Fractal Families in New Millennium Narrative by Afro-Puerto Rican Women

A study of the family in contemporary Puerto Rican fiction.

Colonial narratives described Puerto Rico as a familial plantation governed by white men and served by Black women, but Puerto Rican women writing today are changing the story. This book surveys diasporic fiction written by Afro-Puerto Rican women whose historical storytelling reimagines the island’s collective family around particular active women-survivors, creators, and activists. John T. Maddox IV argues that these stories-by such writers as Mayra Santos-Febres, Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa, Arroyo Pizarro, and Yvonne Denis-Rosario-reveal imaginations committed to both the liberative and traumatic experiences of a new fractal family. Through close readings and interviews with the authors discussed, this book opens the door to a more fruitful conversation between the diaspora, homeland, and memory.