Words as Weapons: Gossip in Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Abstract

Junot Díaz’s 2007 novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (hereafter Oscar Wao), is saturated with gossip. Its characters both gossip and are revealed through gossip; its Dominican American narrator, Yunior, gossips; even the Dominican dictator, Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, is shown as both gossiped about and gossiping. The text’s proliferating gossip frames an account of the twentieth-century Dominican experience: Yunior’s attempt to write a biography of his friend, the eponymous Oscar, quickly spirals out to incorporate, through succeeding layers of gossip, the broader story of Oscar’s family and, more obliquely, of the Dominican people, the Trujillo regime, and the Dominican Republic’s diaspora. Yunior deploys gossip both as an essential source of information and as a narrative strategy that allows him to disseminate previously silenced or suppressed stories. He does this in a manner that titillates the reader even as it subtly draws them into ideological complicity with him and seduces them into accepting, and perhaps even adopting, the ideological stance on which Yunior’s telling of the events is founded. In so doing, however, Yunior also reveals gossip’s status as a contested medium, capable of both comforting Dominicans and of serving as a tool for their oppression. Gossip, in Díaz’s text, grants a measure of narrative power to those denied a place in official discourses, but it is also shown as readily harnessed, and ultimately monopolized, by the Trujillo regime, which repeatedly used it to suppress dissent and to strengthen its grip on power. I offer a reading of Díaz’s novel against the growing body of gossip scholarship, which has largely focused on the practice’s markedly distinct function in Anglo-American literature, primarily from the nineteenth century or earlier.1 Bringing the critical discourse on gossip into conversation with the recent literature of the Hispanic Caribbean and its diaspora allows fruitful readings of Díaz’s text. It also provides important new insights into the practice of gossip itself, a remarkably pliable narrative form that reveals new traits and uses when viewed in Dominican social, political, and historical contexts. Scholars of gossip have generally adhered to polarized readings of gossip, seeing it either negatively, as a corrupted and corrupting form of discourse, or positively, as a source of social cohesion and a medium of self-assertion.2 In Oscar Wao, however, gossip is neither condemned nor vindicated but rather revealed as a malleable, pervasive, and potent narrative form that can be marshaled to very different ends by those seeking to resist or to sustain established hierarchies of power. Díaz’s deployment of gossip recalls Stuart Hall’s assertion that it is “impossible to approach Caribbean culture without understanding the way it was continually inscribed by questions of power” (28). A proper understanding of the Caribbean requires an engagement with its gossip, for it is frequently through gossip that the region’s “questions of power” are asked and answered, challenged and renegotiated. As Díaz’s text reveals, gossip can be a means of perpetuating official narratives but also of subverting them; when public narratives are violently imposed rather than consensually generated, gossip emerges as an important way to keep other narratives percolating beneath the surface and, in so doing, challenge official discourses. Gossip is a to than to The or more or about or social A gossip, the is a a of and in a a of a or of an or reveals or about to the reveals other to the a or or that generally attempt to or which about Díaz’s text uses the a that in Caribbean or gossip or but can also an or or a and in the as a a a against a or that and more as it from to the and gossip as a and the public and the however, a more and practice than gossip does for the the public of is of as a and against the rather than the more but ultimately by is revealed in the of the the gossip from and in the has the is to either from the a a or from the a or Gossip, in the Dominican is in of but rather in the of and the social Scholars of gossip have focused on Anglo-American largely the by in the and of gossip. gossip has an In as of gossip be it to and different and in different to a approach gossip way of through of its and rather than by seeking a In the gossip’s in literature to broader critical has a of the As are as or gossip has an an or that gossip its that gossip is and is to in to the attempt to gossip in seeking to the traits or of as to the for frames gossip as by about the for as as a of or and that gossip is and or more about the of other to with a on the the The is more a about and this story the or the is I the of the to that gossip is a narrative practice that its an of that and the of an As gossip can be in to its form that its or or the it or and complicity or through the of be in in however, are gossip when