ENG353-01: Multiethnic and Diasporic Literature (Wozencraft)

In this program from Open Book Cluv TV, Pulitzer Prize winning author Junot Diaz joins distinguished guests for a discussion of his book The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, its themes of family curses and political tyranny, the way in which it hides its meaning and what it is about, and its references to comic book and science fiction genres.

The life and work of Junot Díaz contains many worlds. His books—including National Book Award finalist This Is How You Lose Her and Pulitzer Prize winner The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao—journey between the old and the new and between the America that was and the America we’re becoming. Born in the Dominican Republic but raised in New Jersey and American to the core, Junot Díaz is a spotter of the future, a curator of the past, a man of the here and now. In this edition of Moyers & Company, Díaz joins Bill to discuss the evolution of the great American story while offering funny and perceptive insights into his own work (as well as Star Wars and Moby-Dick) and America’s inevitable shift to a majority-minority country. Broadcast date: December 28, 2012. (57 minutes)

Junot Díaz is a Dominican-American writer, creative writing professor at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and fiction editor at Boston Review. Central to Díaz's work is the immigrant experience, particularly the Latino immigrant experience. Diaz received the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and received a MacArthur Fellowship "Genius Grant" in 2012.

In this interview, he is going to be opening up about how being a poor immigrant, rape survivor at the age of 8, and having to deal with an abusive father didn’t stop him from becoming one of the greatest writers from our time.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao tells the story of Dominican-American Oscar de León who dreams of becoming an author and finding love. In this interview, Diaz discusses the mix of cultures he grew up with, the personality of his main character Oscar, the elements of family in his novel, and more.

Rift among feminist scholars raises issue of how Me Too movement plays out when accused has been important voice in Latino literature -- and may be facing more criticism than white authors accused of worse.

Warning - this story is about child sexual assault

Discussion about separating the art and the artist