This was a great course for me. I felt like this gave me great insight on some classics which will make for good discussions over dinner. I have always loved literature classes because I think it is imperative to discuss other people’s takes on texts. I really appreciated having deep contexts for the novels and novellas we read as I probably wouldn’t have been able to develop that on my own.
One of my new favourite quotes was one from Proust which we read at the beginning. ‘Only in recollection does an experience become fully significant, as we arrange it in a meaningful patter, and thus the crucial role of our intellect, our imagination, in our perception of the world and our re-creation of it to suit our desire; thus the importance of the role of the artist in transforming reality according to a particular inner vision: the artist escapes the tyranny of time through art,’. That is truly quite special and meaningful to me, and I continued to reference it in a few of my following blog posts.
My favourite work that we read was The Shrouded Woman by Maria Luisa Bombal. The Time of the Doves was a close second for me and I saw similarities in the writing style between the two. The Shrouded Woman was my favourite because of the symbols. If I could go back, I would focus on the colours and try to analyze them as I noticed symbolism such as ‘all dressed in white with a yellow dahlia’ (189).
I was so appreciative that we got to speak with one of the authors! That was something special. He was such a character, too! I also enjoyed the contract format for grading in this course. In other courses, sometimes even after I’ve done all the work and studied hard, I’ll still be unpleasantly surprised by a test grade. I am thankful that we had the liberty to choose how much we could do and what we were interested in. I am also grateful that I now have so many great works to add to my collection. It was nice that all comments would be written on the board and the instructors seemed genuinely interested in hearing our interpretations (but you can correct me if I’m wrong).
My question for you is do you have any regrets about how many or which texts you chose?
Hey, it was lovely to see your final toughts. I really dont have a regret, it was hard some times to fullfill, but being tied to a contract always pulled though. SO I think it was worth it.
-Montserrat Avendano
Hello!
Thanks for sharing the quotation from Proust – I think I’ll have to go back to /Combray/ and consider it more deeply.
To answer your question, I do wish that I had had the time and energy to read more of the texts during this course, but I definitely don’t regret choosing the ones that I chose.
I find it funny how you said “ this gave me great insight on some classics which will make for good discussions over dinner.” If you happen to find someone who shares your interest in classic novellas over good food, you have officially won at life.
I think there were definitely some weeks where I cursed my past self over the amount of work I contracted for myself but I know I only chose the amount I did because I knew thats what I was capable of. Thank God we are at the end but I did enjoy getting a good amount of reading done this term.
I like how you mentioned that this course has given you material for discussions over dinner because funnily enough, there have been countless phone calls between myself and a family member or friend and we would discuss the books I had read in class. They may not have actually read them but it was interesting to tell them about my perspective of the books upon reading them and listening to what they had to say. Altogether, this course has made me far more appreciative of literature from bygone times and I’m glad I was able to take it.