United States of Banana

United States of Banana is a 2011 postcolonial dramatic fiction book by the Puerto Rican poet Giannina Braschi. "United States of Banana" is a mixed-genre work which blends experimental theater, prose poetry, and essay with a manifesto on democracy and American power in the post–September 11 world. The book narrates the author's violent displacement from her home in the Battery Park neighborhood that became known as Ground Zero on September 11, 2001 where she had moved earlier that year to study the Statue of Liberty.[1] This fantastical and philosophical epic[2] tackles American politics of empire and independence, the post-9/11 psyche, and the migrant's experience of marginality and liberation.[3][4] The work explores the cultural and political journey of the nearly 50 million Hispanic-Americans living in the United States.[5]

Latin American immigrants receive American passports, iconic literary characters such as Hamlet, Segismundo, and Zarathustra co-mingle with 21st Century literary and political figures, and Puerto Rico is declared a free state.[1][6] The theme is less about the oppressive legacy of colonialism, as the challenge to independence "constituted by the hegemony of world capitalism on which the narrator tries to persuade her fellow travelers to declare war".[7][8][9]

The work provides a scathing critique of the false promise of meritocracy within the American Dream.[10]

Part One: Ground Zero

"Banks are the temples of America. This is a holy war. Our economy is our religion," writes Braschi in the opening chapter entitled, "Death of the Businessman."[11] Part One—entitled "Ground Zero"—offers a poetic critique of 21st century capitalism and corporate censorship[12] as it depicts New York City as "the Darwinist capital of the capitalist word" and the U.S. imperialism as doomed as "a chicken with its head cut off".[13] The work unfolds through a reality-based, graphic collection of metafiction, short stories and lyrical essays on American culture since the collapse of the World Trade Center due to the September 11th terrorist attacks.[14] Themes of artistic inspiration, spirituality, and creation are framed within scenes of mass destruction and obliteration. Narrated as an apocalypse,[15] the opening lines deliver the book's first taste of sustained black humor:

It's the end of the world. I was excited by the whole situation. Well, if everybody is going to die, die hard, shit, but what do I know. Is this an atomic bomb—the end of the world—the end of the millennium? No more fear of being fired—for typos or tardiness—digressions or recessions—and what a way of being fired—bursting into flames—without two weeks notice—and without six months of unemployment—and without sick leave, vacation, or comp time—without a word of what was to come—on a glorious morning—when nature ran indifferent to the course of man—there came a point when that sunny sky turned into a hellhole of a night—with papers, computers, windows, bricks, bodies falling, and people running and screaming.[16]

The subsequent chapters catalogue the gory remains of the Twin Towers in the form of scattered body parts: the torso of a businessmen falling through the air in his bright white shirt, two severed hands nearly touching like the hand of man and the hand of God in Michelangelo's Creation of Man on the Sistine Chapel, and a head crowned by glazed donuts on the floor of Krispy Kreme.[17][18]

Part Two: United States of Banana

In the second half of the work, also called "United States of Banana", the structure radically changes from a collage of essays and fiction into fantastical experimental theater composed of dramatic and philosophical dialogues. Shakespeare's Hamlet and Nieztsche's Zarathustra join the author's alter-ego Giannina on a quest to liberate the Puerto Rican prisoner Segismundo from the dungeon of the Statue of Liberty where he has been sentenced by his father, the King of the United States of Banana, more than 100 years prior for the crime of having been born.[19] But when the king remarries, he frees his son, and for the sake of reconciliation, makes Puerto Rico the fifty-first state and grants American passports to all Latin American citizens.[20]

Inspired by Calderon de la Barca's classic drama Life is a Dream, the experimental play dramatizes the plight of so many Latino prisoners in the United States, Puerto Rico's position an American territory, and the author's struggle for liberty.[21] By having the people of Puerto Rico vote on the Segismundo's liberty, the work satirizes the three political options of Puerto Rico, statehood, nation, and colony, as "Wishy, Wishy-Washy, and Washy."[22] According to the Associated Press, "Wishy" represents Puerto Rican Independence, "Wishy-Washy" represents the Associated Free State or colonial status, and "Washy" represents Statehood.[1] The plot to liberate Puerto Rico, with the financial assistance of Chinese dignitaries and the moral and military support of Latin American left-wing leaders Lula, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, and Cristina Kirchner, takes on the absurdist qualities of Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry and the philosophical declarations of Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Nietzsche, both sources of inspiration for this text.[23] The essays and manifestos of Polish theater director Tadeusz Kantor and the play Hamletmachine, by the German experimental playwright and theater director Heiner Muller, also served as an inspirational texts for Braschi.[24] The prince of Denmark walks contemporary Europe in Heiner Muller's Hamletmachine and takes Segismundo prisoner post 9/11 in Giannina Braschi's "United States of Banana"[25]

