Date of Award
Spring 2019
Degree Type
Thesis
Department
English Language and Literatures
Director of Thesis
Anne Gulick, PhD
First Reader
Eli Jelly-Schapiro, PhD
Second Reader
Eli Jelly-Schapiro, PhD
Abstract
The following thesis aims to examine the interlocutions of diasporic trauma and genre in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz. Centering the work of prominent theorists regarding diaspora, trauma, and literature, this project enacts a close reading of the novel in order to frame it as a text that is at once principally concerned with diasporic trauma while also defying thematic labels and genre categorization. This project begins by foregrounding the work of trauma and diaspora scholars to demonstrate the relationality between the two fields of study, while the second chapter examines those presences in Oscar Wao; the third chapter then takes the alternative approach, demonstrating the importance of moving beyond a singular framework of diasporic trauma, and the final chapter connects those articulations to the novel. Ultimately, this thesis demonstrates how Oscar Wao reckons with the diasporic trauma of the Dominican Republic through the lens of magic and fantasy.
First Page
1
Last Page
56
Recommended Citation
Quire, Hannah, ""Death Stars, Death Breathes:" The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and the Trauma of Diaspora" (2019). Senior Theses. 268.
https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/senior_theses/268
Rights
© 2019, Hannah Quire