United States of Banana
AuthorGiannina Braschi
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SubjectSeptember 11, Terrorism, Colonialism, Revolution, Puerto Rican Independence, Love
Genre
Set inStatue of Liberty and United Nations in New York City; La Fortaleza in San Juan, Puerto Rico
Published2011
PublisherAmazonCrossing
Publication date
2011
Pages305
ISBN9781611090673

United States of Banana (2011) is a postmodern allegorical novel by the Puerto Rican author Giannina Braschi.[1] It is a cross-genre work that blends experimental theatre, prose poetry, short story, and political philosophy with a manifesto on democracy and American life in a post-9/11 world.[2] The book dramatizes the global war on terror and narrates the author's displacement after the attacks from her home in the Battery Park neighborhood in New York City.[3] The work addresses Latin American immigration to the United States, Puerto Rico's colonial status, and "power imbalances within the Americas."[4]

Summary

Part One: Ground Zero

Part One, titled as "Ground Zero", critiques 21st-century capitalism and corporate censorship[5] with its depictions of New York City before and during the September 11 attacks.[6] Part One unfolds through a collection of metafiction, short stories, and philosophical essays on American culture since the attacks on the World Trade Center.[7] 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."[2]

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.[8] Hamlet and Zarathustra (Zoroaster) join the author's alter-ego, Giannina, on a quest to liberate the Puerto Rican prisoner Segismundo (named after the protagonist of Pedro Calderón de la Barca's La vida es sueño) from the dungeon of the Statue of Liberty, 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.[9] 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.[10]

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.[11] By having the people of Puerto Rico vote on Segismundo's liberty, the work satirizes the three political options of Puerto Rico: statehood, nation, or colony.[12][13] The prison scenes feature Middle Eastern prisoners of war, including those classified as terrorists, who are detained indefinitely.[14]

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."[15]

Adaptations

  • American photographer Michael Somoroff directed and produced a series of short art films of the author's oral interpretation of the book; these films debuted at Cervantes Institute in New York on December 1, 2012.[16][17]
  • 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 in New York City with soundtrack and music scored by Suzana Peric.[18][19]
  • In 2017, the novel was adapted into a graphic novel by Swedish cartoonist Joakim Lindengren.[20][21]

Further reading

  • Beck, Evelyn. Review of United States of Banana. Library Journal. (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)[8]
  • 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 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” (on Jacques Derrida 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, 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

  1. ↑ Giannina, Braschi. "United States of Banana". Library Journal. Retrieved 2020-11-10. The premise of this allegorical novel by Puerto Rican author Braschi (Yo-Yo Boing!; Empire of Dreams) is bizarre but intriguing ... The novel's main purpose is political with plenty of reflections on the horrors of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, on Puerto Rico's awkward position as an American territory, and on personal desire and individual liberty.
  2. 1 2 Riofrio, John (January 28, 2020). "Falling for debt: Giannina Braschi, the Latinx avant-garde, and financial terrorism in the United States of Banana". Latino Studies. 18: 66–81. doi:10.1057/s41276-019-00239-2. S2CID 212759434.
  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. Archived from the original on August 13, 2014. Retrieved April 16, 2013.(in Spanish)
  4. ↑ Perisic, Alexandra (2019). Precarious Crossings: Immigration, Neoliberalism, and the Atlantic. Ohio: The Ohio State University Press. pp. 152–173. hdl:1811/88397. ISBN 978-0-8142-5552-0. power imbalances within the Americas
  5. ↑ 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.'
  6. ↑ Braschi, Giannina (2011). United States of Banana. Seattle. p. 45. ISBN 978-1611090673.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. ↑ 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. Archived from the original on 2013-10-02. Retrieved 2013-04-20.
  8. 1 2 Cruz-Malavé, Arnaldo Manuel. "Under the Skirt of Liberty: Giannina Braschi Rewrites Empire." American Quarterly 66.3 (2014): 801-818.
  9. ↑ "Review of United States of Banana," Library Journal', 1 October 2011
  10. ↑ Romero, Ivette (December 12, 2011). "New Book: Giannina Braschi's United States of Banana". Repeating Islands: News and Commentary on Caribbean Culture.
  11. ↑ 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. Archived from the original on October 2, 2013. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
  12. ↑ Hernandez, Carmen Dolores (February 2012). "El reino del absurdo [The Reign of the Absurd]". El Nuevo Día. San Juan, Puerto Rico. Archived from the original on 2013-10-02. Retrieved 2013-04-11. 'Puerto Rico's destiny should be decided between "wishy", "wishy-washy" or "washy"'
  13. ↑ POETS, PHILOSOPHERS, LOVERS : on the writings of giannina braschi. [Place of publication not identified]: UNIV OF PITTSBURGH Press. 2020. ISBN 978-0-8229-4618-2. OCLC 1143649021.
  14. ↑ Perisic, Alexandra (2019). Precarious Crossings: Immigration, Neoliberalism, and the Atlantic. Ohio: The Ohio State University Press. pp. 152–153. hdl:1811/88397. ISBN 978-0-8142-5552-0.
  15. ↑ Jesús, Ronald Mendoza-de (2020-10-27), "Free-dom", Poets, Philosophers, Lovers, University of Pittsburgh Press, pp. 133–155, doi:10.2307/j.ctv193rr38.16, S2CID 240965842, retrieved 2021-09-05
  16. ↑ "NYS Literary Tree, United States of Banana". NYSCA. December 1, 2011. Archived from the original on June 10, 2016. Retrieved April 20, 2013.
  17. ↑ Lugo Bertrán, Dorian (2020). "Leaping Off the Page: Giannina Braschi's Intermedialities," POETS, PHILOSOPHERS, LOVERS. [Place of publication not identified]: UNIV OF PITTSBURGH Press. ISBN 978-0-8229-4618-2. OCLC 1143649021.
  18. ↑ "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.
  19. ↑ "Columbia Theater Director Debuts United States of Banana". LatinoLa Magazine. May 2015. Archived from the original on 2016-06-11. Retrieved 2015-05-19. 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".
  20. ↑ "New Release: A Swedish Comic Book of United States of Banana". gianninabraschi. 2017-04-30. Retrieved 2017-05-21. The Swedish Comic Book publisher COBOLT will release Joakim Lindengren's illustrated version of United States of Banana by Giannina Braschi in Swedish translation by the poet Helena Eriksson. The graphic dramatic novel will be released at The Stockholm International Comics Festival, taking place in May 19–21st, 2017.
  21. ↑ "United States of Banana | Cobolt Förlags webshop". Cobolt Förlag. Retrieved 2017-05-21.
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