Concluding thoughts on the course

I can honestly say that going into this course my expectations were different. This is not to say the course didn’t met my expectations, but rather that I approached the course expecting romance in the more literal sense (even in spite of reading the course description before registration, when asked by family and friends about the course I was about to take, I would say we were going to read romance novels originally written in languages other than english – that seems like such a silly and wholly incorrect way for me to describe the course in reflection). However, I am glad that we explored outside the romance genre of novels. I’ve come away from this course with a much richer understanding of styles of literature and even some world history and culture.  

When we’re talking about patterns of commonality and difference, I can’t help but relate this to my personal experiences of what I do and don’t relate to in the novels we’ve read. For example, I found myself relating to relationships with a step-parent within ‘Bonjour Triste’ or competing feelings between love and jealousy within ‘My Brilliant Friend.’ On the other hand, I was not able to relate to any of the stories we’ve read that involve the difficulty of navigating war and poverty within novels like ‘Time of the Doves.’ Reading books like ‘Times of the Doves’ has really given me more insight into the privilege I’ve had throughout my life. While everything we’ve read has been fictional, there remains elements of personal truth and reflection of historical circumstances in them all. This reinforces that fictional books have just as much to teach as non-fiction. 

In reflection of this course style, I really loved it. I felt like I could just enjoy what I was reading and learnt more as a result. I particularly learnt more by having open class discussions and reading the insights of my peers as opposed to being forced to read overly complicated academic journals or reports I tend not to fully understand. 

I would also like to thank Professor Beasly-Murrary and our TAs Patricio and Jennifer. Your conjoined work to give us feedback and comments on all of our blog posts made this course feel much more personable and engaging. 

My question to my classmates: What novels did you relate to most? What novels did you relate to least? Did you learn more from the novels you did relate to or the ones you did not?