Publication:
Language and Race in Junot Diaz's Literature

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2008
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Kanagawa University. Center for Studies in Langues
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The recent trend of Dominican migration to the United States echoes previous patterns of Hispanic migration but with some characteristic aspects concerning race. As 75 % of this Dominican migrant population is mulatto, their classification as black people in the U.S. has affected the way they see themselves compared to people still living in the Dominican Republic; this classification has also determined the living conditions that they are offered in a racially dualized world such as the US. Junot Diaz, Dominican-American author, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for his first long novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. His literature vividly depicts the life of this community, both in the U.S. and in the Dominican Republic, and his use of a musical and meaningful Spanglish is an implicit denouncement of the racism suffered but also paradoxically practiced by Dominicans. This paper will illuminate these aspects of race and identity in Junot Diaz’s literary work.
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- Diaz, Junot. Drown. Riverhead books: New York, 1997 - Diaz, Junot. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Riverhead books: New York, 2007 - Duany, Jorge. “Reconstructing Racial Identity: Ethnicity, Color, and Class among Dominicans in the United States and Puerto Rico”. Latin American Perspectives, Vol. 25, No. 3, (May, 1998), 147-172. - Gilberston, Greta; Gurak, Douglas. “Household Transitions in the Migrations of Dominicans and Colombians to New York”. International Migration Review, vol.26, No. 1 (Spring, 1992), 22-45 - González, Juan. Harvest of Empire. A history of Latinos in America. New York: Penguin, 2001. - Lipski, John M. Variación del español. Serie Cultura Hispánica, nº 10. Centro de Estudios Hispánicos Universidad Sofía: Tokio, 2004 - Moreno, Marisel. “Debunking Myths, Destabilizing Identities: A Reading of Junot Díaz’s How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie”. Afro-Hispanic Review. Vol. 26, Number 2 (Fall 2007) - Squires, Gregory D. Capital and communities in black and white. The intersections of Race, Class and Uneven Development. State University of New York Press: Albany, 1994 - Stavans, Ilan. Spanglish. The Making of a New American Language. HarperCollins Publisher: New York, 2003 - Stavans, Ilan. The Hispanic Condition. The power of a people. HarperCollins Publishers: New York, 2001. - Toro, Alfonso de. Cartografias y estrategias de la ´postmodernidad` y la ´postcolonialidad`en Latinoamérica. Iberoamericana: Vervuert, 2006 - Toro, Fernando de. New Intersections: Essays on Cultura and Literatura in the Post-Modern and Post-Colonial Condition. Iberoamericana: Vervuert, 2003
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