Machismo, Carnival, and the Decolonial Imagination in the Writings of Junot Diaz

Download or read book Machismo, Carnival, and the Decolonial Imagination in the Writings of Junot Diaz written by Joshua Evans Price and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work explores Junot Díaz as an author of decolonial imagination, and more specifically, how the carnivalesque nature of Dominican machismo as influenced by Trujillo’s el tíguere masculinity creates liminal space for self-determination in opposition to colonial imagination. In exploring Díaz’s primary masculine characters, Oscar de Leon and Yunior de Las Casas, I trace the initial decolonial turn engendered by tigueraje performances, namely its projective creation of self outside of colonial domination. El tíguere machismo as empowering for Dominican males, however, is problematized by its reciprocal domination of both women and men who fail to meet the tigueraje ideal. It becomes an attempted cure that is ultimately symptomatic of the extent to which the effects of insidious ideologies and political policies, in this case, imperialism, perpetuate themselves across time, space and perhaps most significantly, cultures. Ultimately, identifying Junot Díaz as a decolonial author is a misrepresentation; though Díaz writes to break free of coloniality, his failure to largely acknowledge in his writing the cost and damage done to Dominican women reveals a narrow focus antiethical to the larger goals of decoloniality.