UNFREED BLACK BODIES: GENERATIONAL PAIN IN THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO

Authors : Gamze KATI GÜMÜŞ

Pages : 376-390

View : 36 | Download : 134

Publication Date : 2023-09-25

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :In his Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz narrates the agony and death his characters experience as they transition between various spaces. Starting with Abelard Luis Cabral, three generations of Oscar’s family are cursed due to the fukú caused by Abelard’s misconduct towards Dominican dictator Trujillo. Even though the two generations succeeding Abelard try to overcome the difficulties they experience by seeking spatial transition as a solution, their attempts prove to be futile. The bodies of the protagonist Oscar and his mother Belicia end up tortured in sugarcane fields that are notorious for their connection to slavery. In this context, Díaz introduces diaspora as a means of protection against the violence of institutional hegemonies in the Dominican Republic. The diasporic move from Santo Domingo to the United States, and vice versa, result either in a diasporic alienation or a transition from freedom to unfreedom. Translocality of the Cabrals and de Leóns demonstrates itself through constant movements as family members struggle to survive the pain transcending generations. Oscar cannot detach himself from the fukú that haunts his family as well as from the collective memory of the colonized Hispaniola. This paper will address the physical pain experienced by Cabrals and de Leóns, and how diasporic spatial transitions cause them to form deeper connections with the colonial and dictatorial past they are struggling to escape from.
Keywords : Junot Díaz, Oscar Wao, Translokalite, Acı, Diaspora