it is or of and In a allows to gossip in the of or in a gossip but for in or even it also allows to to gossip is and to for gossip and as As by their gossip and are that are used are however, as is but in with an it to and even its Gossip, I on information from a and generally on it has a gossip or and its and the of an of its its and the it and on its I however, from the used by in understanding gossip both in the by the gossip and in the by the Gossip can be about that it also can be more and of gossip its to gossip with is to gossip about and to complicity and a in to the gossip’s I gossip to be a of narrative with the of also as an of or In the Caribbean gossip reveals as more than has it is the of but a narrative even a that can be by both the and the as for of public The and of gossip is to the but it is perhaps more and its to be and by both the and the it in as Díaz’s Dominican which are by and the for narrative As by as of is that the and of and and more than a It a medium of Díaz’s novel the and of gossip’s as a of and its to be to and the narratives of the text a new on assertion that frequently in Caribbean literature of the as a of those from the public and more In Dominican Oscar Wao gossip’s to a the to a on its seeking to disseminate its gossip, and to on the with to the of a of the of Oscar Wao, in can be as an attempt to the of gossip, from the of and and to to the silenced by the Trujillo In his family Yunior both the gossip that the Trujillo and the that have for gossip more to He frequently does by the and of gossip, into a Caribbean of gossip as a and frequently political, form of is a way to his but it is also a way to the and of the and to and to a to which Dominicans very Gossip, in this the that it is a means to challenge the Dominican Republic’s official narrative but also a tool can be It in other a in which a can which of its be to be and which narratives to its discourses. Oscar Wao that gossip’s to and its to either or it a narrative for which both the and those keep them so for as gossip with either or both in Oscar In telling his Yunior of the of of the Trujillo and but of the telling by the power and of the of a to which the to the of the is by but in the of an and more the is the the of the a of and gossip and gossip The complicity and by gossip is by Yunior to his reader of the of his the Yunior, in to the reader but to them in a that as and the have for when Oscar Wao Trujillo, the his was to Yunior on the of and It was the to the as that Trujillo as his As an was for a a of American a with his and a a by the is as a his by the with a Yunior of his biography to a historical the to have from the of a of from through gossip and to and Yunior a for in an Trujillo as his and a for and that was other in even the of his of and Oscar Wao, and it is to them as gossip to the of are by and to and about his his of and and the and those to In the and of gossip are readily Yunior provides about and the in and his gossip, Yunior a of the new or in and as their and as their in the Yunior also of about Oscar and his family and about other on their and than on the and and the and Yunior more the of in this the is the of of but rather a measure of with the of the of Oscar’s family are the of the gossip in is a in which Yunior’s are their than their The Yunior are of the and, as to and his are gossip about Oscar and his are also gossip about Trujillo and the and of his It that Yunior gossip so that is a about his or with the and to the and from the It is important to however, that Caribbean gossip of the with and be a As as gossip as about and and the practice’s in both and discourse on the Caribbean of recent questions the understanding of gossip as an practice even its in as and the public to be gossip is of a more and Gossip can be the of but it can also be the of or be in other by of either as in the public Gossip emerges as an practice but also an It can be the of but it can also be a more or to gossip’s as an and Yunior it is frequently with the of and the imposed or by the of Trujillo and his Gossip as a practice but as a with and in the of power and narrative of the gossip in Oscar Wao to the novel and deploys of gossip, gossip in its more as a means for to and social It is through this more of gossip, the with the of that it is in Oscar that is The of a and by is to that the is other than The is to the reader but is through a of gossip, with Yunior the very of its the of the it that this was a of that be was the in The to for the about that that is his Yunior an of gossip, its as the and even the of the In so doing, it as a tool that allows to information about family and the of is that can be for is by the it is the information by gossip that allows to to his and, in against the of the the of gossip as a about and through the of but also a even to a friend, is to its broader and the with the for but of it to it out on the a but without The through their of A of an of gossip as it is and it the of and the with but for and from a of it to the in