Estoy encima la montaña de RMST202, y eso el fin amigos!

Hi everyone,

I just can’t believe it’s already the end of the term and I must write my conclusions; I’ve honestly come to really enjoy this course through our discussions on books I’ve never have picked up otherwise. I’m happy I took this course not just as I admire to read, but because I didn’t realize how into the books I’d get. I’d have to say that reading Moravia’s Agostino, Breton’s Nadja, Lispector’s The Hour of the Star, Duras’s The Lover, Piglia’s Money to Burn, and Zobel’s Black Shack Alley were my favourites. I will always recommend these to friends, as these books stood out to me with the discourse and lessons intertwined into the readings, not just a story to write, but a story to teach and relate. All of the texts we’ve read through the course have had differing major themes through focuses on varying plots and topics, but all seem to slightly converging with one another in the navigation of time, place, and thing. It seems that the books allow us to express our own emotions and anxieties onto the story, instilling new lessons and stories through each read through.

I think the course truly immersed me into the world of Romance Studies texts and history. Going into the course I remembered imagining we’d sit around to read stories of love, but as we’ve all seen, there were hardly any love stories. The worst offenders to this were the books with Love in the title someplace. Love Me Tender and The Lover had arguably the saddest love stories, while maybe The Book of Chameleons may have been the best story with Ângela killing Edmundo and being reunited with her dad plus Felix and Eulálio’s bond too. It was the best representation of love we may have seen through all the books I imagine. I think we’ve explored many types of love through RMST but we always seem to run into issues with romantic love, but have success with platonic and familial love (most of the time since both Love Me Tender and Agostino seem to dispute this). I think further, my favourite character was actually Agostino or perhaps Proust in Swann’s way, maybe even the shrouded woman in Bombal’s novel. I think these characters stand out as they each are in a transitional state, where many things are undefined yet many things are defined. It’s a state that’s far too relatable, as we each navigate our lives through struggles, challenges, and success. I feel that I’ve come to understand these stories better through my life, as reading through them now has had much more of an impact than if I had picked these books up as a teenager or adolescent. I feel that’s due to my experiences in my own transition into adulthood, navigating challenges I hadn’t imagined I’d face at my age. I guess that’s the kicker, I enjoyed this course arguably the most of any literature course I’ve taken, simply because at the core I was able to relate which let me follow along and feel comfortable participating in discussion. The course felt comfortable to be in and fair. It felt engaging and I loved having a drinks pairing as well as prizes for engagement. I liked the feeling of being so drawn into a book I’d read it as I lazed on the couch, cooked, ate, cleaned, brushed, and then to the bed. Many of the stories we read pulled me in exactly like that. I would 1000% recommend this course to friends, for the stories, for the fair grading, for the discussions.

Also, it was pretty dope to have my own blog. Sweet asf.

Signing off now 🙂