Hi everybody, I hope that you all had a good reading week! This week’s reading was The Times of the Doves by Mercè Rodoreda and I will say, it is definitely an interesting read. It was definitely emotional, and dealt with heavy topics. While I think that we can all agree that the latter half […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with blog, doves, Romance Studies
After a long (but much-needed) break, I, Giaan Deol, am back to talk about the crazily depressing, but nonetheless beautifully written, The Time of the Doves by Mercè Rodoreda. And, surprise surprise, I am again in complete awe of the talent, range, story-building skills, structure, tone, and so much more exuded by another brilliant female author. […]
Posted in Blogs, Rodoreda | Tagged with blog, death, melancholy, revolution, war
Oh, boy…where do I even begin? I mean it was definitely an interesting read but, I won’t lie, it did make my stomach turn at some point. From the overly sexual descriptions of his mother to the racism to the overall underlying misogynistic tone of the book, Alberto Moravia’s Agostino never failed to disturb and […]
Posted in Blogs, Moravia | Tagged with adolescence, blog, childhood, Italy, oedipus
Wow. This was definitely a refreshing change from Breton and his not-so-nice narrator last week. Although both touched on misogyny in one way or another, at least this time it was from the experience of a real woman. To some, that may be more upsetting, but to me, it’s moving. Whether fictional or not, the […]
Posted in Blogs, Bombal | Tagged with blog, death, gender, life, memory
This book is definitely my favourite one yet. “The Shrouded Woman” is ultimately a story of revolt, a violation of social norms and patriarchal restrictions. Bombal portrays a woman who defies societal expectations about her role through the character of Ana María. Rather, Ana María challenges the confining grip of custom and expectation by asserting […]
Posted in Blogs, Bombal | Tagged with blog, death, life, love, tragedy, Week4, women
As a surrealist text set in early twentieth century Paris, Nadja takes readers through a story of love and infatuation in a relationship scattered with madness. Upon reading, my first thoughts were that, while there were definitely some elements of this text which I found difficult or jarring to read, I was hooked, from start […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with blog, Paris, Romance Studies, Surrealism
I surprised myself this week; I found myself actually excited to read “Nadja” by André Breton and I can confidently say it was nothing short of an experience. Perhaps it was the little description left by Prof. Beasley-Murray depicting the book as one with themes of love, desire, and madness that piqued my interest, I […]
Posted in Blogs, Breton | Tagged with blog, desire, madness, nadja, Surrealism
Marcel Proust has written a truly in-depth and meticulously detailed story with Swann’s Way. When I first began reading the chapter Combray, I honestly resented it a bit. This is because every sentence seemed to be enriched with too much detail. It was confusing to read or fully immerse myself in the next. More frustratingly, I was flip-flopping […]
Posted in Blogs, Proust | Tagged with Awe, blog, nostalgia, Resentment, swanns way
I would like to start off by saying I really had no idea what I was getting myself into as I started reading “Combray” by Marcel Proust but, I will say that I was both pleasantly and unpleasantly surprised. As with almost all things, “Combray” had both pros and cons, both of which I would […]
Being sick and dealing with a headache while reading this book is like trying to make sense of the obscure patterns of a plaster ceiling while you lay in bed unable to sleep. As someone who isn’t usually challenged by works of literature like Combray or Swann’s Way, I often struggled to piece together the … Continue reading Thoughts on Combray
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with blog, reflection