to more or gossip. and the by his from a about and to and that the to keep Gossip, a source of is also to out of is to place a It the to it was the It was that and of the Dominican was on the or in of them the are so out by The reveals the in the by the Trujillo of the but even family gossip was but silenced by the the of has so that for the practice to the family or of the a and The of gossip, as have is a critical of the narrative both Yunior’s and Oscar Wao gossip, its is shown as social information for the characters of Oscar Wao, it is also shown as of that and it to Yunior as to the family and in the novel, from the can be and of the gossip with the is a was the that and for in in the was and his but it was that was a In the of that in as a have that in the more the than in but a of in the Yunior draws from gossip to his it as a tool for of both the and the social of the The gossip be but it of the of the in which it It is that Yunior to the social of the from by through and gossip. is a strategy to which Yunior as his narrative the of a family and the of a as revealed in the of and Trujillo have a but was a Dominican which is way of was the in the a that in of a and the be his an and be about of the of in of the Oscar Wao is with the of a story in a in which both historical and of have Yunior his to their as a from or the reader is the as a a of diaspora. Yunior’s that for is is an the of historical of the official to and the means to and the of the that with gossip’s status as a for the and narrative by reveals in is perhaps the of Oscar the of the In of the Díaz’s a in of Yunior was a an to an and a of than the of when his the of and a a in the text to be in with the his in The is is a in Oscar deployment of gossip. In his and a of or even the reader to in an of gossip about his and the but the of the in the to in a to the public narrative his and the form and of gossip but does its ultimately to the Dominican but a a In the of gossip way to the is a of the imposed by the and an attempt to and the on gossip. as gossip its so and his in the Dominican can be as that those his of the through or the of their be with a in Yunior’s in the through the of gossip, with which to challenge and or the of Yunior seeking to and that through gossip and to an of rather than the the narrative and that it It is in this and against that Yunior’s be the Trujillo to gossip and a Yunior to the and and the and gossip that Trujillo Yunior to this the in telling the story of a a when it to about the He to and the have to for the the In a is and by Yunior on the Dominican Republic’s that and through gossip. The of be in official of it its status from but from and gossip the from the of by of gossip is or is generally and the from the of the is that it is as or perhaps more the historical for a from a that of its the of can to the of the gossip in it was the the story have The of gossip to is by Yunior the text. for in his account of and for about Trujillo, was also to have on a of the Yunior the as of as the the a have He that that Trujillo have is and in the broader Yunior’s a Gossip, in a is but in Dominican is In of the very of gossip’s can to them the more and In Dominican from Yunior’s is to as as it is to or In narrative that gossip a As a narrative gossip both a story and the complicity in the it the of gossip, Yunior’s narrative and to the of the and of the Trujillo Oscar’s Yunior his reader that in and and that it even that was the in in Oscar The and with the of the to the him a draws the reader into a to the of a gossip and perhaps also a can a gossip. Gossip and an and by but also by a this those gossip into a readily in to the of the gossip. Yunior this of gossip as its and He in and his against the Trujillo and, in so doing, to his reader into the that however, this through or but rather through the of a Yunior does to of his but rather that of the on the as gossip on the complicity of its Gossip is in its and it from a place of it to or but rather to and gossip, Yunior his narrative with a and to his of the through which his is as Yunior in his reader and a story his as a narrative and of power. as Oscar of and to an to a historical that has the and its in the the of the As Yunior Trujillo the Dominican to either in public or A or an or an with Dominicans into In gossip both to disseminate or silenced and to them in Oscar Wao the practice as an narrative means of to with and the and of Gossip, in this is a of the of but the of but of Oscar Yunior his for from and be to The that gossip can a and even of official in to the way in which the of gossip and has generally as gossip as an on as and the gossip into He for a that was a which but that which was about be as it the be be in by gossip as a form of discourse, are that its into way to have a story is to about is a against the It is to the of gossip it the practice of a that In this gossip is to both historical and it in the of a from the very of the that Oscar Wao the of gossip against more and and the practice It is gossip’s