A. Who I am, and why I am taking this course
Hi everyone! My name is Jennifer Li, I am a second year psychology student intending to minor in data science; and I also commute from Richmond! I’m taking RMST 202 as I needed to fulfill my literature requirement, however, I chose to take this course to also become more familiar with texts from the “romance languages” (as I’ve primarily only read books produced in North America or the UK).
B. My expectations
I am hoping to do well in this course (A+), but I also understand that obtaining this mark will be challenging. However, one aspect of the course that I believe would make the reading process easier is that it’s assessed through blog posts and we can choose the texts we want to read. I really like the fact that instead of writing an essay or assignments, we get to comment on the books with our own thoughts and opinions in a somewhat informal way. Despite being in the Arts faculty, one thing I dislike about literature classes (which was mentioned in class) is the idea that we NEED to pull something deeper from the texts, when sometimes, there is no deeper meaning. Through blog posts, I hope that I will actually get to enjoy the books we read and interpret it in my own way! Further, as a commuter student I am very grateful for the fact that we need to only attend one day per week given the book we choose (since transit times are long).
C. Response to lectures
- When watching “inventing romance studies” I found it really interesting when Dr. Beasley-Murray mentioned that none of the “romance studies” books were written originally in the language. Instead, they were written in Latin (the Romance/Roman empire) and translated to the languages of pre-modern and modern Europe such as Spanish, French, etc. Further, Dr. Beasley-Murray says that the “Romance” world also extends to parts of the world where a romance language was once spoken, ths encompassing many nations such as Uruguay and Somalia. I personally had no idea that the term Romance derives from the Roman Empire, and am interested in how the texts we read in romance studies are connected – even though they include books from many different parts of the world – as they were all derived from Latin.
- However, when watching “on romance studies” I found it interesting when Dr. Tim Beasley-Murray described Romance studies and literature as a way to bring different cultures and nations (that were all part of the former roman empire) that have become disconnected through time back together again.