''United States of Banana'' (2011) is a

postmodern Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting the wo ...

allegorical novel by the Puerto Rican author

Giannina Braschi Giannina Braschi (born February 5, 1953) is a Puerto Rican poet, novelist, dramatist, and scholar. Her notable works include '' Empire of Dreams'' (1988), '' Yo-Yo Boing!'' (1998), '' United States of Banana'' (2011), and '' Putinoika'' (2024). ...

. It is a

cross-genre A hybrid genre is a literary or film genre that blends themes and elements from two or more different genres. Hybrid genre works are also referred to as cross-genre, multi-genre, mixed genre, or fusion genre. Some hybrid genres have acquired thei ...

work that blends

experimental theatre Experimental theatre (also known as avant-garde theatre), inspired largely by Richard Wagner, Wagner's concept of Gesamtkunstwerk, began in Western theatre in the late 19th century with Alfred Jarry and his Ubu Roi, Ubu plays as a rejection of bot ...

prose poetry Prose poetry is poetry written in prose form instead of verse form while otherwise deferring to poetic devices to make meaning. Characteristics Prose poetry is written as prose, without the line breaks associated with poetry. However, it make ...

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

, and

political philosophy Political philosophy studies the theoretical and conceptual foundations of politics. It examines the nature, scope, and Political legitimacy, legitimacy of political institutions, such as State (polity), states. This field investigates different ...

with a

manifesto A manifesto is a written declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party, or government. A manifesto can accept a previously published opinion or public consensus, but many prominent ...

democracy Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

and American life in a post- 9/11 world. The book dramatizes the global war on terror and narrates the author's displacement after the attacks from her home in the

Battery Park The Battery, formerly known as Battery Park, is a public park located at the southern tip of Manhattan#Manhattan Island, Manhattan Island in New York City facing New York Harbor. The park is bounded by Battery Place on the north, with Bowling ...

neighborhood in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. The work addresses Latin American immigration to the United States, Puerto Rico's colonial status, and "power imbalances within the Americas."

Summary

Part One: Ground Zero

Part One, titled as "Ground Zero", critiques 21st-century

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...

and corporate censorship with its depictions of New York City before and during the September 11 attacks. Part One unfolds through a collection of

metafiction Metafiction is a form of fiction that emphasizes its own narrative structure in a way that inherently reminds the audience that they are reading or viewing a fictional work. Metafiction is self-conscious about language, literary form, and story ...

, short stories, and philosophical essays on American culture since the attacks on the World Trade Center. Using avant-garde techniques, Braschi links post-9/11 fears of terrorism with the "daily suffering that stems from a changing, debt-ridden economy to offer a scathing critique of neoliberal economic and social reforms."

Part Two: United States of Banana

In Part Two, called "United States of Banana", the structure changes from political manifesto and philosophical fiction into an experimental theater play about economic terrorism, U.S. colonialism, liberty, and love.Cruz-Malavé, Arnaldo Manuel. "Under the Skirt of Liberty: Giannina Braschi Rewrites Empire." American Quarterly 66.3 (2014): 801-818.

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

and

Zarathustra Zarathushtra Spitama, more commonly known as Zoroaster or Zarathustra, was an Iranian religious reformer who challenged the tenets of the contemporary Ancient Iranian religion, becoming the spiritual founder of Zoroastrianism. Variously descr ...

(Zoroaster) join the author's

alter-ego An alter ego (Latin for "other I") means an alternate self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or true original personality. Finding one's alter ego will require finding one's other self, one with a different personality. Add ...

, Giannina, on a quest to liberate the Puerto Rican prisoner Segismundo (named after the protagonist of

Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño (17 January 160025 May 1681) (, ; ) was a Spanish dramatist, poet, and writer. He is known as one of the most distinguished Spanish Baroque literature, poets and ...

's ''La vida es sueño'') from the dungeon of the

Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; ) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, within New York City. The copper-clad statue, a gift to the United States from the people of French Thir ...

, where he has been held by his father, the king of the United States of Banana, for more than 100 years, for the crime of having been born. 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. The play dramatizes the plight of prisoners in the United States, Puerto Rico's position as an American territory, and Braschi's struggle for liberty. By having the people of Puerto Rico vote on Segismundo's liberty, the work satirizes the three political options of Puerto Rico: statehood,

nation A nation is a type of social organization where a collective Identity (social science), identity, a national identity, has emerged from a combination of shared features across a given population, such as language, history, ethnicity, culture, t ...

, or

colony A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their ''metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often orga ...

. The prison scenes feature Middle Eastern prisoners of war, including those classified as terrorists, who are detained indefinitely. According to Ronald Mendoza-de Jesús, "The plot of ''United States of Banana'' unfolds in the following way: Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, and a character named Giannina decide to cross the Hudson River to go to Liberty Island, penetrate the Statue of Liberty, and free Segismundo, subsequently freeing Puerto Rico from its colonial captivity. This act of defiance produces a response from Gertrude—Hamlet’s mother—who concocts a plan to marry Basilio, free Segismundo, and bring him into the same family as Hamlet as the only possible way to save the ancien régime of the imperial United States of Banana from collapsing. As part of her plan, Gertrude convinces Basilio that Puerto Rico should be granted admission into the United States of Banana, that all illegal immigrants should be granted citizenship, and that the borders of the United States of Banana should be opened. Her efforts to mitigate the revolution by granting concessions to Giannina and the other insurgents fail. Giannina and her comrades declare unilaterally the independence of Puerto Rico after realizing that the changes in the United States of Banana’s policies toward Puerto Rico and Latin America were an attempt to perpetuate a sort of imperial Pax Banana under the joint leadership of Basilio and Gertrude. War erupts between Puerto Rico, Cuba (which has claims to Puerto Rico and seeks to create its own Caribbean empire), and the United States of Banana. Giannina and her comrades can only rely on coconuts and philosophical conversation to fight the soldiers of the empire. But the timely intervention of China—the USB creditor—secures the independence of Puerto Rico and brings Braschi’s geopolitical comedy to a close."

