Introduction

 When reading the course details on our website, I came across the questions Jon wants us to bear in mind throughout the term. Does it make sense to speak of "women's writing"? Is there such a thing? My face did not even flinch as I said yes to myself. Of course it makes sense and of course it matters. Why? Because we -or the world- has not paid enough attention to them before and they were not a prominent research category of their own until maybe this very moment of our time. In other words, it is a form of reparation. However, it is not as simple as that. The best evidence is our first class discussion yesterday. If so much conflicting, confused thoughts could emerge within just the matter of a three-hour class, how much more questions and doubts are yet to be raised in the whole world of literature?

Coming from a Chinese background, I have witnessed and experienced gender discrimination that takes place in public or in the family sphere. However, my education here has built within me a strong awareness for gendered treatments but also a growing interest in feminism. Amongst many of my courses, I have written papers on both women's representations in literature or literature produced by women. I want to know how women as creators create creative works, but more than that, I also want to know how they are illustrated in contemporary works, how the world used to see them, and how it sees them now. 

I am currently working my way through my Master's in Hispanic studies. I am involved in the FHIS department as a growing TA and a professional procrastinator. My thesis, which I need to get my hands on as soon as possible, is surrounded on 21st century Spanish novels written by millennial authors. In order to find my cohort of books, I even put together a reading list of young Spanish novelists, men or women. So if you are looking for something in Spanish, I have a lot to recommend. This semester will be characterized by hectic writing and all-nighters, at least for me, I can forsee that. But still, I am 100% interested and I want to do my best.

That being said, I hope to uncover in this class what women writers say. Not what they have to say, because I think by adding the notion of "having to", we are assuming -which we should try our best to avoid- that women writers must have a purpose in their text and that purpose has to do something about the world. I want to appreciate their literature just as they are. I am here to be, before anything, a reader. Then I may get to say that I want to be a student, a researcher, or a writer who writes about what women writers write. Oof, just until this moment I though I'd never say something quite as complicated as that.

I leave here the link to my most recent loop song. Hope you enjoy it.