Viewing the world through the lens of the novel’s central character, Natalia, Mercè Rodoreda intricately delves into themes of poverty, despair, and the fragile intricacies of human existence. Rodoreda crafts a profoundly moving narrative, with readers confronting the challenging truths encountered by those navigating displacement, scarcity, and the erosion of self. Rodoreda skillfully employs imagery […]
Posted in Blogs, Rodoreda | Tagged with despair, doves, hope, Human Resilience, war
Wow! This book was so heartwrenching but amazing! the character-building and descriptions were truly encapsulating. Natalia’s life was so beautifully captured, and I felt so immersed in the story. I’ll admit at the beginning I was not into the book that much because of Quimet and how much I disliked him. I was upset at […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with Colometa, dovecote, family, motherhood, Quimet, Spain, Time of the Doves, war
Yet again another woman with a troubling life, by the social circumstances given by the men in her life. A book called “The Time of the Doves” by Mercè Rodoreda. The main character, Natalia starts off by working at a pastry shop and is persuaded by her friend Julieta to go to an event. That […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with choices, decisions, dove, hope, love, patriotism, The Time of The Doves, toxic men, war
Entering Carmen Laforet’s “Nada,” one goes on a moving adventure with Andrea, a character whose story goes beyond fiction to touch our humanity. Set in post-Civil War Spain, Andrea’s story delves into the landscapes of resilience and the desire for identity, going beyond a simple recounting of historical events. Her struggles to find her place […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with humanity, identity, nada, postwar, resilience, Spain, war
Tuesday, February 6th I was definitely not prepared for the journey that I embarked on while reading this book, considering this family takes the term dysfunctional to a whole new level. The story in itself was quite easy to follow, and I don’t find it to be a particularly tough read. The storyline was straightforward […]
This week I read Nada by Carmen Laforet and oh boy was that a journey of drama, pain, and chaos. I did find myself really enjoying Laforet’s writing style, it felt like I was reading Andrea’s diary so that made me feel … Continue reading →
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with friendship, nada, rebellion, war
Nada, a book of madness, trauma and grotesqueness that encase its pages. Nada was a book full of drama, conflict and messiness from all characters. Like Bombal’s novel I found it so hard to like anyone, when I started to like someone or feel sorry for them I would quickly realize that they sucked as …
Posted in Blogs, Laforet | Tagged with coming of age, Conflict, Drama, family, gender, Spain, Suffering, war
This book made me sad, happy and at many points angry at the characters, especially the men. I found myself wanting to know how the events of the story would unfold. This novel was more of what I usually read in terms of structure and style. So far this is the book I have enjoyed […]
Posted in Blogs, Laforet | Tagged with Carmen laforet, friendship, nada, Spain, trauma, war
War seems to be the common theme the last couple of weeks and it is no different as this story takes place during the Angolan Civil War. However, this book tries to find the best out of this horrible situation by creating a dreamlike landscape and beautiful imagery to make this situation a little tolerable […]
Posted in Agualusa, Blogs | Tagged with Conflict, dreamers, fantasy, fear, society, war
In the text, Society of Reluctant Dreamers, Agualusa challenges the meaning and importance of dreams. In the book, they have the ability to appear in people’s dreams, and one character, in particular, can dream about people he hasn’t met and future things that haven’t occurred yet. He can dream about the future. He uses this power to appear in everyone’s dreams in Angolan to overthrow the government, a one-party state. This power over dreams is bizarre and not what we usually think dreams are. Dreams are funny, confusing, metaphorical tales that we become aware of in our sleep that don’t always make sense and can arise hidden feelings or motives we would not know when we are conscious. In the Society of Reluctant Dreamers, this dreaming is not a mere confusion or weird story in our heads but a movement to defeat politics and the political authority at the time. This creates a collective dream among the whole population of Angolans and gives people the courage and bravery within themselves to stand up. As a community together, they are able to find the strength to come together and make a change. This power is crazy to think about and is something we would not see in everyday life.
One question I have is, How can the unconscious affect us so profoundly? Especially when we are conscious and always careless about things and scared?
After watching the lecture, I wanted to reflect on the point about how Agualusa uses dreams as a metaphor to bring change. Jon mentioned in the lecture how this was a metaphor for literature having the same effect. Literature is powerful, and words on a page hold so much meaning, especially in Romance Studies, where the words hold hidden themes and underlying thoughts/memories. I believe that literature has the power to create change. Just like our dreams coming to us in the unconscious, literature is an escape from reality when you read. It is somewhat a form of the unconscious, and that’s why I think it has more power than words from people. Hearing things in the unconscious allows us to fully grasp the idea without adding our own bias from the natural, conscious world.
This book had many themes of repetition and conflict between original and copy stories, just like the conflict between dreams and reality. For example, in the book, when the character meets the woman he previously dreamed about, he calls her a fake image of the woman he dreamed about, and she does not seem real. This challenges the tradition of dreams being a copy and reality the original. Agualusa flips it around many times. This book was sometimes hard to follow because of these confusing, non-traditional themes. Another example of bizarre is when a character tells the world that his brother is dead, but in the end, his brother is there in the political overthrow. Why was this hidden from the reader for so long?
I am super excited to discuss this book this week and hope that I can further understand Agualusa’s intentions and writing!
Posted in Agualusa, Blogs | Tagged with bizarre, divided, dreaming, Dreams, future, resolution, talent, unconscious mind, unity, war
