10 research outputs found
Speaking of madness in the first person / speaking madness in the second person? Junot DĂazâs The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and 'The Cheaterâs Guide to Love'
peer reviewedDrawing on Soshana Felmanâs distinction between âthe texts of madnessâ and âthe madness of textsâ, Munos looks at Junot DĂazâs "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" (2008) and âThe Cheaterâs Guide to Loveâ (2012), a short story written in the second person, with a view to showing how the âreader-effectsâ at play in these two texts further ambiguate the suggested equation between cultural authenticity and Dominican hyper-masculinity. By comparing DĂazâs use of the first person in his novel and that of the second person in his short story, Munosâs aim is to show how âThe Cheaterâs Guideâ shifts the ground of analysis even more irrevocably from thematizing the madness of Dominican hyper-masculinity to dramatizing the status of knowledge and the very possibility of interpretation