill my final lit requirement. I honestly thought this course had to be something actually related to romance, or what we refer to as romance nowadays. Boy, was I wrong. That being said, I am in no way disappointed with the outcome of this course. This will definitely land somewhere in my top 10 list for favourite courses! Although the "novel a week" idea seemed extremely intimidating at first, i found it to be much more manageable than I initially thought. Being able to pick what grade i wanted depending on the amount of work I was willing to do, really took a huge weight off of my shoulders. On top of that, I genuinely enjoyed most of the books we read too! Some of them were a little difficult to pickup, or follow but for the most part, reading didn't even seem like homework. I'd have to say my favourite was Agostino; a very easy and engaging read! Another thing I really enjoyed about the course, was writing our blogs. I really liked being able to give my honest opinion without fear of losing marks. 

Anyway, I had loads of fun in this class and it was really nice to be able to meet you all in person, thank you for reading! :)) 

read full post >>

    For my penultimate blog post, I found myself reading Agualusa’s text closely to find overlap on the various themes found across the course readings. Memory is something which we looked closely at in all the readings—the certainty of events, and the unreliable narration which so often leads to the label of fiction for the stories. […] read full post >>