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Diasporic Identity in Junot Díaz's Fictional World

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Diasporic Identity in Junot Díaz's Fictional World Philosophical Faculty B.A. Niels Hexspoor Diasporic Identity in Junot Díaz’s fictional world Supervisor: Prof. PhDr. Josef Jařab, CSc. Master thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of “English Philology”. Academic year 2016-2017 1 I, Niels Hexspoor, declare this thesis, Diasporic Identity in Junot Díaz’s fictional world, is my original work, written in fulfillment of the requirements for the master’s degree in “English Philology” of the Palacky University Olomouc. I also declare that the publications cited in this thesis have been personally consulted. Date: Signature: 2 Abstract This thesis explores the notion of diasporic identity in the fiction of Junot Díaz. In it I will look at the presence of such a cultural identity within Díaz’s published fiction, namely his novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and the two short story collections, Drown and This Is How You Lose Her. “Cultural Identity and Diaspora”, the 2005 paper written by cultural theorist Stuart Hall, serves as the theoretical backbone of the thesis, as Hall’s definition of a diasporic identity is used as reference material in establishing the existence of a diasporic identity in Díaz’s fiction. Looking at the Dominican diaspora of the 1960, as well as the African diaspora of the colonial era, this thesis explores the presence of diasporic identity as well the larger overall effects of the diaspora on Díaz’s most prominent characters. This is achieved by looking the way they exhibit the characteristics of a diasporic identity, as well as by assessing the role the English and Spanish language play concerning the Dominican diaspora. In this this thesis, I will also look at the effects of conflicting gender roles within the Dominican diaspora and at the lasting presence of the African diaspora, a remnant of the colonial history of the Dominican Republic. 3 Acknowledgements I would like to thank Prof. PhDr. Josef Jařab, CSc. for his help and supervision. Without his advice, remarks and recommendations, I would never have been able to write this master thesis. I also want to thank Diana Bawadekji for her support and for proofreading my thesis. 4 Methodology In this thesis, I have analyzed the diasporic identity within the fictional world created by Junot Díaz, looking at the entirety of his work, consisting of his 2007 novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and his two short story collections Drown and This Is How You Lose Her, published in 1996 and 2012, respectively. I start by establishing Díaz’s place within the Latino literary tradition, by looking at both the nature of Dominican immigration to the US in relation to the origin of the presence of other Latinos, such as Chicanos. I assess the impact of these differences in origin on Díaz’s relation to the Latino literary tradition, making use of sources such as Takaki’s A Different Mirror and Stavan and Acosta-Belen’s Norton Anthology of Latino Literature. I have based my analysis of Díaz’s texts on the theory of diasporic identity as formulated by cultural theorist Stuart Hall. As Hall’s theory was not originally written with literary interpretation in mind, rather focussing on cultural theory and discourse analysis, I have stretched his theory to make it applicable to the literary interpretation of Díaz’s fiction. I have done so by using Hall’s the main points of Hall’s theory and comparing them to the behavior of the characters in Díaz’s stories, looking for similarities to the key features of diasporic identity as described by Hall. The characteristics that are most prominently featured in this thesis are the inability to fit existing categorization, called différance by Hall, and a certain disconnection to the values of the original culture, in this case the culture of the Dominican Republic. In addition to that, I have used a variety of interviews and statements by Junot Díaz on the matter of diaspora, language and masculinity in support of my findings. 5 For the analysis of the use of language regarding the Dominican diaspora in Díaz’s fiction, I have relied on existing linguistic analyses of code switching between English and Spanish by Torres and Casielles-Suárez. 