United States of Banana
| Author | Giannina Braschi |
|---|
United States of Banana is a 2011 postcolonial work of fiction by the Puerto Rican poet Giannina Braschi. It is a mixed-genre work which blends experimental theater, prose poetry, short story, and essay with a manifesto on democracy and American power in a post–September 11 world. The postmodern book narrates the author's violent displacement from her home in the Battery Park neighborhood in New York City.
Part One, entitled "Ground Zero," offers a poetic critique of 21st century capitalism 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, short stories, and essays on American culture since the collapse of the World Trade Center.
In Part Two, called "United States of Banana", the structure radically changes from a collection of fragmented works into an experimental theater work consisting of dramatic and philosophical dialogues. Historical literary characters Hamlet and 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 held by his father, the King of the United States of Banana, more than 100 years prior 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.
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