Over the course, we have read many texts that have overarching themes of war, violence, and memories. We have even reflected on our own and focused on discussions of motherhood, growing up, betrayal, and context differences. My favourite conversation this far was when we talked about Amulet and connected mothers from the other texts like the Shrouded Woman or Time of the Doves. Some of the books I hadn’t read but diving deep into motherhood, the different types of mothers, and values they held, and what it truly means to be a mother was very eye-opening. For example, one book that I didn’t read had a mother who wanted to kill her children for their benefit, which seems very wrong in our definitions of motherhood. I loved all the books we read over this term, and connecting them was a great way to understand further what romance studies is and how you can connect themes and language styles to send a message.
Childhood was a big theme in many of the texts and growing up to adapting to be an adult, especially in Proust, W or Memory of Childhood, and Agostino. Many new experiences changed them to be more mature and develop their identity. Even though each story was set in a different time and place, the process is still somewhat the same. There are things to learn, achieve respect and maturity, and go through cultural events to shape you to become an adult. However, these stories are not neat; they are messy and come with betrayal, confusion, lost memories from trauma, and childhood experiences that hinder one from maturing. Children’s voices show us a new perspective that adults lack. The innocent curiosity and gratefulness to the world are essential childlike values that adults stray away from. Children are dreamers, and constantly focussing on reality takes us away from life, and we don’t take time to enjoy the little things children notice because they are seeing things and experiencing things for the first time. Children will ask questions, adults are too scared to, and they miss the true truths of life.
Unlike childhood, some texts focus on the present time being more important than memories, like the Society of Reluctant Dreamers, Bonjour Tristesse and the Shrouded Woman. In these texts, children take power and betray their parents/guardians. It doesn’t focus on the childhood memories but on the child’s ambitions, which most of the time end up hurting people because they are immature. It challenges the theme of ordinary parents always being in power over their children. In Bonjour Tristesse, Cecile plans to betray Anne, her guardian and does not care about any wisdom Anne has given her; instead lets her ambitions get the best of her and end in a sad betrayal.
All these texts challenge our world traditions and challenge language by revealing things that are not natural. They use words that uncover themes that the real world does not fully understand. Romance studies is not a representation of the real world. It represents the uncovered, unconscious, not natural world, as these texts travel around and are read in different contexts. Romance studies opens up this world and challenges the perspective of the real world. Romance studies is not separate; it fits into the world’s history and movements.
I loved the quote from the concluding lecture, “A minor literature doesn’t come from a minor language; it is rather that which a minority constructs within a major language” (Deleuze & Guattari)
Romance studies may be a minor language, not seen by the naked eye. Still, it is that minority that emerges itself into a majority language (ex. French) that all can understand so that Romance studies is shared throughout the world. Romance studies is ever-changing and growing, fighting its way to stay in the world, especially as a minor language, because everything today is read in English. Romance studies is connected and unconnected to this world; it is full of memories, dreams, hidden feelings, thoughts, revolutions, and betrayal. Most of all, Romance studies is hidden in everything.