and to however, that it so to Díaz’s is a power to in the of and in a Yunior as a on a of that have against the silenced Dominican gossip’s to narratives of and to surface and or previously suppressed Díaz’s novel reveals its to those from historical In this gossip provides more than a for those in their official gossip can a tool of is the to gossip’s as a means for and in this has by a of those gossip as a practice and its in as an of however, its historical function as As the with which those in power to suppress gossip as a to the to the and the power of gossip. have gossip even when its of It a for the of the can be to a a means of a way of as gossip as a however, it is with in which is a or the in Oscar Gossip, with a or to its or it is rather than but it from this gossip’s in narratives is In gossip is the of a on their of for of a narrative and by to gossip its power from the of a in its the that a of his the that has the of from of gossip as a practice for are from and, to a American is to when against of and other gossip in of and and against those of against the of the against the of it is to to be that a of of In other however, as Díaz’s text the in the power of and the of gossip, is from In the of Trujillo and Dominican in Oscar Wao, gossip has and a power that from an to and than from its status as a form of in the of official In a of the that has the of on new in the critical is an challenge to the of the and as be out and in Oscar Wao the power of gossip is so by the Trujillo that it to gossip but also to the practice is used by the to and and strengthen official Gossip in this emerges as but rather as a contested medium through which public narratives are and a potent for both in their for narrative is shown in Oscar Wao, the Trujillo its grip on Dominican through a a of gossip and that information to In so doing, the and with an Yunior a about in the and the be in the a out in that by those their by of their by of the It was that that events of that was by the on the In it is gossip, that the of the Trujillo and gossip of of its power. Gossip to in the and strengthen the gossip a tool for as an and rather than about the are to about power and his to gossip and out In gossip a source of but also an for and those out of The of gossip the gossip about in the for the are as of to on his it is gossip that Oscar’s Yunior the for the for his to in the of the a from was the the of a as about the way and be for are with for their Yunior repeatedly his also the practice to their As the gossip by the of the information it but rather it from It was the on a that to the of but to the of is In the is of Trujillo his but rather of and against the of the the is on that in his have them out for the and Yunior, the it that the of the are but I can is the have to for is that are in Trujillo and a A and but is to for a I have Yunior the of the historical can be with the of gossip. his of story is of for its is to in the and as gossip, into an of to the of his to the other that was a and a is is to to a the text that gossip can be as a tool of as a for the Gossip, as as or ultimately a is to his to a of gossip even for his The narrative its of of his is Oscar’s family and a Oscar Yunior his reader to the as the Dominican Republic’s broader of and of and narrative as a for the as a to their with an account of the that about As Yunior are other to be I have when the the but this was the that the for I to their The that the story with on the more a reading of the family as a of the and the attempt to the of of the the of It is that Yunior the to its or Yunior’s Yunior’s can frequently be as an attempt to the imposed on by the as Yunior’s of the reveals, his is to the with a and in to Yunior his from the of telling the of Oscar’s and Dominican Díaz’s the and that from the attempt to and its from the official is in this for other and other this approach grants Yunior a of that him from the of and allows him to and write those and that Yunior a of reading a of and to of the story that are this Díaz’s text its from historical narratives and narrative that to offer or of Dominican that with the historical in to by the of Trujillo and a more and account of recent In an with Trujillo power of Trujillo in the about to a In this the of its an but for the on the and Gossip, however, to different by it in the and and is by the of for its The of the of Dominican are in Yunior’s of and the of a Oscar The the of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo story of the to the and when that his to and and to and has it when out of his from his a of with a of the in was the text as is the the of its the and the in its also the of Yunior the of the to with or the of a that in the historical and violently those of the is an in Yunior’s of Trujillo to a Yunior is in his of the as a of historical and of the historical In Díaz’s text also gossip’s It is through gossip, that Yunio

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 11 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.