Abstract
In Killing Spanish: Literary Essays on Ambivalent U.S. Identity (2004), a recent book of literary criticism, I suggest the idea that in many contemporary U.S. Latino/a works of fiction, the violent death of a double character, usually a woman, represents ambivalence about U.S. Latino/a identity, an ambivalence most often resolved through violence and the “killing” off of the character associated with the Hispanic origin.
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Notes
René Girard, The Scapegoat (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), 22; hereafter cited as “SG.”
René Girard, Violence and The Sacred, trans. Patrick Gregory (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977, 1972), 159; hereafter cited as “VS.”
Homi Bhabha, The Location of Culture ( New York: Routledge, 1994 ), 86.
Junot Díaz, “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” in The New Yorker (December 25, 2000–January 1, 2001), 99; hereafter cited as “Díaz.”
Martha J. Reineke, Sacrificed Lives: Kristeva on Women and Violence ( Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1997 ), 74.
Eve Kosofsky Sedgewick, Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire ( New York: Columbia University Press, 1985 ).
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© 2007 Lyn Di Iorio Sandín and Richard Perez
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Di Iorio Sandín, L. (2007). The Latino Scapegoat: Knowledge through Death in Short Stories by Joyce Carol Oates and Junot Díaz. In: Di Iorio Sandín, L., Perez, R. (eds) Contemporary U.S. Latino/ A Literary Criticism. American Literature Readings in the 21st Century. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230609266_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230609266_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
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