Abstract

This work explores Junot Daz as an author of decolonial imagination, and more specifically, how the carnivalesque nature of Dominican machismo as influenced by Trujillos el tguere masculinity creates liminal space for self-determination in opposition to colonial imagination. In exploring Dazs primary masculine characters, Oscar de Leon and Yunior de Las Casas, I trace the initial decolonial turn engendered by tigueraje performance, namely its projective creation of self outside of colonial domination. El tguere 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 Daz as decolonial author is a misrepresentation; though Daz 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 antithetical to the larger goals of decoloniality.

Degree

College and Department

Humanities; English