Subverting Transnationalized Latin-American Machismo. Junot Diaz’s Short Stories
Subverting Transnationalized Latin-American Machismo. Junot Diaz’s Short Stories

Summary/Abstract: This paper attempts to analyse the transformations that the Latin-American macho figure undergoes when caught up in migratory movements, taking as case study the two short story collections of Dominican-born author Junot Diaz (Drown, 1996 and This is How You Lose Her, 2012). Discussions on the consequences of migration on gender constitution have appeared relatively late and less frequently in migration studies when compared to the analyses of socio-economic factors influenced by migrations. Thus, after some preliminary reflections on this link between gender and migration, the paper will focus on different meanings of the term macho, with a particular focus on the Latin-American geo-cultural space. Several stories will then be analysed through the lens of the dislocation of classical machismo and its representation through the narrator’s life. For a better understanding of the formative years of his narrator, the last section of the paper will briefly consider Diaz’s only novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, 2007.

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