Adaptations

*American photographer Michael Somoroff directed and produced a series of short art films of the author's

oral interpretation Oral interpretation is a dramatic art, also commonly called "interpretive reading" and "dramatic reading", though these terms are more conservative and restrictive. In certain applications, oral interpretation is also a theater art – as in re ...

of the book; these films debuted at Cervantes Institute in New York on December 1, 2012. *In 2015, Colombian film and theater director Juan Pablo Felix adapted ''United States of Banana'' for the stage as a play of the same name. This production premiered at Schapiro Theater at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

in New York City with soundtrack and music scored by Suzana Peric. * In 2017, the novel was adapted into a graphic novel by Swedish cartoonist Joakim Lindengren.

''. (2011) * Clarkson, Shaun. “Torching the Symbols of Liberty in ''United States of Banana''.” ''Creative Sanctions: Imaginative Limits and the Post-9/11 Novel''. Purdue University, 2017. * Cruz-Malavé, Arnaldo Manuel. "Under the Skirt of Liberty: Giannina Braschi Rewrites Empire." American Quarterly 66.3. (2014) * Daniele, Daniela. “Gamifying World Literature: Giannina Braschi’s ''United States of Banana'' (The Cartoon Art of September 11th).” ''Poets, Philosophers, Lovers: On the Writings of Giannina Braschi''. University of Pittsburgh Press. (2020) * Daniele, Daniela. “Review of ''United States of Banana'': Apocalypse and Grand-Guignol” '' Evergreen Review''. No. 128-129. (Spring 2012) * Felix, Juan Pablo. “''United States of Banana'': A

Postcolonial Postcolonialism (also post-colonial theory) is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic consequences of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and extractivism, exploitation of colonized pe ...

Dramatic Fiction Columbia University Academic Commons. (2015) * Gonzalez, Madelena. “The Uncommon Wealth of Art: Poetic Progress as Resistance to the Commodification of Culture in ''United States of Banana.” Poets, Philosophers, Lovers: On the Writings of Giannina Braschi''. University of Pittsburgh Press. (2020) * Gonzalez, Madelena. "''United States of Banana'' (2011), '' Elizabeth Costello'' (2003) and ''Fury'' (2001): Portrait of the Writer as the ‘Bad Subject’ of Globalisation." ''Études britanniques contemporaines''. (2014) * Lara-Bonilla, Inmaculada. Review of ''Estados Unidos Banana''. '' Chasqui: Reviews''. (December 2018) * Loingsigh, Aedin Ni. “Rewriting and Original Writing: Culture Clashes, Trauma and Emerging Discourses in Giannina Braschi's ''United States of Banana.''” ''Rewriting in the 20th-21st Centuries: Aesthetic Choice or Political Act?'' Epinoux, Estelle and Nathatlie Martinière, eds. Paris: M. Houdiard. (2015) * Lowry, Elizabeth. "The Human Barnyard: Rhetoric, Identification, and Symbolic Representation in Giannina Braschi’s ''United States of Banana''." ''Representing 9/11: Trauma, Ideology, and Nationalism in Literature, Film, and Television''. Petrovic, Paul, ed. Rowman & Littlefield. (2015) * Mendoza-de Jesús, Ronald. “Free-dom: United States of Banana and the Limits of

Sovereignty Sovereignty can generally be defined as supreme authority. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within a state as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the person, body or institution that has the ultimate au ...

” (on

Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida;Peeters (2013), pp. 12–13. See also 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was a French Algerian philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in a number of his texts, ...

and Giannina Braschi). ''Poets, Philosophers, Lovers: On the Writings of Giannina Braschi''. University of Pittsburgh Press. (2020) * Ramos, Francisco José. “The Holy Trinity: Money, Power, and Success in ''United States of Banana''.” ''Poets,

Philosophers Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, value, mind, and language. It is a rational and critical inquiry that reflects on ...

, Lovers.'' University of Pittsburgh Press. (2020) * Riofrio, John. "Falling for debt: Giannina Braschi, the Latinx Avant-garde, and Financial Terrorism in the ''United States of Banana''." '' Latino Studies'' 18.1. (2020) * Romero-Cesareo, Yvette and Lisa Paravisini-Gebert, eds. “New Book: Giannina Braschi’s ''United States of Banana''.” ''Repeating Islands''. (December 12, 2011) * Smith, Amanda M. and Sheeran, Amy. Introduction. “''United States of Banana'', A Graphic Novel.” Joakim Lindengren and Giannina Braschi.” The Ohio State University Press. (2021) * Waldron, John V. Review of ''Estados Unidos de Banana''. Trad. Manuel Broncano. ''Feministas Unidas''. (2018)

References

External links

Giannina Braschi

National Book Festival The National Book Festival is an annual literary festival held in Washington, D.C. in the United States; it is organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress, and was founded by Laura Bush and James H. Billington in 2001. Background In 19 ...

(2012),

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...