Well, here it is- the final post! Firstly, I want to thank Jon and Daniel for directing such a great course that was truly one of the highlights of my semester. I have a bunch of stressful courses this semester and it was nice to always have a book to read so I could feel relaxed and productive while procrastinating doing work from other courses. Thank you for organizing a well-structured course that facilitated learning while avoiding grade anxiety! Although I didn’t love all the texts (I actually didn’t mind Borges, surprisingly enough), the text selection was quite good and diverse for such a broad scope of course. I feel like I “travelled” across Latin America reading books from many different parts of the continent.
SPAN312 is definitely a good introductory course to Latin American literature precisely because it leaves you with the curiosity to read more. Through my reading I have found connections- not fundamental characteristics- between texts. I never felt scared of finding the “correct” interpretation of the texts. SPAN312 encouraged me to explore, even if I didn’t always get it right or immediately understand challenging things.
Next, I would like to thank all of you- readers and fellow SPAN312 students! I have had a great time reading your blogs and engaging in conversation with you all. Many of you have brought up interesting points in our discussions that I would have never picked up on independently. You guys all have unique perspectives: from different countries, majors, years, and literary tastes. I think the choice involved in book selection allowed many of us to interact with new people every week, which I really appreciated. I hope my blog posts weren’t too boring and derivative- all of yours definitely weren’t!
Like many of you, I picked up this course because of the mandatory literature requirement. As someone who genuinely loves reading, I was quite overwhelmed by the choice of courses available to me. I chose SPAN312 because I felt I had read far too few books outside of the Anglosphere. I wanted to read from the big names- García Márquez, Borges, Mistral- but also read works from lesser-known authors. SPAN312 has encouraged me to achieve exactly that and learn a lot in the process. Thank you!!!
Final question of the semester: It’s unlikely that you will remember many details from the books you’ve read. What is one memorable thing from any book that you read this semester that you think will stick with you for a very long time?
Hey Katherine K!
I’m sure we all share your sentiments, and are proud to be in the final stretch of 13 long weeks of exploring, and reading more than expected when signing up to get rid of our lit requirements.
In terms of your question, you are right, it seems a bit of a blur to look back on each text, but as it is certainly fresh in my mind (after just finishing Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin), I feel like here writing about a political issue (although – she doesn’t write anything about it openly of course) was super cool to me, and all the more exciting in the thriller genre. It was a combination I wouldn’t ever expect. Although I may not seek this out again specifically, I think the idea of reading unnerving and unsettling books was kinda fun and something that will stick with me for sure! What about you?
Hi Katherine! Very good question. Although I only just read it it I genuinely think it will take a while to recover from the rather jarring sex scenes in ‘The Taiga Syndrome.’ It was a truly bizarre and unexpected read. Otherwise, ‘The Underdogs’ has stuck with me. I think it is because it made me quite angry. All of the characters were unsympathetic and the manipulative nature of the student and the themes of literacy and education struck a cord. Lastly, I think ‘I, Rigoberta Menchú’ wil likely stay on many of our minds, simply due to its harrowing storyline and because it was largely non-fiction.
Many thanks to you Katherine for the great blog posts you wrote during this term! You mentioned something that I really liked: the difference in ideas that we all have and that has enriched this experience. You contributed a lot to make this happen. Dare to continue exploring beyond this short trip through Latin America. I can assure you that the continent’s literature still has many surprises.
Hey Katherine! Thanks for your concluding thoughts. I also appreciated avoiding the intense grade anxiety. In response to your question, Lispector’s prose will always stay with me. Her melding of language to work in her favour, whether it makes syntactical sense or not, is incredible. Her writing, though not always clear on a literal level, evokes strong emotion nonetheless, something I aspire to do in my own writing.