Embracing alternate discourses on migration: Giannina Braschi's and Luisita López Torregrosa's multi-dimensional literary schemes

Abstract

Close readings and critical analyses of several contemporary diasporic writers' works demonstrate an increasing tendency to complicate the presumption of homogeneity at the heart of most nationalist discourses on Caribbean migration. These writings showcase a multiplicity of representations of national identities while focusing on how these identities are construed and interpreted. This article analyzes the works of two Puerto Rican authors, living and writing in the US, who deter from depictions of traditional Caribbean migrant stories of identity politics and socio-economic upward mobility in the host culture. Rather, they interrogate the very meaning of the term diaspora and delineate their particular insertion as writers whose literary range crosses national, cultural, and linguistic borders to embrace a more eclectic experiential mode of living and a multi-faceted literary tradition.