RT Journal Article
T1 The Inscription of Violence on the Culture Body: Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
A1 Carrasco Carrasco, Rocío
A1 Mesa González, María Cinta
AB The human body becomes the place wherehistorical, cultural, social, political andgender wounds can be inscribed. Thefragility of the human body is one of themain topics in Junot Diaz’s The BriefWondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2008). Inthis sense, the Dominican past of the maincharacters and their new lives in the UnitedStates are quite important in their physicaland psychological growth. The maincharacters find themselves in a liminalspace from where they have to decidewhether to change the negative culturalaspects and adapt to their new experiencesas a self in-between or to remain as theirold selves. The main characters arefrustrated because they do not fit into thecultural canons. On the one hand, violencebecomes for them the only way to relievetheir frustrations. On the other one, thelack of violence becomes the best way toput an end to their past suffering and toachieve a new identity that fits with thenew circumstances. Their final outcomewill depend on their decisions.
AB El cuerpo humano puede verse como unlibro en el que se reflejan las heridashistóricas, culturales, sociales, políticas yde género. La fragilidad del cuerpo comorecipiente cultural es uno de los temascentrales en The Brief Wondrous Life ofOscar Wao (2008). El pasado dominicanode los protagonistas y su vida actual enEstados Unidos marcan tanto su desarrollopsicológico como físico. Los personajes seencuentran en un estado liminal dondedeben decidir si cambiar los aspectosculturales negativos y adaptarse a lasnuevas experiencias que su estado liminaldemanda. La salvación o no de estospersonajes depende de esta decisión. Laviolencia se convierte en una manera deverbalizar sus frustraciones por norepresentar lo que se espera de ellos/as. Sinembargo, la falta de violencia se convierteen la manera más eficaz de acabar con elsufrimiento pasado y conseguir unaidentidad adaptada a las nuevascircunstancias.
PB Universidad de Valladolid
SN 2531-1654 (electrónico)
YR 2017
FD 2017-05
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10272/25706
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10272/25706
LA eng
NO Carrasco Carrasco, R., & Mesa González, C. (2017). The Inscription of Violence on the Culture Body: Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. In ES Review. Spanish Journal of English Studies, (Vol. 35, p. 55–70). Universidad de Valladolid.
NO The authors wish to acknowledge the funding provided by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Research for the writing of this essay (Research Project FEM2010-18142)
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 1 jun 2026