This past semester the course Dispersed Desire has touched on themes such as diaspora, identity, sexuality, colonization, and the erotic. For me this course has expanded my theoretical knowledge, but I have also gotten the chance to have a personal connection with the different works read in the class. Being Haitian-American myself, Edwidge Danticat’s Breath, Eyes, Memory resonated with me very much. Reading Breath,Eyes,Memory by Edwidge Danticat felt like reading a family history. Sophie the main character is a young Haitian girl. Her aunt looks after her. Her mother lives in the US and she doesn’t meet her until she’s twelve. My own Aunt told me long ago this was her situation. She grew up thinking her Aunt was her mom till her mom sent for her. Sophie’s family are of the fields want a better life for her. Education is highly stressed. This is almost every immigrant I know. When Sophie gets to the US she’s told to learn English quickly or she’ll be ridiculed. My parents have stories for days about how they treated Haitians in the US.

When reading a piece of work that was seemingly so familiar to me it was difficult to analyze it for what it was. I recall the blog post I made for this book having a lot of personal opinion infused into it. After that particular blog post and the commentary I received I found that my own close readings and analysis on works thereafter shifted in tone. This course furthered my ability to consider the different meanings behind text. Moreover, to reconcile the theoretical with the creative and how they work together.

Above all, I’m really grateful to this course because it felt like I fell back in love with reading and writing. It reminded me that academic writing can be interesting and engaging. Furthermore, with the small class size I truly felt comfortable participating in discussion. With all the different backgrounds we had contributing to the class it was always an enjoyable hour.