Generous Exclusion: Register and Readership in Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Abstract

This article considers Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007) in terms of its many different registers, examining what topics are most efficiently voiced by Díaz’s eclectic and sometimes confusing mix of voices. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao touches on issues of migration, ethnicity, and transnationalism, yet its polyphonic nature defies simple classification by any of the aforementioned terms. The article reviews the novel’s use of the formal and paratextual traits of postmodern fiction and the transnational and transcultural aspects of genre fiction and nerd-speak. It demonstrates the ways in which the diverse and sometimes incompatible registers of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao constitute an opening for a broader, more inclusive readership that other more linguistically uniform examples of immigrant writing tend to foreclose.