Magical Realism in “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”

Authors:

Pages: 241-249
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/ZKWN3271

Abstract:

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2008. The book took Junot Díaz eleven years to write, and was his first novel. The story is set both in the United States and in the Dominican Republic. The narrative relates the characters’ experience of being Dominican in both places. The novel incorporates elements of magical realism such as the Golden-eye mongoose which reappears at critical junctures in the novel. This paper argues that in the light of the growing scientific evidence that the universe is far morecomplex and magical than previously thought, the literary interpretation of magical realism elements should be reexamined and not merely dismissed as ‘patently untrue’ as Maria Takolander does in her analysis of the novel of Junot Diaz.

Keywords:

magical realism, true– untrue, scientific evidence, universe

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