Reinterpreting the Diaspora and the Political Violence of the Trujillo Regime : The Fantastic as a Tool for Cultural Mediation in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Abstract

Junot Díaz’ first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007) is a complex text, at the core of which is an historical narrative about the Trujillo regime and its after-effects. By expanding on the previous scholarly discussion, this essay provides a comprehensive look at the roles of the fantastic in this novel, arguing that it serves as a tool for (re)presenting the incomprehensible violence of the dictatorship and mediating the cultural complexities that arose from the Dominican diaspora in the United States. In doing so, three main points are explored. The first describes how multiple intertextual references to comic books, fantasy literature and science fiction create a framework that facilitates the reader’s comprehension of the cultural disparities in the novel. There follows an exploration of the supernatural elements of the plot and their relationship to the autochthonous beliefs and customs of the Dominican Republic, while the final point describes the relationship between the framework intertextual references and the fantastic. Namely, how the former influences the reader’s perception of the latter and how the two elements work together to mitigate the author’s representation of the island nation’s brutal history.