Enduring the Curse: The Legacy of Intergenerational Trauma in Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Abstract

This chapter examines the trauma experienced by each generation of the Cabral family ensuing from violence enacted during postcolonial and neocolonial events. Díaz portrays the ramifications of colonialism including slavery, sexual violence, tyrannical governance, and diaspora as being so traumatic that the resulting trauma is inherited by each generation of the Dominican people. Díaz explains this phenomenon as a curse, or fukú, that is passed down intergenerationally and manifested bodily and psychically as relived memories of that traumatic past. Although Díaz names his novel after the male protagonist, the curse must ultimately be broken by a daughter of the succeeding generation of female relatives who directly inherits the traumatic lineage of sexual violation experienced by her predecessors.