6 Table of Contents 1. Biography of Junot Díaz 7 2. Díaz’s place in the Latino literary tradition 10 3. Hall’s Theory of Diasporic Identity 13 4. The Diasporic Identity of Yunior and Oscar 17 5. The Language of the Diaspora 28 6. Masculinity and Gender roles in the diaspora 36 7. The Female perspective of the diaspora 45 8. The African Diaspora 50 9. Conclusion 57 10. Bibliography 61 Annotation 66 7 1. Biography of Junot Díaz Junot Díaz is an acclaimed Dominican-American writer of fiction, active since the late 1990’s he has published two short story collections: Drown (1996) and This Is How You Lose Her (2012); as well as one novel: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2006). Born in the capital of the Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo, Junot Díaz moved to Parlin, New Jersey, in the greater New York metropolitan area at the age of six, together with his mother and siblings, reuniting with his father, who had already been working in the US for several years. Junot Díaz was exposed to writing whilst studying English at Rutgers University. Demarest Hall, the special interest dormitory, attracting which features prominently in his work is the place where his ambitions as a writer would come to fruition. After graduation Rutgers University, Díaz would continue his academic career by obtaining his MFA at Ivy League school Cornell University, where he would write most of his first short story collection, Drown.1 Díaz is currently a creative writing teacher at MIT, the famous Boston-based technical university. After Drown was received with critical acclaim, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Díaz’s first, and to date only, novel, was published in 2007. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao would go on to win the 2008 Pulitzer Prize among 1 Ross Scarano. “Interview: Junot Díaz Talks Dying Art, the Line Between Fact and Fiction, and What Scares Him Most." Complex. December 17, 2012. Accessed November 30, 2016. http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2012/12/junot-diaz-interview. 8 other accolades2, confirming his position as one of the defining voice of contemporary Latino-American literature. Next to his work as an author, Díaz is active as an activist, having often voiced, as well written essays, on a variety of topics concerning ethnic relations in both the US and the Dominican Republic.3 His outspoken opinions against anti-Haitian discrimination as well as anti-black racism in the D.R. led him to have his Dominican Order of Merit revoked by the Dominican government.4 The Dominican Republic is actively engaged in the deportation of ethnic (black) Haitians. Díaz has cooperated with Haitian-American author Edwidge Danticat in condemning the deportation through several essays and through outspoken media interviews. Recently, the New Yorker published an essay of his, along essays of other prominent authors, on the subject of president-elect Donald.5 In the essay Díaz expresses his disbelief and concern over Trump’s election, while also calling for what he describes as Radical Hope. Additionally, Díaz is involved in supporting American writers of color, in an effort to help their narratives be heard. One of the ways he does so is with the Voices of Our Nation program, which helps writers of color develop themselves through workshops 2Pulitzer.org. “Winners: Junot Díaz”. Accessed November 30, 2016. http://www.pulitzer.org/winners/junot-diaz 3 Americas Quarterly. "The Dominican Republic and Haiti: A Shared View from the Diaspora." Americas Quarterly. Accessed November 30, 2016. http://americasquarterly.org/content/dominican-republic-and-haiti-shared-view-diaspora. 4 Daniela Franco. "Dominican Consul Revokes Medal From Author Junot Diaz." NBCNews.com. October 23, 2015. Accessed November 30, 2016. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/dominican-consul-author-junot-diaz-anti-dominican- n450441. 5 The New Yorker. "Aftermath: Sixteen Writers on Trump’s America." The New Yorker. November 13, 2016. Accessed November 30, 2016. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/11/21/aftermath-sixteen-writers-on-trumps- america#diaz. 9 and seminars. Díaz co-founded the program and currently serves on the board of directors.6 6"Vona Community | Writing Workshops for Writers of Color since 1999." Vona Community | Writing Workshops for Writers of Color since 1999. Accessed November 30, 2016. http://www.voicesatvona.org/. 10 2. Díaz’s place in the Latino literary tradition Chicano literature holds an important position in the American literary landscape as the most prominent of form of Latin-American literature. It is the most well documented form of literature dealing with the position and identity of Latinos in in America. A literary tradition that can be traced back to early the colonial days of the western hemisphere, the genre was truly distinguished as such after the Mexican- American war, leaving many Latinos in the annexed south-west of the United States. The Mexican-American demographic was further enlarged through the subsequent migration from the south, making the Mexican-American a distinguished part of the cultural landscape in the South-West of the United States.7 The Chicano barrios and their language has heavily influenced the writing style of Chicano authors, mixing English with the Spanish slang as used by the Chicanos in daily life. It is easy to see the similarities between the use of language in Chicano literature and Diaz’s work, as are the similarities between the Mexican Barrios in the south-west and the Caribbean Barrios in New Jersey and the greater New York metropolitan area described by Díaz.
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