Archive and Diaspora: Julia Alvarez as Poet, Novelist, and Historian

Abstract

“Archive and Diaspora” turns to work in the philosophy of history by Hayden White to underwrite a reading of the novelist, poet, and essayist Julia Alvarez that argues for her literary work’s positive contributions to an unfolding readerly sense of Dominican, Caribbean, and Latinx-diasporic history. The section devotes serious attention to two of Alvarez’s major works of historical fiction, the novels In the Time of the Butterflies and In the Name of Salomé, focusing on each text’s distinct approach to deploying the resources of literature to do the work of history.