Related Titles

Giannina Braschi, a National Endowment for the Arts fellow, is considered a revolutionary voice in contemporary Latin American literature.[26][27][28] "United States of Banana" is her first book written in English—though not the first to feature the characters Giannina, Hamlet and Zarathustra. Prior, she wrote the Spanglish novel Yo-Yo Boing!, composed of a mixture of Spanish and English; this work also features some of the same dramatic figures and ends in downtown NYC where "United States of Banana" begins. Written in Spanish, Braschi's Empire of Dreams is her first book to feature the character Giannina; it was first published in Barcelona in 1988 and is now considered a postmodern classic.[29] Then came Yo-Yo Boing!, a mixed genre work written in a mixture of Spanish, Spanglish and English. Though her styles shift dramatically, her collective work explores the politics of empire and independence, while capturing the trials and tribulations of the Latin American immigrant in the United States.[30][31] She has won awards and grants from National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, PEN American Center, Ford Foundation, InterAmericas, Danforth Scholarship, Reed Foundation, El Diario, Rutgers University, and Puerto Rican Institute for Culture. With the publication of "United States of Braschi," CARAS Magazine named Braschi one of the most influential Puerto Ricans in 2012.[32]

Film and Theater Productions

References

  1. 1 2 3 Torrens, Claudia (October 20, 2011). "Novela de Braschi fantasea con un mundo ideal para hispanos. [Braschi's Novel Fantasizes About Ideal World for Hispanics]". Associated Press.
  2. ↑ "Poetry Calender of Poets.org". Academy of American Poets. December 2, 2012. 'The scale is epic.'
  3. ↑ Jacobson, Matthew Frye (September 15, 2012). "American Studies Association President's Overview: 2012 ASA Convention Archives" (PDF). ASA. 'Fantastical, philosophical, and epic, Braschi's work explores themes of U.S.-Caribbean relations, the politics of empire and independence, the post-9/11 psyche, and the migrant's experience of marginality and liberation'
  4. ↑ Jacobson, Matthew Frye (March 15, 2013). "American Studies Association News From the Editors: Reflections on the Annual Meeting". 'explores themes of US-Caribbean relations, the politics of empire and independence, and the migrant's experience of marginality and liberation'
  5. ↑ "United States of Banana Book Launch". Cervantes Institute Culture. December 1, 2011. 'Braschi explores cultural and political journey of nearly 50 million Hispanic Americans living in the United States'
  6. ↑ "Giannina Braschi aborda la inmigración y el estatus de Puerto Rico en su nuevo libro [Giannina Braschi Tackles Immigration and the Political Status of Puerto Rico in Her New Book]". New York: European News Agency EFE. November 10, 2011.
  7. ↑ http://ebc.revues.org/1279
  8. ↑ Gonzalez, Madelena (July 2014). "United States of Banana (2011), Elizabeth Costello (2003) and Fury (2001): Portrait of the Writer as the 'Bad Subject' of Globalisation". Études britanniques contemporaines (d'Études Anglaises Contemporaines) 46 (46 2014): 1–16.
  9. ↑ Haydee Rivera, Carmen (April 2014). "Embracing alternate discourses on migration: Giannina Braschi's and Luisita López Torregrosa's multi-dimensional literary schemes". http://umbral.uprrp.edu/sites/default/files/1.pdf (University of Puerto Rico) (2 1 5 1 - 8 3 8 6): 1–18. External link in |journal= (help)
  10. ↑ Riofio, John, College of William and Mary (2015). "Fractured Dreams: Life and Debt in United States of Banana" (PDF). Biennial Conference on Latina/o Utopias Literatures: “Latina/o Utopias: Futures, Forms, and the Will of Literature". Braschi's novel is a scathing critique...of over-wrought concepts of Liberty and the American Dream....(It) connects the dots between 9/11, the suppression of individual liberts, and the fragmentation of the individuals and communities in favor of a collective worship of the larger dictates of the market and the economy.
