This was by far the most interesting literature course I have taken so far. The format allowed me to be flexible in the way I was reading the novels. While in previous literature classes I have taken I was required to focus on methodical and technical skills while reading, I finally felt like I could enjoy the novels in RMST 202. Instead of looking for literary patterns or hunting for specific themes, I really felt like I was able to just focus on what the authors were trying to express in the books we’ve read. I didn’t feel like I had the pressure to identify specific concepts and, instead, I was able to write about what struck me about the stories. This was extremely beneficial in terms of my understanding and my contribution to the class. The discussion-oriented classes and blog posts were very stimulating. I learned a lot about other people’s perspectives by commenting on other people’s posts and about my own biases.
In terms of the contents of the course, reading books from Italian, Spanish, and Mexican authors was fascinating. We are so used to reading books written by English-speaking authors that we often forget to expose ourselves to different cultures. Learning about different countries, societies, characters, places, and more was refreshing and I’m very grateful that I was able to do that through literature. Especially since we live in an age where we can learn about any culture on the many media platforms at our disposal, I loved re-discovering literature as a way of knowing. Lastly, reading novels written by Italian authors in English was very interesting for me. As an Italian native speaker, I was able to put myself in the shoes of non-native speakers who have to be translated versions of Italian novels. This was extremely thought-provoking and taught me how beneficial yet tricky translation can be.
To answer the question with which we started the course, I definitely noticed some differences as well as similarities between the different books. We read stories told by different authors treating different themes, but what I found all books had in common was a romantic type of storytelling. We had established at the beginning of the course that the class would have little to do with romance as in a love story fairytale type of thing. However, ironically, there was a romantic quality to all the novels that captivated me. A sort of dream-like mood and the blurry line between reality and imagination were common denominators in almost every book we read. I don’t know if that could be associated with the fact that these are novels originally written in romance languages, but I personally feel like this could be a partial answer to the purpose of this course.
My question for the class is: did you find a dream-like quality to be recurrent in the novels or do you feel like that is just the common feeling we get when reading stories?
Thank you to Professor Jon, Jennifer, and Patricio for this wonderful course!
– Bianca
Hi Bianca! I totally agree about your thoughts on this class’s approach to reading; I enjoyed it a lot. To answer your question, I definitely found the same dream-like quality in some of the novels like “Amulet” and “W, or the Memory of Childhood.” I’m not sure if I’d characterize all the books I’ve read like that; for example, “Nada” and “Black Shack Alley” seemed to emphasize reality in favour of fantasies, but I still felt like that quality of visions or dreams you mentioned was more prominent in this class’s novels than in what I usually read.
I also agree that the structure of the course goes a long way in returning literature courses to the actual joy of reading, the reading itself. I find that many other literature courses get so caught up in the minutia of technical conventions of storytelling that they never get around to discussing why or how those conventions came about or why they should even matter. The focus on constructing our own understanding simply through reading the texts and not imposing any predispositions regarding narrative or textual analysis allowed us all to grow as reader and critical thinkers I think. Hope you enjoyed your term and have an awesome summer!