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Bordering as the Breaking Force of Border Subjects

  • Valentina Surace
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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

This paper explores the role of borders in everyday life through the lens of Judith Butler’s philosophy, which aligns closely with Border Studies. The latter has evolved from viewing borders as static markers of belonging to understanding them as dynamic processes of becoming and mechanisms of power. Butler illustrates how borders function as institutions or norms determining who qualifies as a human subject. The ‘other,’ against which the concept of the human is formed, acts as the border that solidifies the human identity. Norms possess performative power, homogenising and excluding individuals. However, performativity is inherently paradoxical. On one hand, it is a disciplinary tool that normalises subjects, distinguishing between the ‘normal’ and the ‘abnormal.’ On the other hand, unconventional repetitions of norms can produce transformations. This dynamic involves grassroots negotiations by those who live in borderlands or transcend normative borders.

Abstract

This paper explores the role of borders in everyday life through the lens of Judith Butler’s philosophy, which aligns closely with Border Studies. The latter has evolved from viewing borders as static markers of belonging to understanding them as dynamic processes of becoming and mechanisms of power. Butler illustrates how borders function as institutions or norms determining who qualifies as a human subject. The ‘other,’ against which the concept of the human is formed, acts as the border that solidifies the human identity. Norms possess performative power, homogenising and excluding individuals. However, performativity is inherently paradoxical. On one hand, it is a disciplinary tool that normalises subjects, distinguishing between the ‘normal’ and the ‘abnormal.’ On the other hand, unconventional repetitions of norms can produce transformations. This dynamic involves grassroots negotiations by those who live in borderlands or transcend normative borders.

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/10.1515/9783111448473-009

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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