Romance Studies Conclusion

I can't believe this is my last post for Romance Studies 202 ☹️ This term flew by. This course has been an amazing experience. I enjoyed having complete control of my learning and choosing how many and what kinds of books I got to read. With that control, it was nice to push my boundaries and be exposed to books I would not have picked on my own outside of this class. Romance Studies was nothing I was expecting, but it exceeded my expectations, and I look forward to taking similar classes to this in the future. 

Reflecting on my first introduction post, my expectations for this course were to read as many books as possible and try reading different books from different areas of the world. I also wanted to be able to see similarities and differences between the novels. Looking back at all twelve posts, I am happy to say that I have met and fulfilled my expectations of this course. This course has been heavy with history about war and revolutions, making it an overall learning experience not just with the types of genres of books, but I have also been opened to learning about history. As also said in the lecture by Professor Jon Beasley-Murray that we may never read another Chilean, Brazilian, Romanian, or Catalan novel in our lives. This experience of reading these books every week will definitely make me keep an eye out for these types of books on bookshelves! 

My favourite books in this course were Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan, The Shrouded Woman by María Luisa Bombal, and The Time of the Doves by Mercè Rodoreda. I found these books to be where I was the most captivated and could easily write 400-500 words on these blog posts. These three novels share a strong female narrative and reading about these powerful women showcasing their vulnerability was really interesting to me. All three of them were different in their own ways as well but all had deep moments that left an impact on me and had me thinking about how I would deal if I were in their situations. 

Thank you, Jon, Patricio, and Jennifer, for an amazing term and for expanding my bookshelf in a fun and innovative way! And thank you to all my fellow classmates. It was really interesting reading everyone's thoughts and comments on the books we read. My final questions for this class are: What was your favourite book(s)? What specific themes stood out to you from these books?

Agualusa, The Society of Reluctant Dreamers

For the final week, I chose to read The Society of Reluctant Dreamers by José Eduardo Agualusa.  I can't believe this is my final blog post. It was a good novel to end off the term with. It was an enjoyable read, but at times I caught myself questioning what was real, imagined and what was being dreamed. It was interesting to see how dreams were illustrated in the sense of dreaming while asleep or daydreaming or having inspiring dreams about the future.

As the title suggests, this book is about dreams and dreamers. Set in Angola, with the hope that the younger generation can bring in a better future after the country's brutal past. The protagonist, Daniel Benchimol, is an Angolan journalist who has just gone through a divorce and is struggling to make sense of his place in changing society while dealing with his daughter's imprisonment as the result of protesting. I liked how Daniel was not always the centre of the novel, and we got to see each character grow and see what their dreams were about. There was a similarity with everyone's dreams. They all dreamed about change or progression. For example, Daniel's daughter acts out her dream for a better Angola. Their hope and strength came from their dreams. Their dreams were different from each other, but they were all a way of escaping reality and how they were forced to experience the changing times. Moira desires to dream her art to life. While Daniel's desire is to make sense of Hossi's dreamlessness. 

The central theme and idea of Dreams were really interesting. I have never questioned or put much thought into the bigger picture of dreams, but this book made me stop and think about how dreams come to us. I liked a lot of Agualusa's ideas on the power of dreams and how they expose our intimate thoughts and dreams becoming a reality. These specific quotes really stuck out for me regarding these concepts of dreams, “All dreams are frightening because they're intimate. They're the most intimate thing we have. Intimacy is frightening" (pg. 69). "Dreams are always echoes of something" (pg. 86).  I found these quotes very impactful because they say a lot about how while we are dreaming our hidden subconsciousness is given the chance to surface and tell us things that we might not be able to hear while we are awake. 

My question for the class is: What was your favourite character and why? What dreams did you find most relatable?