We have finally made it to the end of our hopscotch game. Or maybe we are just beginning our own hopscotch journey. We started at Mama Blanca with the themes of memories and childhood. Childhood perspectives are a theme that was one of my favourites in our journey. Cartucho and Papi also used childlike perspectives to frame things in a lighter sense, more like a game. This perspective is super eye-opening and interesting to me. Adults take things seriously and literally, but children see the world for how it is. This view is one that I adopted, and it helped me understand the books that were more linguistically confusing. It helped me avoid getting too wrapped up in confusing words or unrealistic scenes. This allowed me to not over-analyze and get overwhelmed when reading; I also was able to understand the bigger picture and understand that even though some things don't feel realistic, it's an exaggeration and curiosity; wondering what could happen; wondering if we can have a library that's bigger than any library ever existed, with every version of every text. {I had to include Borges in my last post :) }
Along with childlike perspectives, we have read many texts with overarching themes of games, magic realism, memories, and chaos and violence. I have never been enrolled in a course that has covered so many different themes. I enjoyed this course a lot. It allowed me to read new books with new authors from literature I had never read. I wanted to thank Jon and Daniel for a fantastic semester! And for all your hard work in making this class unforgettable for all of us! I hope future students get a chance to read books, just for the sake of reading. I feel like we have lost the joy of reading as students; we are always focused on what to write about and memorize from the book just to pass a class. I am super excited to read more books in the summer, and I would like to know if you guys have any suggestions?
One other theme that I was grateful we explored was violence and chaos. We read many books with different styles and stories of violence. It is hard to say that I liked reading about the violence, but we can never hide from it. In Latin American literature, violence is always somewhere there, but there is some hope in the end. We saw external and internal violence from Blanca Nieves leaving her farm (internal chaos, sadness) to the children in Cartucho being intrigued with war and death. In Rigoberta Menchú, an Indian woman in Guatemala, through all the oppression faced, she became an activist to help her community, and in 100 years of solitude, despite the decline and fate of Macondo and their social isolation, living alone in close communion with community and nature is good for the whole body, mind, and soul. And in Papi, the daughter struggled with her father and his passing but, in the end, was connected with her mother closer than ever, and the book ended on a much lighter note. Showing that amongst all the chaos and grief, it is not all bad, and there is hope. This has taught me that even though these texts have been very heavy, there are glimpses of hope.
Overall, this course has taught me about many new styles of literature, and even though I took it as a requirement, it has inspired me to take another literature course in the future. So my last question for you guys is, what has been the book that has changed your perspective or thoughts on literature? And how so? Also, what has been your favourite book this far? I would love to know if there is a book I should read that I missed from this course! (mainly because I only read about half the books)
Writing blogs has been so much fun; I will miss it a lot! I wish everyone all the best and good luck with final exams!!!
Borges! Borges everywhere! :)
ReplyDelete"This has taught me that even though these texts have been very heavy, there are glimpses of hope." I love knowing that despite how complicated some books were to read, and how painful some topics were, you have finished this Term with thoughts of hope. Oppression is something that happens every day in Latin America, be it gender or ethnic, and both children and adults suffer from it. I think having the opportunity to tell these stories in different tones and in different ways already opens up a space for hope. Total silence is death. Thank you for your comments and ideas, we are going to miss all of you too!