Oscar Wao and literary blackness: Decoding the GhettoNerd

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dc.contributor.advisorMéndez-Negrete, Josephine
dc.contributor.advisorSaldívar-Hull, Sonia
dc.contributor.authorSolis, Caitlin D.
dc.contributor.committeeMemberMiranda, Marie "Keta"
dc.date.accessioned2024-03-08T15:45:40Z
dc.date.available2024-03-08T15:45:40Z
dc.date.issued2009
dc.descriptionThis item is available only to currently enrolled UTSA students, faculty or staff. To download, navigate to Log In in the top right-hand corner of this screen, then select Log in with my UTSA ID.
dc.description.abstractIn this research project, I examine literary blackness in <italic>The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao</italic> by Junot Díaz. The literary construct of the GhettoNerd, a character whose voice and worldview is informed not only by the harsh realities of inner-city life, but also by the other-worldliness of Genre and popular culture, stands as a testament to the cultural mixtape that is hip-hop. In this thesis, I argue that the GhettoNerd is useful for making visible historical trauma and exposing marginalization while articulating agency and self-determination. In the case of <italic>Oscar Wao</italic>, Díaz creates the GhettoNerd in a Dominican context as a vehicle for exposing the blanqueamiento, the trujillato, and the deracialization among the Dominican diaspora. The author counters the effects of deracialization by showing how the characters grapple with and assert their identity. One of the ways this culturally conscious identity emerges is through creative cultural practices unique to the inner city such as hip-hop. Through constructing literary blackness, Díaz counters the dominant narrative of Dominican identity. I have argued that through <italic>Oscar Wao</italic>, the author constructs a hip-hop informed literary blackness which combines popular culture and Genre mythology inside transborder and transchronos realities that is produced in an unapologetic use of Spanish and bilingual street vernacular. A linguistic cultural poetics facilitates the examination of history through the literary practices of the author.
dc.description.departmentBicultural-Bilingual Studies
dc.format.extent84 pages
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.isbn9781109540987
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12588/5772
dc.languageen
dc.subjectDominican Republic
dc.subjectJunot Díaz
dc.subjectlanguage
dc.subjectLatino
dc.subjectliterary blackness
dc.subjectliterature
dc.subject.classificationCaribbean literature
dc.subject.classificationAmerican literature
dc.subject.classificationBlack history
dc.titleOscar Wao and literary blackness: Decoding the GhettoNerd
dc.typeThesis
dc.type.dcmiText
dcterms.accessRightspq_closed
thesis.degree.departmentBicultural-Bilingual Studies
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Texas at San Antonio
thesis.degree.levelMasters
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Arts

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