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Borders and Neo-Nationalism: A Geophilosophical Approach

  • Rita Fulco
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Mind the Gap: Borders, Limits and Frontiers
This chapter is in the book Mind the Gap: Borders, Limits and Frontiers

Abstract

My paper explores borders and neo-nationalism from a geo-philosophical perspective. In this approach, philosophy actively engages with other disciplines while consistently focusing on man’s dwelling in the world. First, I deconstruct the concept of ‘border,’ interpreted as an insurmountable barrier, as an immune dispositif aimed at protecting property and identity. Secondly, I will address the issue of neo-nationalism from Simone Weil’s reflections on patriotism in the 1930s and 1940s. In some of her writings from the 1940s, Weil offers a sharp critique of patriotism and attempts to rethink the concept of homeland and citizenship in a universalist sense. We know that globalisation has initiated an oscillation between de-localisation and re-localisation. However, considering only one of the two tendencies would fail to grasp the complexity of the issues at stake. On the other hand, any attempt to deny these opposing tendencies would be short-sighted. I aim to explore new ways to organise vast global spaces without reinforcing national sovereignty. I am convinced that we should move towards a universalism in which neither homologation nor immunisation from otherness prevails, a universalism that is, instead, based on recognising and respecting differences, not excluding, but, on the contrary, increasingly inclusive.

Abstract

My paper explores borders and neo-nationalism from a geo-philosophical perspective. In this approach, philosophy actively engages with other disciplines while consistently focusing on man’s dwelling in the world. First, I deconstruct the concept of ‘border,’ interpreted as an insurmountable barrier, as an immune dispositif aimed at protecting property and identity. Secondly, I will address the issue of neo-nationalism from Simone Weil’s reflections on patriotism in the 1930s and 1940s. In some of her writings from the 1940s, Weil offers a sharp critique of patriotism and attempts to rethink the concept of homeland and citizenship in a universalist sense. We know that globalisation has initiated an oscillation between de-localisation and re-localisation. However, considering only one of the two tendencies would fail to grasp the complexity of the issues at stake. On the other hand, any attempt to deny these opposing tendencies would be short-sighted. I aim to explore new ways to organise vast global spaces without reinforcing national sovereignty. I am convinced that we should move towards a universalism in which neither homologation nor immunisation from otherness prevails, a universalism that is, instead, based on recognising and respecting differences, not excluding, but, on the contrary, increasingly inclusive.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgements V
  3. Contents VII
  4. Part I
  5. Borders as Translation Spaces 1
  6. Border Narratives: Crossing Lines and Telling Tales 9
  7. Geophilosophy of the Border: Beyond Immunitarian Politics 21
  8. Borders and Neo-Nationalism: A Geophilosophical Approach 37
  9. We Fight for this Land 51
  10. Converting the Limit: Jean-Luc Nancy and the Infinite in the Act of Difference 63
  11. Liminal Places and Non-Places 77
  12. Border Brushstrokes: The Ulster Arts Club and the Post-Partition Nation 91
  13. Bordering as the Breaking Force of Border Subjects 101
  14. Frontiers of Sexual Difference: The Phantasm of Gender 115
  15. Borders and Language: Hermeneutic-Philosophical Issues 129
  16. ‘Thou wenest Ich be a beggere’: Borders and the Habitus in Middle English Romance 145
  17. Funes the Arboreous: Borderless Ecologies in Borges’s Ficciones 157
  18. Part II
  19. Borders and Barbed Wire: Cahir Healy’s Memoirs from the Argenta Prison Ship 171
  20. A Residue of Boundary Correspondence 183
  21. Two Years on an Ulster Prison Ship 189
  22. Contributors and Editors 307
  23. Index 311
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111448473-004

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgements V
  3. Contents VII
  4. Part I
  5. Borders as Translation Spaces 1
  6. Border Narratives: Crossing Lines and Telling Tales 9
  7. Geophilosophy of the Border: Beyond Immunitarian Politics 21
  8. Borders and Neo-Nationalism: A Geophilosophical Approach 37
  9. We Fight for this Land 51
  10. Converting the Limit: Jean-Luc Nancy and the Infinite in the Act of Difference 63
  11. Liminal Places and Non-Places 77
  12. Border Brushstrokes: The Ulster Arts Club and the Post-Partition Nation 91
  13. Bordering as the Breaking Force of Border Subjects 101
  14. Frontiers of Sexual Difference: The Phantasm of Gender 115
  15. Borders and Language: Hermeneutic-Philosophical Issues 129
  16. ‘Thou wenest Ich be a beggere’: Borders and the Habitus in Middle English Romance 145
  17. Funes the Arboreous: Borderless Ecologies in Borges’s Ficciones 157
  18. Part II
  19. Borders and Barbed Wire: Cahir Healy’s Memoirs from the Argenta Prison Ship 171
  20. A Residue of Boundary Correspondence 183
  21. Two Years on an Ulster Prison Ship 189
  22. Contributors and Editors 307
  23. Index 311
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