The “wound” metaphor in the border narratives of Ana Castillo and Graciela Limón

This paper explores the manifestations of the wound metaphor in two Mexican-American border novels: The Guardians (2007) by Ana Castillo and The River Flows North by Graciela Limón (2009). This will be done by analyzing the metaphor as tackled by Anzaldúa and Fuentes then examining the detrimental impact of the border on characters that are affected by it in one way or another whether through attempting to cross to the United States, crossing back to Mexico, or living in border towns.

Border identities: Theoretical approach to the study of self from bordering processes

This article develops a theoretical approach to the study of identity narratives from the concept of the bordering process. The first section describes the theoretical concepts that sustain the proposal, in particular, the concept of border as a mediating artifact, the theoretical concept of the bordering process as a social practice, and finally, identity narratives and the dialogical perspective of the self. The second section analyzes the proposals and limitations of some studies on identity narratives in international borderlands. In the same section, we develop our theoretical proposal for studying border identity narratives, which attempts to overcome some limitations of previous studies and respond to the debate on the role of others in the construction of the self. We conclude that the inclusion of the border as a semiotic artifact and the bordering process in the construction of the self provide a new perspective of identity narratives as border narratives for the study of border experiences throughout human development.

Towards a Vernacular Study of Border Security

This introductory chapter sets out the puzzle posed by the intensification of walling and deterrent security on the one hand and the proliferation of populist calls for tougher borders on the other. It argues that in order to address this puzzle it is necessary not only to consider the roles of governmental actors, media sources, and people on the move in the performance of Europe’s so-called ‘migration crisis’, but also the views, experiences, and political agency of EU citizens in whose name tougher border security is ultimately legitimized. While the nationalist populist mantra of ‘taking back control’ of borders and sovereignty claims to speak for large numbers of EU citizens, relatively little is known about how citizens conceptualize, understand, and talk about the ‘crisis’—and the twinned issues of migration and border security—in the context of their everyday lives. The discussion engages with theoretical and methodological debates about the status of the vernacular as a distinctive approach in the social sciences. It builds on existing interdisciplinary literature in order to develop a vernacular study of border security, which draws on positioning theory in order to understand subject formation in, and the wider political significance of, social conversations. It outlines how this vernacular approach was applied in the ‘Border Narratives’ project, the findings of which form the underpinning research for the book as a whole. Finally, it provides a map of the key arguments, summarizes main contributions, and explains how each chapter addresses a different facet of the above puzzle.

Narratives of Border Crossings

How can we understand borders in terms of aesthetic practice? As borders are increasingly moving into the centre of cultural negotiations, the essays in this volume focus on anglophone fiction, film and TV series which employ border-crossing narratives and engage in narrative poetics of cultural encounters. Addressing the complex roles of borders in cultural representations, the articles analyse recent reconceptualisations of borders as processes and practices in border narratives. This book will appeal to anyone interested in cultural border studies as well as ethnic studies. With contributions by Pirjo Ahokas, Francesca de Lucia, Aikaterini Delikonstantinidou, Astrid M. Fellner, Dorothea Fischer-Hornung, Bettina Hofmann, Nadine M. Knight, Page Laws, Ludmilla Martanovschi, Janna Odabas, Silvia Schultermandl and Elke Sturm-Trigonakis.

Narratives Transcending Borders: Sabrina Janesch’s "Katzenberge" as a German Response to Polish Migration Literature

The establishment of the Oder-Neisse border between Poland and Germany, as well as the westward shift of Poland’s eastern border resulted in migration for tens of millions in regions that had already been devastated by nearly a decade of forced evacuation, flight, war and genocide. In Poland, postwar authors such as Gdańsk’s own Stefan Chwin and Paweł Huelle have begun to establish a fascinating narrative connecting now-Polish spaces with what are at least in part non-Polish pasts. In Germany, meanwhile, coming to terms with a past that includes the Vertreibung, or forced migration, of millions of Germans during the mid-1940s has been limited at best, in no small part on account of its implication of Germans in the role of victim. In her 2010 debut novel Katzenberge, however, German author Sabrina Janesch employs a Polish migration story to connect with her German readers. Her narrator, like Janesch herself, is a young German who identifies with her Polish grandfather, whose death prompts her to trace the steps of his flight in 1945 from a Galician village to (then) German Silesia. This narrative, I argue, resonates with Janesch’s German audience because the expulsion experience is one with which they can identify. That it centers on Polish migration, however, not only avoids the context of guilt associated with German migration during World War II, but also creates an opportunity to better comprehend their Polish neighbors as well as the geographical spaces that connect them. Instead of allowing border narratives to be limited by the very border they attempt to define, engaging with multiple narratives of a given border provide enhanced meanings in local and national contexts and beyond.

Dana Hercbergs, Overlooking the Border: Narratives of Divided Jerusalem. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2018. 292 pp.

Dana Hercbergs’ Overlooking the Border is a study of popular narratives on Jerusalem, based on the fieldwork she did in the city between 2007-2008 and 2014-2016. More precisely, she deals with stories told by contemporary Jerusalemites—both Israeli Jews and Palestinians, who come from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. Enriched with maps and photographs, the well-written text moves between past and present as the narrators recount their everyday life experiences, inevitably touching upon the ways their lives are influenced by political and social realities. Hercbergs does not limit her sources to informants and storytellers, or to interviews, guided tours, or a visit to a family living in the Shu’afat refugee camp. She also rightly considers material expressions such as street plaques, posters, architectural projects, a permanent photography exhibit of family portraits and street scenes in West Jerusalem, and the Palestinian Heritage Museum. The border that the book discusses is multidimensional: social, physical, ethnic, and national....