Introduction

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 brought up in the recording that Romance Studies are largely unconstrained by nation-states really resonated with me. Many of my classes so far have been focused on one area or one particular set of theories. I think that the notion of an unconstrained “romantic world” provides a very interesting opportunity for exploration. I also think it will be interesting to explore novels written in Romanian and Catalan, which I haven’t had much exposure to.

I also love to travel and had the opportunity to spend last year on two exchange terms in France and Spain. I also traveled throughout the Western Balkans and Eastern Europe, solo backpacking from Berlin to Athens by land over three months. I'm also planning another exchange for my final term next year in Hong Kong. I speak French fluently and am interested in tackling some of the books written in French in their untranslated versions. I also hope that studying literature from these regions will improve my cultural fluency as I hope to return to France to complete a master's after my graduation.

As far as my expectations for this course, I hope to better understand the “romantic world” and develop skills for literary analysis. As I mentioned before, I have not had much of an opportunity to read, and I am very excited to immerse myself in the world of literature. I think that developing these skills in literary analysis will help me greatly as I continue with my degree.