Introduction: Entering the Love Labyrinth

Introducing Myself
I’m writing this blog under a pseudonym, but I’m excited to be part of this class and to use this space to think through the ideas we’ll be encountering this semester. I’m especially looking forward to the discussion-based nature of the course and the chance to engage with both the texts and my classmates’ perspectives through these weekly posts.

Initial Thoughts and Expectations
I wanted to take this course honestly because I was very intrigued when I first learned about Romance Studies. My initial assumption, not going to lie, was that RMST was closely tied to the romance genre in the way it’s commonly understood, such as love stories, novels, or films focused on romantic relationships. However, after talking to friends who had taken RMST courses before, I realized that the field is something much broader and more complex than that first impression.

That shift in understanding is what ultimately drew me to the course. I became curious and I’m hoping this class will help me challenge the simplified idea I originally had of what “romance” means.

My main expectation is to develop a deeper understanding of how literature functions across languages, cultures, and historical moments, especially when those languages share a distant but complicated ancestry. I want to pay attention to what literature includes, what it leaves out, and what kinds of values or expectations it reinforces or questions. I also hope to become more comfortable engaging with unfamiliar material, something I haven’t always done and to use the blog as a space to articulate my ideas clearly and respond thoughtfully to others’ interpretations.

Response to the Lecture and Conversation Video
The first lecture and conversation video presented Romance Studies in a way that was both surprising and refreshing. Instead of defining the field through geography or heritage, the lecture emphasized its lack of a fixed “Romance World.” The idea that Romance Studies is deterritorialized – that it “belongs nowhere and finds a place everywhere”, challenged my assumptions about how academic disciplines are organized. I was particularly struck by the description of Romance languages as Latin’s “bastard offspring.” They are shaped not by purity, but by miscegenation, fragmentation, and the collapse of empire. This framing positions the field as inherently hybrid and resistant to authority.

Overall, the lecture set an open, exploratory tone for the semester – one that invites curiosity rather than certainty. I’m fascinated by how Romance Studies embraces hybridity, translation as both betrayal and homage, and the creation of new forms of expression. As we begin the readings, I look forward to seeing how these ideas develop and to engaging with the discussions that emerge from them.