Research Project

In my ongoing PhD project, I investigate in three contemporary, transnational novels by Junot Díaz (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao(2007)), Taiye Selasi (Ghana Must Go (2013)), and Ocean Vuong (On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (2019)) and their potential for affective knowledge. I argue that these three literary texts, while catering to conventions of Western story-telling and of the Western literary market, employ strategies of narration that subvert rather “traditional” modes of knowledge production and knowledge circulation. Instead of making their texts accessible through cognitive and intellectual means, the reader is often challenged to develop a felt knowledges (Dian Million, 2009) in order to comprehend the intricacies between migration, memories, nationhood, queerness, and story-telling.