Manea’s “The Trenchcoat” stirred up some discomfort in me, given the ambiguous nature of the text, but it was certainly an enjoyable read. The discomfort came primarily from moving across the pages in an unfamiliar setting, with unfamiliar characters, in … Continue reading →
Posted in Blogs, Manea | Tagged with Authoritarianism, communism, history, language, mundane life, nostalgia, political turmoil, suspicion
Having studied pretty much nothing about Romania up until now, I appreciated the glimpse into history that “The Trenchcoat” provides. At the same time, the censor-conscious writing and the inability of the characters themselves to acknowledge exactly what is happening to them made this period seem even more mysterious to me. Nearly every paragraph of […]
Posted in Blogs, Manea | Tagged with history, life, politics, power
Regarding the text; The Old Gringo by Carlos Fuentes, the novel is about the memories of a woman named Harriet Winslow during the time that civil war had begun and was occurring in Mexico. Firstly to start, I love reading novels that have historical aspects to them as I am incredibly interested in history. Another […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with history, memory, repetition, war
Georges Perec’s novel, “W, or the Memory of Childhood” is an interesting mix of reality and imagination. I found the writing style to be quite similar to Proust’s and Aragon’s as Perec often jumped between different memories and thoughts. Something I found intriguing was how Perec describes the relationship between writing and the people from … Continue reading Week 8: Perec’s “W, or the Memory of Childhood” →
Posted in Blogs, Perec | Tagged with autobiography, childhood, family, history, Imagination, memory, narrative, perspective, relationships, Romance Studies
This book was quite tragic though undoubtedly beautifully written. It’s hard not to feel sadness when reading Perec recount the memories he has of his childhood and the hardships that come with being an orphan. I felt especially moved when, describing his mother, he wrote “The arbitrary, schematic image that I have of her suits […]
Posted in Blogs, Perec | Tagged with family, history, Imagination, loss, memory, tragedy
It took me a while to get used to how the chapters alternate between autobiography and fiction, but I did end up enjoying this novel. I liked Perec’s writing style, in particular, and I appreciated how he was able to make use of the more mysterious parts of his own life while also giving an […]
Posted in Blogs, Perec | Tagged with fiction, history, memory, postmodernism
This novel was unlike any novel I’ve read before, from the alternating narratives to the magical realism to the truths revealed of the unreliability and significance of childhood and memory. To begin with, I have always loved the use of repetition as a poetic tool, and Perec’s use of lists in the early chapters of […]
Posted in Blogs, Perec | Tagged with childhood, history, injustice, memory, postmodernism, reminiscing
