This course was definitely something different for me. During the winter break, or even honestly in my entire academic life, I never saw myself signing up for a class that was all about reading as 1) I am a slow reader, and 2) i think I’ve mentioned in one of my earlier blog posts that I am a fan of reading just romance type of stuff. However, I’m happy I took the leap and conquered that fear as I’ve had more enjoyable moments in this course than in a lot of other courses I’ve taken.
To answer the question from the lecture, one of the most common patterns I’ve seen throughout this course is probably struggle. It can manifest in a personal or individual struggle (as seen in Papi, struggling to know her own father), a collective struggle (such as in I, Rigoberta Menchu), a generational struggle (in 100 Years of Solitude), or even a lack of struggle (in Mama Blanca’s Memoirs, for she lived a very comfortable life). I would even go so far as to include of the struggle to read a text, such as what I’ve experienced while reading Labyrinths. We can also see that each book that we read and each author that wrote it was in their own little world, their own magic circle as we called it in the beginning of the course, where their own rules apply.
I also loved the structure of the course – the contract grading, writing blog posts and commenting on them, and talking about the material with different people each week. On top of that, I’m glad that I branched out of my comfort zone and learned a lot of new things, and be introduced to a genre I probably would have never entered. I don’t think I was ever anxious in entering this class (aside from the first day), as I know it will always be a great time. I hope there would be more classes structured this way, as I think it would be a nice change in “scenery” (for the lack of a better term) for students. I also really appreciate not having a fixed group in class to chat with during discussion days as I loved hearing each person’s perspective and thoughts about the topics we tackle.
For my last and final question, if you were to help plan this course, is there a book that you would remove from the roster, or would you change the order that it was in?
Thank you for the fruitful term and best of luck to everyone!
“one of the most common patterns I’ve seen throughout this course is probably struggle”
Yes, that’s a good observation… and though “struggle” sounds a long way from “play,” the two aren’t so distinct always. In playing, you are often playing against something or someone, or exerting yourself to do your best or to overcome some kind of obstacle. Struggle is both political (as in the case of Menchú, as you point out) and personal (as with Rita Indiana’s Papi). And I appreciate that you say that sometimes this course was a struggle, or presented challenges (Borges!), but am glad you felt it was worthwhile. Thanks so much for all your contributions!
Hey, great post! I like the observation on the theme of struggle throughout the readings. I read another blog post that talked about the theme of “play” and it was interesting how these two themes can intersect so aptly throughout the chosen literature as they seem like opposites. To answer your question, I would probably remove Mama Blanca’s Memoirs from the roaster (or not put it at the beginning). I didn’t really resonate with that novel very much, and I found it to be vastly different from the complicated and imaginative readings that were throughout the semester, I found that one to be more boring than the rest and having it at the beginning made me question the kinds of readings that were to come.
I liked your observation about struggle. It is true that most of the texts we read were about struggle, whether it be directly, with mentions about war, or indirectly. If I were to change the course, I think I could remove Mama Blanca as a required text. Maybe it could be an optional one, but it didn’t have the same impact on me as the other required texts, like One Hundred Years of Solitude or I, Rigoberta Menchu. Honestly, it still kind of confuses me about why we read it. The only interesting thing about it was the foreword.
Hi! I really enjoyed reading your blog post — you bring up a great observations about the pattern of “struggle” coming up in many of the books we’ve read — I’d also argue that Mama Blanca contained struggle too… whether it be between the sisters, between the Nanny and the girls, or the struggle of trying to find their place when moving to a new, urban town. I really liked how you broke down the different layers that struggles exist, portraying that it really impacts the characters on a small, internal level to a large, global scale.
Hi, nice post!
Your note on ‘struggle’ is interesting but does make me wonder what is a novel without struggle? There’s always obstacles that must be overcome in every popular narrative. What does that say about our interests if we require someone’s struggle to be entertained, and does it imply that we subconsciously crave struggle ourselves? But that’s all rather philosophical.
I think if I were to remove a book it would be ‘Pedro Paramo’ and my only reason is that I know I read it but for the life of me I cannot remember what happened in it, which might say something about the book.
Thanks, Kara!
Hi there!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts about the course – I also noticed a great deal of struggle that came into play, as many of the books depicted a rather raw and real version of life in Latin America. I was really thankful that at the end of this course, I came away with learning about a new genre of writing, different than what I had previously explored before. In my opinion, I wouldn’t change much about the books contracted, however, I would suggest providing content warnings on the list of books before having students fill out and submit the contract. Although I was okay with the content being read, I understand that much of it was very sensitive as well, and may be triggering to some. Other than that, I think it was a great list of books to introduce people to the wonderful work of Latin American literature!