edited by Monica Hanna, Jennifer Harford Vargas and José David Saldívar
Duke University Press, 2016 eISBN: 978-0-8223-7476-3 | Cloth: 978-0-8223-6024-7 | Paper: 978-0-8223-6033-9 Library of Congress Classification PS3554.I259Z75 2016
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
The first sustained critical examination of the work of Dominican-American writer Junot Díaz, this interdisciplinary collection considers how Díaz's writing illuminates the world of Latino cultural expression and trans-American and diasporic literary history. Interested in conceptualizing Díaz's decolonial imagination and his radically re-envisioned world, the contributors show how his aesthetic and activist practice reflect a significant shift in American letters toward a hemispheric and planetary culture. They examine the intersections of race, Afro-Latinidad, gender, sexuality, disability, poverty, and power in Díaz's work. Essays in the volume explore issues of narration, language, and humor in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, the racialized constructions of gender and sexuality in Drown and This Is How You Lose Her, and the role of the zombie in the short story "Monstro." Collectively, they situate Díaz’s writing in relation to American and Latin American literary practices and reveal the author’s activist investments. The volume concludes with Paula Moya's interview with Díaz.
Contributors: Glenda R. Carpio, Arlene Dávila, Lyn Di Iorio, Junot Díaz, Monica Hanna, Jennifer Harford Vargas, Ylce Irizarry, Claudia Milian, Julie Avril Minich, Paula M. L. Moya, Sarah Quesada, José David Saldívar, Ramón Saldívar, Silvio Torres-Saillant, Deborah R. Vargas
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Monica Hanna is Assistant Professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies at California State University, Fullerton.
Jennifer Harford Vargas is Assistant Professor of English at Bryn Mawr College.
José David Saldívar is Professor of Comparative Literature at Stanford University and the author of Trans-Americanity: Subaltern Modernities, Global Coloniality, and the Cultures of Greater Mexico, also published by Duke University Press.
REVIEWS
"Essential reading for casual readers as well as students and scholars of Junot Díaz's literary production."
-- Marisel Moreno Modern Fiction Studies
"A groundbreaking publication which unpacks the levels of complexity of Díaz’s writing and paves the way for future lines of inquiry into his work."
-- Laura Gallon Textual Practice
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Editors' Introduction. Junot Díaz and the Decolonial Imagination: From Island to Empire / Monica Hanna, Jennifer Harford Vargas, and José David Saldívar 1
Part I. Activist Aesthetics
1. Against the "Discursive Latino": On the Politics and Praxis of Junot Díaz's Latinidad / Arlene Dávila 33
2. The Decolonizer's Guide to Disability / Julie Avril Minich 49
3. Laughing through a Broken Mouth in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao / Lyn Di Iorio 69
4. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Cannibalist: Reading Yunior (Writing) in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao / Monica Hanna 89
Part II. Mapping Literary Geographies
5. Artistry, Ancestry, and Americanness in the Works of Junot Díaz / Silvio Torres-Saillant 115
6. This Is How You Lose it: Navigating Dominicanidad in Junot Díaz's Drown / Ylce Irizarry 147
7. Latino/a Deracination and the New Latin American Novel / Claudia Milian 173
8. Dictating a Zafa: The Power of Narrative Form as Ruin-Reading / Jennifer Harford Vargas 201
Part III. Doing Race in Spanglish
9. Dismantling the Master's House: The Decolonial Literary Imaginations of Audre Lorde and Junot Díaz / Paula M. L. Moya 231
10. Now Check It: Junot Díaz's Wondrous Spanglish / Glenda R. Carpio 257
11. A Planetary Warning?: The Multilayered Caribbean Zombie in "Monstro" / Sarah Quesada 291
Part IV. Desiring Decolonization
12. Junot Díaz's Search for Decolonial Aesthetics and Love / José David Saldívar 321
13. Sucia Love: Losing, Lying, and Leaving in Junot Díaz's This Is How You Lose Her / Deborah R. Vargas 351
14. "Christe Apocalyptus": Prospero in the Caribbean and the Art of Power / Ramón Saldívar 377
15. The Search for Decolonial Love: A Conversation between Junot Díaz and Paula M. L. Moya 391
Bibliography 403
Contributors 425
Index 431
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If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
edited by Monica Hanna, Jennifer Harford Vargas and José David Saldívar
Duke University Press, 2016 eISBN: 978-0-8223-7476-3 Cloth: 978-0-8223-6024-7 Paper: 978-0-8223-6033-9
The first sustained critical examination of the work of Dominican-American writer Junot Díaz, this interdisciplinary collection considers how Díaz's writing illuminates the world of Latino cultural expression and trans-American and diasporic literary history. Interested in conceptualizing Díaz's decolonial imagination and his radically re-envisioned world, the contributors show how his aesthetic and activist practice reflect a significant shift in American letters toward a hemispheric and planetary culture. They examine the intersections of race, Afro-Latinidad, gender, sexuality, disability, poverty, and power in Díaz's work. Essays in the volume explore issues of narration, language, and humor in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, the racialized constructions of gender and sexuality in Drown and This Is How You Lose Her, and the role of the zombie in the short story "Monstro." Collectively, they situate Díaz’s writing in relation to American and Latin American literary practices and reveal the author’s activist investments. The volume concludes with Paula Moya's interview with Díaz.
