Hello! My name is Julia and I am a second year student studying psychology. I am taking this course for my literature requirement, but also because I have a budding interest in Spanish culture. I have a small background in Spanish (culture and language) as I took Spanish language for four terms at UBC, and now can somewhat speak decent Spanish if I remember any of the verbs I learned. I love reading and getting lost in novels, but I also suffer from being a very slow reader.
I’ve read over the descriptions of the novels and am starting to get excited about ones I know I will enjoy. I look forward to seeing how following the chronology of these books (and their publications) shows me the evolution of literature, and how the themes and writing styles change (or don’t!) based on the time period. In high school I found ‘literary analysis’ to be quite stuffy and overly analytical, so I am hoping that a more open approach to literature will make the discussion of these novels more fun and less of a slog.
If you want to know a bit more about me: apart from reading, I have a large passion for cinema. In high school I fell in love with cinema, watching different movies whenever possible – once, 100 in a summer – dissecting them, or simply enjoying them; I also began to write small movie reviews which boosted my confidence as a writer and consumer of media. I have amassed a humble, but dearly beloved, DVD collection, along with many long-winded reviews on Letterboxd, my favourite website (if you love movies, you must check it out).
[If I am not watching a movie , I can be found doing abstract makeup, photography, cooking, or obsessively making playlists full of 80s new wave/synth-pop.]
From the first lecture, I enjoyed the emphasis on “play”, a free-flowing investigation of the contexts of literature, influences, and difference approaches to understanding literature. I am interested to see how, despite these upcoming texts being from a range of different time periods, they share common themes that ‘skip’ around from story to story. In the lecture, it was also asked if these texts have anything in common past their similar geographical origins, and I look forward to finding connections between texts that are from different times and places. I think literature, and the human experience, all share some common themes and that these may appear in texts that appear to greatly differ from one another.
I don’t have a large background in literature, but I look forward to reading these new novels and hopefully finding themes and ideas that connect to one another (and to me!).
A question for the reader: what is one key criterion you use when deciding whether a book is “good” or not? Are you familiar with any Latin American literature? And: how do you think Latin American literature may differ from Western literature/”Classics”?
neko smart
January 11, 2023 — 12:19 am
Hi Julia! So nice to learn a bit about you – cinema is certainly a wonderful passion and I love that you express your love of film through movie reviews! In response to your question, I consider a book “good” if I find myself pondering it throughout the day or have difficulty putting it down. I read some Latin American literature in SPAN 280 (Revolutions of Latin America) and I look forward to exploring more of it. I think it differs from Western literature in a number of ways: culture, cadence, and theme. I’m curious to see if my prediction is correct.
AlizeySultan
January 11, 2023 — 2:26 am
Hi Julia, I really enjoyed reading your post! I thought it was really interesting how you were looking forward to seeing the evolution of literature, through the chronology of books (that really stood out to me). To answer your questions, I view a book as good if there are parts that have me gasping and remembering specific lines. Also, it helps if its on ‘Goodreads best books’. I don’t have too much experience with Latin American literature but I have read “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” by Gabriel García Márquez and a few poems by Pablo Neruda. With Pablo Neruda, I am looking forward to reading more of his poems because the ones I read back in high school for English class were all sad. So, I’m hoping I get a chance to read some happier and uplifting poems by him.
Curtis
January 11, 2023 — 7:24 pm
Hi Julia,
Nice to hear from you.
Any good films you’d recommend? I’ve never been a cinema nut, yet I would love to be acquainted with some good classics… Any come to mind?
You know, I’ve been thinking about how to ascertain a “good book” from a “bad book”, and, I hate to say it, but you have to judge it by it’s cover… that is until you pick it up and crack the spine. I have huge respect for cover designers/artists, because honestly, practically, it matters for the success of any book on a shelf. Other than that answer though, I feel that a good book is not overly flowery (or else it runs the risk of being pretentious) or it cannot be too simple (then no one would pick it up as there is no mystery). The perfect book, or piece of literature, in my eyes, must be a mystery through and through, yet a gripping mystery that matters to the reader. I believe it must speak to someone deeply… Maybe in its pages one can realize positive directions of growth for themselves or their community. To that point, I think all good literature is able to be personalized to the reader – or that is, the reader can always find points of relation, of connection to characters or scenarios in the story.
Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow!
Curtis HR
katherine
January 11, 2023 — 11:22 pm
Hi Julia!
I think it’s really hard to define whether a book is “good” for me. I categorize books I read using stars on online platforms, and even then I find it hard to determine what the cutoff is for “good”. Oftentimes I return to my ratings of books and am shocked to see I placed it lower or higher than I would presently rate it. I love beautiful prose; I just cannot read a book with boring writing. The format of each book depends on the genre, and I suppose my standards for each genre varies.
I am not familiar enough with Latin American literature as I have only read from a couple of authors like Allende and García Márquez. I’m excited to read more! I think Latin America differs most obviously from “classical western literature” in terms of the background of the authors: in this course we are examining texts written by authors from Latin America from the 20th/21st century, rather than the (mostly) white male authors from Europe and North America associated with “classic” western literature. This difference in background has obvious effects on the setting and perspectives presented in texts.
Elisabeth Herrington
January 17, 2023 — 12:25 am
Hi Julia!
Thank you for sharing! I am also a psychology major, Im in my third year and Im also taking this course as part of my literature requirement. Im also looking forward to this course and through looking over the course reading list Im so far intrigued!