  11. ↑ Braschi, Giannina (2011). United States of Banana. Seattle: AmazonCrossing. p. 5. ISBN 1611090679.
  12. ↑ Roth, Larry (May 7, 2012). "Rushdie Brings PEN Festival to Close". The New York Times (New York). 'A critique of 21st century capitalism in which [Braschi] condemned corporate censorship and control.'
  13. ↑ Braschi, Giannina (2011). United States of Banana. Seattle: AmazonCrossing. p. 45. ISBN 1611090679.
  14. ↑ Pérez-Duthie, Juan Carlos (November 24, 2011). "Autora busca la libertad en la palabra: "United States of Banana", lo nuevo y controversial de la boricua Giannina Braschi (Author Searches for Liberty in the Word, The New and Controversial "United States of Banana" by Boricua Giannina Braschi)". Sun Sentinel (Miami).
  15. ↑ Evergreen Review Issue #128, Daniela Daniele's Review of United States of Banana, New York, November 1, 2011
  16. ↑ Somoroff, Michael (November 1, 2011). Death of the Businessman, United States of Banana. New York.
  17. ↑ Braschi, Giannina (2011). United States of Banana, Part One: Ground Zero. Amazon Crossing. p. 1.
  18. ↑ Braschi, Giannina (2011). United States of Banana. Seattle: AmazonCrossing. p. 1. ISBN 1611090679.
  19. ↑ Library Journal's Review of United States of Banana, October 1, 2011
  20. ↑ Romero, Ivette (December 12, 2011). "New Book: Giannina Braschi's United States of Banana". Repeating Islands: News and Commentary on Caribbean Culture.
  21. ↑ Delgado, José A. (September 24, 2012). "La libertad no es una opción, es un derecho [Liberty is Not an Option, It is a Right]". El Nuevo Día.
  22. ↑ Hernandez, Carmen Dolores (February 2012). "El reino del absurdo [The Reign of the Absurd]". El Nuevo Día (San Juan, Puerto Rico). 'Puerto Rico's destiny should be decided between "wishy", "wishy-washy" or "washy"'
  23. ↑ "National Book Festival Authors Share Their Favorite Books (Braschi on 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra')". Washington Post (Washington, DC: Washington Post). September 21, 2012.
  24. ↑ Vallejo, Javier (April 11, 2013). "Hay Carmela". El País (Madrid: El País).
  25. ↑ "What to Read Now: Mixed-Genre Literature". World Literature Today. September 2012.
  26. ↑ "Giannina Braschi". National Book Festival. Library of Congress. 2012. ’one of the most revolutionary voices in Latin America today’
  27. ↑ "Giannina Braschi: Book Fest 12". Library of Congress. September 2012.
  28. ↑ Johnson, Hannah (May 26, 2011). "#BEA11: Books on Display, the Amazon Publishing Booth". Publishing Perspectives. ’Braschi is Puerto Rico’s most influential and versatile writer of poetry, fiction, and essays.’
  29. ↑ "Escritora e historiadora visitan la isla". ForoNoticioso.com. April 12, 2013.
  30. ↑ Jacobson, Matthew Frye (September 15, 2012). "American Studies Association President’s Overview: 2012 ASA Convention Archives" (PDF). ASA.
  31. ↑ Jacobson, Matthew Frye (March 15, 2013). "American Studies Association News From the Editors: Reflections on the Annual Meeting".
  32. ↑ de la Torre, Patricia (December 2012 – February 2013). "CARAS 2012: Los grandes protagonistas de Puerto Rico". TELEVISA.
  33. ↑ "United States of Banana, a play based on the book by Giannina Braschi". Poets and Writers Magazine. May 2015. ”Colombian film and theater director Juan Pablo Felix brings to the stage for the first time ‘United States of Banana,’ by poet Giannina Braschi on the post-911 American psyche around the politics of empire and independence.”
  34. ↑ "Columbia Theater Director Debuts United States of Banana". LatinoLa Magazine. May 2015. ”The work depicts New York City as "the Darwinist capital of the Capitalist word" and U.S. imperialism as doomed as "a chicken with its head cut off".”
  35. ↑ "NYS Literary Tree, United States of Banana". NYSCA. December 1, 2011.

Further reading

Braschi's and Luisita López Torregrosa's multi-dimensional literary schemes," Umbral, University of Puerto Rico, April 2014.

Sommer, Doris. "Either/Or: Yo-Yo Boing!," Latin American Literary Review Press, Pittsburgh, PA, 1998.

External links

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