Junot Diaz and the Decolonial Imagination

The first sustained critical examination of the work of Dominican-American writer Junot Diaz, this interdisciplinary collection considers how Diaz’s writing illuminates the world of Latino cultural expression and trans-American and diasporic literary history. Interested in conceptualizing Diaz’s decolonial imagination and his radically re-envisioned world, the contributors show how his aesthetic and activist practice reflect a significant shift in American letters toward a hemispheric and planetary culture. They examine the intersections of race, Afro-Latinidad, gender, sexuality, disability, poverty, and power in Diaz’s work. Essays in the volume explore issues of narration, language, and humor in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, the racialized constructions of gender and sexuality in Drown and This Is How You Lose Her, and the role of the zombie in the short story Monstro. Collectively, they situate Diaz’s writing in relation to American and Latin American literary practices and reveal the author’s activist investments. The volume concludes with Paula Moya’s interview with Diaz. Contributors: Glenda R. Carpio, Arlene Davila, Lyn Di Iorio, Junot Diaz, Monica Hanna, Jennifer Harford Vargas, Ylce Irizarry, Claudia Milian, Julie Avril Minich, Paula M. L. Moya, Sarah Quesada, Jose David Saldivar, Ramon Saldivar, Silvio Torres-Saillant, Deborah R. Vargas