Hi hi! My name is Sofia and I’m a second-year student here at UBC. I signed up for this course after taking RMST 361: Studies in Portuguese and Brazilian Literature last year and I really enjoyed it, and by the looks of our syllabus, I expect to like this course too. Isn’t so neat how we get to pick our own grades and which books we get to read for ourselves? I don’t know about you guys, but I have never got to do that for another course before.
A few facts about me; I have lived most of my life in Vancouver, but my family is Brazilian and Dutch and I spent the first few years of my life moving between Brazil, the United States and Canada. Because I grew up travelling so much, I’ve always enjoyed reading books from other countries and would love to visit other places in Latin America one day. I also love dancing, listening to music and going to movie theatre by myself or with my friends and family.
Now to address the first Lecture Inventing the Romance World. The first question asked is “where is the Romance World?” to which I say the romance world is where Romance culture and languages are in use, which arguably could be everywhere. To narrow it down, maybe we could say the Romance world is where romance language is the dominant language, so in some places like Latin America, and in parts of Europe and Africa etc. But I think maybe the first answer is more true. It’s impossible to narrow down where a world is when the world described isn’t necessarily physical. Language and culture don’t have objectively physically defined features so we can’t exactly pinpoint where the Romance world exists.
I think that’s what draws me to Romance Studies. Like it was said in the lecture, Romance languages share miscegenation and are “tied to no territory”. The Romance world is a mixed one and I think I see something of my own upbringing in it (minus the overt overthrowing of authority and betrayal haha). I mean more in terms of being displaced in a way.
Anyways, I look forward to learning more about all of this through the study of literature and achieving our goals of finding patterns in the different texts, seeing what they have in common, and hopefully also just enjoying reading them and maybe even finding a new favourite novel.
Sincerely,
Sofia
5 replies on “Hello world!”
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Hi Sofia, and welcome to the course! You’ll find at least one book from Brazil, and another from Lusophone Africa on the syllabus, but our journey also takes us to many other parts of the globe… as you say, almost everywhere and anywhere!
Hello Sofia! Welcome to the course!
Hi I’m Julián! I’m trying to check if comments are available.
Hi Sofia!! I loved what you said about romance studies and what draws you to it. I totally agree with you, and I think the idea of the romance world being a mixture of different cultures, languages, and ideas is what makes it such a beautifully unique and fascinating area of study. Great post :DD