RMST 202

In Najda by Andre Breton, the author is able to eloquently capture the anxieties and life of the era while identifying the role of surrealism in our understanding of the text. I greatly enjoyed the non-traditional narrative structure and heavy use of coincidences that helped to better develop the text and the characters within it. The author uses a bizarre writing style along with imagery in the first section of the book which really enhance but also complicate the experience for the reader. The narrative, if you can call it that, follows a series of encounters and experiences, rather than a linear plot. The text begins as a more abstract exploration of surrealism and the protagonist’s feeling of separation from the world and his interactions within it. He describes feeling much like a ghost, having little impact on the world and not fully recognizing himself or the people with whom he interacts. I really resonate with this notion as I prepare to graduate and the existential crisis of ...

Although I initially found Combray to be rather complex and verbose, upon further reading I greatly enjoyed the author’s use of memory as a trope to help tell a story. In the end, I really enjoyed Combray, and thought that each aspect of the novel was eloquently weaved together to provide us with a detailed picture of the author’s life in Combray, which is a small French town. Within the text, the narrator recounts his experiences and observations and guides us through the landscape of Combray and the characters that inhabit it. As the narrator recounts various experiences in Combray, he experiences a series of flashbacks which help to understand the narrative. These flashbacks help to better understand the author's life and contextualize the village of Combray. The main theme of "Combray" is the idea of memory, and the involuntary flashbacks that occur as a result of various triggers. One instance of this occurring was in the “Madeleine” scene in the text. The narrator’s...

Hey! My name is Glen and I’m a Political Science and Geography student in my fourth year at UBC. Outside of school, I love climbing, skiing, and pretty much anything outdoorsy. While my primary focus is on political science, I have always been captivated by the world of literature and its ability to shape our understanding of the human condition. I am very interested in this class and the opportunities it presents to get course credit while getting to read what look like really interesting books! I haven’t read a lot during University (something about mandatory readings getting in the way), and I haven’t taken any literature courses aside from ASTU in my first year. I am very excited to have the chance to read regularly for course credit, and feel that taking this course will help greatly in my other courses in increasing my cultural fluency and understanding of the imagined “romantic world”.  Although I got added to this class off the waitlist after the first lecture, the notion b...