Conclusion

After going through this course, what stood out to me the most was how consistently challenged I was in the way I think about identity and social structures. With all the different books I have read and going to class to discuss about them, I realized it allowed me to evolve how I question certain things especially common themes such as memory, equality, storytelling or power. Moreover, through writing my blogs over the term, I also noticed how my interpretations have evolved from confusion at first to a deeper appreciation of how complex people truly are. Early on, it was strange to me the books as a lot had fragmented narratives or complex arguments, but overtime I began to see how this discomfort was truly intentional as I believe strongly it evolved on how I view things. One of the aspects of this course I really found interesting was how we explored memory and storytelling as it was shown to be unreliable yet meaningful constructs. In some of my blogs, I was interested on how narratives are shaped not just by facts, but by perspective, imagination, and emotion. This idea challenged my first assumption that the truth is something fixed and objective but now I appreciate how stories can hold multiple truths at once even if they contradict one another. This does connect to broader themes in the course about whose voices are heard and how knowledge is constructed. Furthermore, I enjoyed how the course encouraged us to personally reflect along with interpreting what these authors are trying to say. Writing the blog posts once again allowed me to connect with the books to my own personal experiences, which I made the readings more important and engaging. I also found these readings to be difficult to read most of the time, especially when the stories are not linear which were very frustrating, but looking back now it allowed me to slow down and sit with uncertainty rather than rushing myself to read it. One thing I found puzzling was how to balance interpretation with intention as if our interpretations are subjective then how much weight should we give to the authors point versus how we perceive it. But, overall the video lectures and conversations helped me understand these complex ideas, and hearing interpretations from my classmates also reinforces that there is no single idea or single correct interpretation of a book.