Contributors: Glenda R. Carpio, Arlene Dávila, Lyn Di Iorio, Junot Díaz, Monica Hanna, Jennifer Harford Vargas, Ylce Irizarry, Claudia Milian, Julie Avril Minich, Paula M. L. Moya, Sarah Quesada, José David Saldívar, Ramón Saldívar, Silvio Torres-Saillant, Deborah R. Vargas
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Monica Hanna is Assistant Professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies at California State University, Fullerton.
Jennifer Harford Vargas is Assistant Professor of English at Bryn Mawr College.
José David Saldívar is Professor of Comparative Literature at Stanford University and the author of Trans-Americanity: Subaltern Modernities, Global Coloniality, and the Cultures of Greater Mexico, also published by Duke University Press.
REVIEWS
"Essential reading for casual readers as well as students and scholars of Junot Díaz's literary production."
-- Marisel Moreno Modern Fiction Studies
"A groundbreaking publication which unpacks the levels of complexity of Díaz’s writing and paves the way for future lines of inquiry into his work."
-- Laura Gallon Textual Practice
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Editors' Introduction. Junot Díaz and the Decolonial Imagination: From Island to Empire / Monica Hanna, Jennifer Harford Vargas, and José David Saldívar 1
Part I. Activist Aesthetics
1. Against the "Discursive Latino": On the Politics and Praxis of Junot Díaz's Latinidad / Arlene Dávila 33
2. The Decolonizer's Guide to Disability / Julie Avril Minich 49
3. Laughing through a Broken Mouth in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao / Lyn Di Iorio 69
4. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Cannibalist: Reading Yunior (Writing) in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao / Monica Hanna 89
Part II. Mapping Literary Geographies
5. Artistry, Ancestry, and Americanness in the Works of Junot Díaz / Silvio Torres-Saillant 115
6. This Is How You Lose it: Navigating Dominicanidad in Junot Díaz's Drown / Ylce Irizarry 147
7. Latino/a Deracination and the New Latin American Novel / Claudia Milian 173
8. Dictating a Zafa: The Power of Narrative Form as Ruin-Reading / Jennifer Harford Vargas 201
Part III. Doing Race in Spanglish
9. Dismantling the Master's House: The Decolonial Literary Imaginations of Audre Lorde and Junot Díaz / Paula M. L. Moya 231
10. Now Check It: Junot Díaz's Wondrous Spanglish / Glenda R. Carpio 257
11. A Planetary Warning?: The Multilayered Caribbean Zombie in "Monstro" / Sarah Quesada 291
Part IV. Desiring Decolonization
12. Junot Díaz's Search for Decolonial Aesthetics and Love / José David Saldívar 321
13. Sucia Love: Losing, Lying, and Leaving in Junot Díaz's This Is How You Lose Her / Deborah R. Vargas 351
14. "Christe Apocalyptus": Prospero in the Caribbean and the Art of Power / Ramón Saldívar 377
15. The Search for Decolonial Love: A Conversation between Junot Díaz and Paula M. L. Moya 391
Bibliography 403
Contributors 425
Index 431
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE