Raquel Cepeda's Digital and Literary Publics: Twitter and Bird of Paradise

Abstract

<p>This study charts language use in two public spheres: literary and digital. Cepeda’s 2015 memoir Bird of Paradise, much like fellow Dominican American author Junot Díaz’s works, utilizes untranslated code switching and requires both linguistic and cultural translations on the part of the reader. Cepeda’s digital public, analyzed via her active Twitter account with over 11,000 followers, employs language in different ways to reach a wider, transnational audience. This essay considers how both Cepeda’s literary and digital spheres connect her to a diverse readership and can be considered examples of (digital) activism.</p>