Month: September 2013

Hello all!  My name is Bridget McCartin and I am a first-year Master’s student in French.  I am extremely interested in post-colonial and neo-colonial studies – I spent this past year on the French overseas department of La Reunion teaching English and was able to witness some unique aspects of modern French influence through that experience.  I would love to continue to study the dynamic between France and its overseas departments this year.  I’m also very interested in linguistics, specifically in second-language acquisition.

This is the first class I’ve ever taken on literary theory, though I’ve read some of these authors before – most notably Marx and Freud, who I studied in Political Science and Psychology courses in high school and university.  Regardless, I have never analyzed them in this particular vein – it will be interesting to finally let their ideas take the stage.  It dawned on me today that theory has been a common starting point throughout much of my education.  In previous courses, my professors often used theory as a small foundation for a broader contextual picture, and nothing more.  As an undergraduate, for example, we started by reading Marx for about 20 minutes before launching into a week-long study about the Cold War where he was not mentioned again.  We examined Freud and his theories before discussing various psychological disorders.  This has happened many times – theory being used as an introduction or a basis for a unit.  It serves as the backbone to so many things that I have studied, only to be left and abandoned after serving its purpose.  I am excited to examine these so-called “backbones” of my education a little more carefully.  I’m beginning to wonder what will be the new anchor for my ideas now that theory, once a smaller point of reference and context, is moving into the spotlight.

In terms of writing, the whole concept of theory is something I have often grappled with – balancing papers with both fact and theory is something I have yet to perfect (and that I may never perfect, based on our discussion yesterday!)  I’m hoping this class will enable me to gain some broader knowledge about the main theoretical approaches and the thinkers that drive these approaches.  It’s enlightening to think that by the end of the semester, we will have studied twelve different types of literary theory.  Here’s to further examining the foundations of our past – and likely future – education.

Hola, My name is Esmeralda Robles, I am currently in my second year of the masters program. I did my undergrad degree here at UBC with a double major in Psychology and Spanish. As I mentioned in class I’m starting to do research for my thesis and I had this idea that I had to find a school of thought that I liked the most and stick to it, but as Jon mentioned doing really limits your thinking and its unnatural to try to fit perfectly a primary text into one specific theory. I think my thinking is influenced by my psyc. background were you do choose a school of thought! But I’m very exited about this class and as Nancy mentioned I am ready to try on different “glasses” of thoughts. 

Hello everyone,

My name is Gabriela (you can call me Gabby if Gabriela is too long, most people do!) Badica and I am in my second year of my Master’s degree in Hispanic Studies. I also completed my B.A. at UBC with a double major in English Literature and Spanish. I had a little bit of exposure to literary theory in some of my English Lit classes, although I never took a course on “just theory” (if that concept can even be so strictly classified or discerned). The most common format of my 300- and 400- level English classes was a combination of novels and theoretical texts (for example, reading Judith Butler in Science Fiction studies alongside different novels).

I am looking forward to this course and I really liked the discussion that we started yesterday about the integration of theory into student papers because this a concept that I have been grappling with for some time, especially since starting my Master’s degree and presenting in the Spanish seminar. Our discussion about how we often try to superimpose theory into a paper just because we think we should have it as a framework was really interesting to me because in my personal writing process, I tend to think of the theoretical texts and works of fiction the way I would if I were writing a comparative paper on two different novels; that is simply the way it comes to me. Perhaps this is because I wrote one too many comparative papers when I was doing my English Lit degree and I have come to really enjoy that type of paper, or perhaps it is because I think both the theoretical text and the work of fiction occupy the same plane when it comes to importance in a paper and I cannot envision one as more important than the other. This is a tension that is present in all of my recent papers and I greatly look forward to this class because I think it will be a challenging and safe space where I can work out that question for myself while, of course, having the support of my peers and professors as we move forward in this process together.

Big debate in class about the necessity of this blog… why do we need to participate on line?

Once upon a time, indeed, writing was seen by Plato/Socrates as a new technology threatening the love of knowledge i.e., philosophy. Because according to the philosophers, there was only one way to express one’s thought and keep the thinking alive: the speech, in the shape of a dialogue, that was the philosophical debate. (http://www.gradesaver.com/phaedrus/study-guide/section10/)

And now, blogging could well be the new threatening technology preventing us from communicating… so why should we blog?

Maybe because

1. the professors asked us to

2. we don’t want to be seen as old conservative Greek philosophers (too beardy)

3. the elders call us the generation Ipad…let’s pretend we know what it means!

4. most of all, maybe, because when the thinkers were criticizing writing, they were afraid of losing the vivid spirit of discussion, arguing, agreeing, disagreeing, and together looking for the answer…an answer…

BECAUSE, if Theory is a question…let’s question together!

Any disagreeing comment is more than welcome !

My name is Bruno Nassi. I am from Lima, Peru. I did my undergraduate studies in Hispanic Literature and now I am in the M.A. of Hispanic Studies at UBC. I have special interest for the “Boom” of the Latin American Literature, his origins, development and subsequent movements. Also, I am interested in studying how is represented the image of woman in Latin American Literature and Culture. I think that since the time that Colon and Vespucci arrived to Latin America, a colonized and distorted image has been built.

My course expectations are to expand and review my knowledge in Literary and Cultural Theory. The knowledge that I will acquire in the course, will provide me with important tools to approach and analyze the research interests that I have mentioned above. For instance, Postcolonial and Gender theories could articulate my investigation in the construction of the stereotype of women in Latin America.

I think also, that the XX century has been convulsed not only by its historical events, but for the many changes in the way that we perceive Literature, Culture and, of course, the world itself. Undoubtedly, Literary and Critical Theory is an important guideline to understand this diversified scenario. In that sense, another important expectation that I have is to get a perspective in how the XX century has molded different approaches to Literature, Culture and life. I think that multiple perspectives enrich and help to create an own perspective.

In short, my expectations are to have more tools to use in my investigations and analysis, as well as have a better understanding of the development of the intellectual ideas of the XX century, that certainly are the base of our times.