Hi everyone!
My name is Bianca and I’m a second year student trying to get into International Relations. I am from Italy but I have been living on campus for almost two years. Literature has always been a great passion of mine. After I took English and Italian literature when I did IB in high school I started appreciating the insights we get from discussing literature with others. I decided to take this course because, other than the fact that it fulfills the literature requirement, I miss reading and talking about different aspects of novels in class. I am really looking forward to reading some of the texts in this course, especially the ones from Spanish and Italian authors because I tend to enjoy those types of novels the most.
Understanding the commonalities between the texts we will read and what sets the texts apart from other types of literature is going to be interesting. I am excited to compare my ideas with my classmates and engage in debates to broaden my knowledge of literature in Romance languages. I also think that studying the relationship between language and literature can lead to significant cultural conclusions which I am looking forward to exploring. Personally, this course will be an opportunity to understand more about my first language and its connection with the other Romance languages in the world.
I regret not studying Latin in high school, but I hope this course will help me learn a little bit about how languages stemmed from Latin and why. I’m also learning French right now and I’m planning on learning Spanish in the future, so I’m sure reading novels by French and Spanish authors will help me with my language studies as well. Overall, the texts that were selected for this course are ideal for me as a person whose first language is a Romance language and who is interested in learning more about these beautiful languages in the future.
Finally, the format of this course is definitely unusual but could be a great way for me to manage my time and reflect upon how much I will be able to accomplish this term. Being able to choose our own grade based on our workload is definitely intimidating but it might turn out to be a great way for me to push my limits and plan ahead of time. This course seems really intriguing to me still, so it will be curious to see how it unfolds throughout the term. For now I’ll just hope for the best and try making this blog pretty. I hope to see you all in person soon!
– Bianca