Geophilosophy of the Border: Beyond Immunitarian Politics
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Caterina Resta
Abstract
Globalisation is currently at a pivotal moment. Following a period of expansion characterised by the dissolution of boundaries due to the spread of markets on a global scale, we are now witnessing a significant reversal. The structural phenomenon of migration significantly influences the rise of ‘immunitarian’ politics globally. This term describes emerging nationalist policies motivated by fears of foreign contamination, which are seen as threats to cultural identity and economic stability. ‘Sovereignism’ regards the return to the nation-state and its inviolable borders as the only form of protection against the invasion of the new ‘barbarians.’ Apart from the regressive character of the sovereignist views, which see the border merely as a defensive barrier rather than a crossable boundary, it is essential to examine the very nature of borders and sovereignty, not just politically but in broader terms. In particular, we should analyse the nexus linking the border to the conceptual cluster sovereignty-ipseity-identity-membership-territory, which, since the modern era, underlies what Jacques Derrida called ‘topolitics.’ Only by deconstructing this nexus will it be possible to imagine a different way of thinking about borders and citizenship beyond the immunitarian politics of nation-states and new forms of planetary cohabitation.
Abstract
Globalisation is currently at a pivotal moment. Following a period of expansion characterised by the dissolution of boundaries due to the spread of markets on a global scale, we are now witnessing a significant reversal. The structural phenomenon of migration significantly influences the rise of ‘immunitarian’ politics globally. This term describes emerging nationalist policies motivated by fears of foreign contamination, which are seen as threats to cultural identity and economic stability. ‘Sovereignism’ regards the return to the nation-state and its inviolable borders as the only form of protection against the invasion of the new ‘barbarians.’ Apart from the regressive character of the sovereignist views, which see the border merely as a defensive barrier rather than a crossable boundary, it is essential to examine the very nature of borders and sovereignty, not just politically but in broader terms. In particular, we should analyse the nexus linking the border to the conceptual cluster sovereignty-ipseity-identity-membership-territory, which, since the modern era, underlies what Jacques Derrida called ‘topolitics.’ Only by deconstructing this nexus will it be possible to imagine a different way of thinking about borders and citizenship beyond the immunitarian politics of nation-states and new forms of planetary cohabitation.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements V
- Contents VII
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Part I
- Borders as Translation Spaces 1
- Border Narratives: Crossing Lines and Telling Tales 9
- Geophilosophy of the Border: Beyond Immunitarian Politics 21
- Borders and Neo-Nationalism: A Geophilosophical Approach 37
- We Fight for this Land 51
- Converting the Limit: Jean-Luc Nancy and the Infinite in the Act of Difference 63
- Liminal Places and Non-Places 77
- Border Brushstrokes: The Ulster Arts Club and the Post-Partition Nation 91
- Bordering as the Breaking Force of Border Subjects 101
- Frontiers of Sexual Difference: The Phantasm of Gender 115
- Borders and Language: Hermeneutic-Philosophical Issues 129
- ‘Thou wenest Ich be a beggere’: Borders and the Habitus in Middle English Romance 145
- Funes the Arboreous: Borderless Ecologies in Borges’s Ficciones 157
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Part II
- Borders and Barbed Wire: Cahir Healy’s Memoirs from the Argenta Prison Ship 171
- A Residue of Boundary Correspondence 183
- Two Years on an Ulster Prison Ship 189
- Contributors and Editors 307
- Index 311
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements V
- Contents VII
-
Part I
- Borders as Translation Spaces 1
- Border Narratives: Crossing Lines and Telling Tales 9
- Geophilosophy of the Border: Beyond Immunitarian Politics 21
- Borders and Neo-Nationalism: A Geophilosophical Approach 37
- We Fight for this Land 51
- Converting the Limit: Jean-Luc Nancy and the Infinite in the Act of Difference 63
- Liminal Places and Non-Places 77
- Border Brushstrokes: The Ulster Arts Club and the Post-Partition Nation 91
- Bordering as the Breaking Force of Border Subjects 101
- Frontiers of Sexual Difference: The Phantasm of Gender 115
- Borders and Language: Hermeneutic-Philosophical Issues 129
- ‘Thou wenest Ich be a beggere’: Borders and the Habitus in Middle English Romance 145
- Funes the Arboreous: Borderless Ecologies in Borges’s Ficciones 157
-
Part II
- Borders and Barbed Wire: Cahir Healy’s Memoirs from the Argenta Prison Ship 171
- A Residue of Boundary Correspondence 183
- Two Years on an Ulster Prison Ship 189
- Contributors and Editors 307
- Index 311