Introductory blog

Hello! I’m Aaliyah, a third-year Psychology major with a minor in Education, and I’m thrilled to be acquainted with you all over the next term. I am taking this class to push myself to move outside the literature that I am typically exposed to and to refine my analytical skills further. In my academic pursuits at university, I have been exposed to texts with a more empirical structure and measurable outcomes, rather than those that require interpretation and analysis. Hence, this course will challenge me to work with forms of texts that I am generally more unfamiliar with.

After watching the first lecture, I found the rejection of a fixed “Romance World” really interesting. The Romance World was presented as something that’s not tied to any specific nation or history. This was seen in the Inca Kola example, where assumptions about authenticity are brought into question since the product remains culturally meaningful in the Peruvian identity even though it lacks those “pure” origins. In the same way, Romance languages and literature come from displacement rather than continuity. The way that this discipline rejects any particular lineage or territory is unlike more traditional literary frameworks that only rely on national canons.

Another thing that I found really thought-provoking was the characterisation of Romance Studies as an “anti-discipline” since it is defined by divergence rather than origin. All these literatures have a shared betrayal of the Latin language, and this reframes language as something that is unstable rather than hierarchical. Henceforth, reading the translations of these works goes on to further reinforce this instability and transformation, not as flaws but as elements that are central to meaning-making in literature. Overall, I felt a fundamental shift in my perspective just through the first lecture, and I am looking forward to further exploring and expanding that through this class!

Now I wanted to get a little bit more into myself and my expectations surrounding this course, just so that we can get to know eachother a little better before spending the rest of this term together. I am someone who finds great joy in painting and other little artsy-crafty hobbies. There is something entirely consuming about the process of art that I thoroughly enjoy. Engrossing every part of my mind into perfecting every tiny inch of my canvas is something that brings silence and tranquility into my otherwise busy mind. I have found a similar joy in literature, allowing the creative process to carry me into a world of its own. I hope to allow myself to enjoy the course in this way and also by engaging in analytical and insightful discussions with you all. Another fun pastime of mine is watching crime TV and reading psychothrillers, so if that’s something you’d ever have fun chatting about, feel free to reach out! That is currently my favourite form of literature, but maybe this class will change that, haha. Sorry, I also have a knack for unfunny jokes, bear with me here.

Further in regards to my expectations for this course, I hope to immerse myself in challenging texts that fall outside of my comfort zone in order to grow my analytical and writing skills through trying out new strategies. I hope to build and apply my critical thinking instead of trying to land on a definitive answer. All in all, I expect that this course will push me to read, write, and eventually think differently than I have been taught to in more research-oriented and empirical courses.