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with childhood, context, dreamers, hidden, language, memories, perspective, reality, relationships, theme, war
I see a steady decline in my enjoyment of these readings but it is much more blamed on final burnout rather than the quality of the books. I hope my blog posts continue to attempt to give them justice as we have discussed; the authors might not be bigger than us but their books are. […]
Posted in Blogs, Cercas | Tagged with autobiographical, critical reflection, fantasy, implications, questions, real, reality, reflection, Spanish war, Surreal, unreal
Javier Cercas’s Soldiers of Salamis was really unique in how it seemed to blur lines between reality, history, and fiction and pose interesting questions about knowability in the process. Throughout the first part, I felt that the book was more “lifelike” than many of the others I’ve read, probably because it takes place more recently and […]
Posted in Blogs, Cercas | Tagged with history, memory, reality
This week, I read the Soldiers of Salamis by Javier Cercas.The story is about a journalist interviewing Rafael Sanchez Ferlosio, who is telling his father, Rafael Sanchez Mazas’s story during the Spanish Civil War.In the story, Mazas was hiding in th…
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with betrayal, Loyal, reality, truth, war
This week, I read the Soldiers of Salamis by Javier Cercas.The story is about a journalist interviewing Rafael Sanchez Ferlosio, who is telling his father, Rafael Sanchez Mazas’s story during the Spanish Civil War.In the story, Mazas was hiding in th…
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with betrayal, Loyal, reality, truth, war
The novel, “Soldiers of Salamis” by Javier Cercas is an interesting mix of war, memory, and imagination. I enjoyed the novel as a story, especially with its “happy ending” and open end. One of the main aspects of this novel would be its mix of reality and imagination. While it includes real people’s names and … Continue reading Week 11: Cercas’s “Soldiers of Salamis” →
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with fiction, history, Imagination, memory, reality, Romance Studies, story, war, Weekly Posts
The Old Gringo was an interesting read indeed. This book touches on memory, life, death, religion, revolution, and history. It recounts the journey of a man who travels to Mexico during a civil war, to die a fulfilling death. The Old Gringo, later revealed as the author Ambrose Bierce, leaves behind little, other than a …
Continue reading “The Old Gringo and Reflections of Oneself”
Posted in Blogs, Fuentes | Tagged with fiction, mirrors, reality, reflection, women
At first glance, I wasn’t sure what to make of Perec’s book’s title. In class, we previously discussed the influence and significance of a title. We first discussed how the choice to keep “Bonjour Tristesse” in its untranslated form gave the book some context in just two words – i.e. that it is French. We […]
Posted in Blogs, Perec | Tagged with childhood, fantasy, memories, reality
After reading Black Shack Alley, I really enjoyed this novel. I have read stories with similar themes like colonialism, supremacy, and poverty, but nothing like how the main character reconciles with these themes. At the beginning of the book, the main character is almost sort of naive to the idea of his grandparents and the […]
Posted in Blogs, Zobel | Tagged with Colonialism, influential, josé, juxtaposition, Martinique, narrator, poverty, protection, reality, Relationship
After reading the first couple of pages of Louis Aragon’s Paris Peasant, I did not understand what I was reading at all. All the previous texts I have read are novels. My first initial thought is to try and highlight words to understand the reasoning behind the author and their story. With Paris Peasant, this got me nowhere, and after watching the lecture and searching some things up about this text, I realized that the way I was reading and analyzing the book was all wrong. Even though I still don’t fully understand it, Surrealism is a way of releasing our unconscious minds. Louis takes us on a journey of his small peasant town in pairs, describing the architecture, the types of people it draws and how we always have a perceived notion or underlying feeling about these places or things. One of the questions that Jon wanted us to think about was the notion of time in Aragon’s text. I feel like the sense of time is lost and moving so fast before anyone can realize it’s passing by. The way Louis jumps from building to building or random facts about how he loves blondes to talking about the importance of error without evidence makes me think this. One of my favourite parts was when he talked about baths and how “man” perceives that baths pertain to sensual pleasure instead of just a way to clean ourselves. I never thought of thinking in this way. Everything we see in reality has a feeling associated with it in our unconscious mind. After I realized this, I started to understand how this text was written. I’m not going to lie, some parts still confused me a lot, but I began to sit back and simply enjoy the words. I let my own mind take over and just absorb the beautiful details of scenery and how passionate Louis was about this little town. In the beginning, I remember him mentioning how they were trying to change the roads in his city to make it more open and that he was scared and wasn’t open to the idea of modernization. I agree with Louis; this small town holds the passages that its inhibitors walk on and venture down. It may seem like a dull reality above but hidden underneath are the dark, twisty unconscious minds that dare to dream of coming above the surface. Instead of being in the present moment with this book, I felt disconnected. I didn’t feel like Louis walking through the town, I felt as if I was watching Louis stroll through the town instead. I didn’t feel present in the story, like when I have those days where I feel so tired and disconnected in the world that I don’t feel like myself. I think that’s what Louis was trying to grasp, though, the difference between reality and dreaming. Surrealism.
This leaves me with one question,
Do authors have a certain way they want you to read their book? / how does this impact what the reader gets out of the text?
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with dreaming, modernization, reality, scenery, unconscious mind
