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International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Book | Chapter

191141

Introduction

borderlands and liminality across philosophy and literature

Jessica Elbert Decker Dylan Winchock

pp. 1-18

Abstract

A border is but a line extending infinitely, widthlessly, and abstractly; yet the moment this line is delimited and inscribed upon a map or etched within the earth, it takes on new social meaning. Borders are found nowhere in nature but where human beings impose them, and they are imposed with a purpose. A border, then, may be better understood as being more than a line: it is a physical limit. Useful, it locates the division between things, their beginnings, and their endings. We draw borders between nation states, transforming rivers, mountains, and other arbitrary features into the difference between the sovereignty of "us' and "them." We build fences around property to distinguish between that which we possess and that which we do not. We delimit with borders those things which we identify as part of our self from those things that we have rejected as "outside."

Publication details

Published in:

Elbert Decker Jessica, Winchock Dylan (2017) Borderlands and liminal subjects: transgressing the limits in philosophy and literature. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 1-18

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-67813-9_1

Full citation:

Elbert Decker Jessica, Winchock Dylan (2017) „Introduction: borderlands and liminality across philosophy and literature“, In: J. Elbert Decker & D. Winchock (eds.), Borderlands and liminal subjects, Dordrecht, Springer, 1–18.