Skip to main content

LUP Student Papers

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

“Ghetto Nerd at the End of the World”: the Decolonized Chronotope, Liminality, and Dialogics in Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Chang, Clarissa Grace LU (2016) LIVR07 20161
English Studies
Master's Programme: Literature - Culture - Media
Abstract
Narratives focusing on People of Color often suffer from neocolonial treatment with narrow focus on race at the expense of character development, working with stereotypical monoliths rather than complex individuals. These types of narratives tend to use Whiteness as a “neutral” reference point. In this thesis, I demonstrate how novelist Junot Díaz crafts The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao around a universe that explores narratives and value systems that normalize and center around People of Color. I examine how Díaz presents a multigenerational nebulous investigation of decolonial liminality through the lens of what I term the “decolonized chronotope,” a device for analyzing texts and their cultures in a way that addresses and delinks... (More)
Narratives focusing on People of Color often suffer from neocolonial treatment with narrow focus on race at the expense of character development, working with stereotypical monoliths rather than complex individuals. These types of narratives tend to use Whiteness as a “neutral” reference point. In this thesis, I demonstrate how novelist Junot Díaz crafts The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao around a universe that explores narratives and value systems that normalize and center around People of Color. I examine how Díaz presents a multigenerational nebulous investigation of decolonial liminality through the lens of what I term the “decolonized chronotope,” a device for analyzing texts and their cultures in a way that addresses and delinks from colonialist power structures. I analyze the novel dialogically by looking at the interplay of the underlying diaspora, the oscillations––or shifts––between genre, language(s), time, space, perspective), and what the novel’s various internal interactions convey about the larger whole. Using theories from M.M. Bakhtin, alongside Gayatri Spivak, John Muthyala, Theodor Adorno, and Walter Benjamin, among others, I deconstruct the oscillations that power the decolonized chronotope, as well as examine the nature of diaspora, hegemonic cultural control, and colonialism in the novel. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Chang, Clarissa Grace LU
supervisor
organization
course
LIVR07 20161
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
contemporary literature, Junot Díaz, decolonized chronotope, decolonial imagination, heteroglossia, New Jersey, Dominican Republic, Afro-Latinidad
language
English
id
8902679
date added to LUP
2017-10-20 11:35:24
date last changed
2017-10-20 11:35:24
@misc{8902679,
  abstract     = {{Narratives focusing on People of Color often suffer from neocolonial treatment with narrow focus on race at the expense of character development, working with stereotypical monoliths rather than complex individuals. These types of narratives tend to use Whiteness as a “neutral” reference point. In this thesis, I demonstrate how novelist Junot Díaz crafts The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao around a universe that explores narratives and value systems that normalize and center around People of Color. I examine how Díaz presents a multigenerational nebulous investigation of decolonial liminality through the lens of what I term the “decolonized chronotope,” a device for analyzing texts and their cultures in a way that addresses and delinks from colonialist power structures. I analyze the novel dialogically by looking at the interplay of the underlying diaspora, the oscillations––or shifts––between genre, language(s), time, space, perspective), and what the novel’s various internal interactions convey about the larger whole. Using theories from M.M. Bakhtin, alongside Gayatri Spivak, John Muthyala, Theodor Adorno, and Walter Benjamin, among others, I deconstruct the oscillations that power the decolonized chronotope, as well as examine the nature of diaspora, hegemonic cultural control, and colonialism in the novel.}},
  author       = {{Chang, Clarissa Grace}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{“Ghetto Nerd at the End of the World”: the Decolonized Chronotope, Liminality, and Dialogics in Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}