rmst202

This week’s book, Paris Peasant, I did find to be quite enjoyable, slightly challenging to follow, but was also hard to put down. In the first parts of the text, I do have to admit I was not completely engaged, but that changed with time. As with Combray, I really appreciated the lengthy descriptions, although could sometimes get a little tiring, I just find that it helps so much with being in the shoes of the characters. This was my first time reading a book based on surrealism, which I found incredibly interesting. I found it easier to really understand the surrealist points that the author was trying to make with his extremely descriptive writing style.  I really found it to be almost a lens for the book, and made a lot of assumptions on my own, connecting the themes in the novel to surrealism.

First, I must say that the author did a great job of really engaging readers in this “surreal” and out-of-consciousness setting, which was Paris. This really demonstrates the theme of surrealism as Paris is seen in the novel as sort of a break from the “outside world”, but is actually going on in Paris at this time as well. I made a connection as well that not only did the setting make sense in a historical sense to use, but as is known for being a “magical place”, Paris really serves as an oasis or a perfect world.

As well, as I previously touched on, there were points that I found difficult to follow in the book. I found that throughout the book Aragon let his thoughts trail off, and felt incomplete. As a reader that sometimes starts to drift off, I found myself re-reading these parts, thinking that it was myself that had the incomplete thoughts. However, I do recognize that this is part of the author’s technique or surrealist writing to really hit home with the unconscious thoughts.

My question to the class is: Were you able to make connections with any “surrealism” in your life and the way that Aragon depicts it in the text while reading.

I found Marcel Proust’s “Combray” to be a great portrayal of his main ideas in the novel for many reasons, and I also found it to be quite enjoyable read. I specifically enjoyed the way in which he gets his ideas across to his readers. Firstly, I have to say, although maybe an unpopular opinion, I found the long sentences to be a great way to portray his ideas and get his points across. I think that the use of long sentences, specifically in describing attributes of memories really add to the reader’s understanding of his ideas. I believe that this way of writing goes hand in hand with the use of imagery in this novel, which plays a huge role in the text. The use of imagery in the novel adds so much to the quality of the read in my opinion as it really allows readers to take on his view of his childhood memories. For example, he writes “Her own room looked out over the Rue Saint-Jacques,… monotonous and grey, with the three high steps of stone before almost every one of its doors, seemed like a deep furrow cut by some sculptor of gothic images in the very block of stone out of which he had fashioned a Calvary or a Crib.” This example demonstrates the importance of imagery and how it portrayed the genuineness in Proust’s memories throughout the novel.

As well, I think that Proust’s writing/narration style in the novel really helps to captivate the emotions and thought behind his words. The way that he narrates about himself almost watching his memories back was very captivating to read, and I feel helps to share some of that emotion with his readers. This, along with the long sentences really displays sort of this feeling of raw emotion that comes across while reading the text. In doing this, I find that it enables readers to kind of put themselves in his shoes as they are really able to picture and kind of take on the “scene” of each memory that he describes.

Overall, I think that Proust, in Combray allows readers to experience his main ideas, of time and memory in a less common way through his writing style. In writing about his past memories in a way that captivates his readers, he brings across as if he’s almost in an unconscious state while recalling these memories and therefore he really gets across the message that more goes into memory than one might think, as it is not constant and can be impacted/changes through different forms.

Hello everyone,

I’m Brianna and I’m from Toronto. I’m a second-year student hoping to major in political science and hope to go to law school in the future.

I have always favorited subjects that are literarily centered. I think that these courses offer such an opportunity to be analyzed and understood in so many different ways.  I have taken several courses about different types of literature, both through high school and first year. I am excited to see what RMST202 has to offer as I have not learned much in the realm of this course description. I also have always had a passion for learning new things, beginning from a place of no knowledge, which I’m confident this course will allow me to do.

Throughout this course, I hope to not only build my expertise in analyzing types of literature but also gain a new appreciation for types of literature. I also hope to gain new tools that will help me to further my abilities in identifying similarities and differences, as well as what drives them, throughout all types of literary works. I look forward to taking new approaches to literature that I have yet to encounter and applying them.