Santesso, Esra
M 1 :50 PM
Park Hall 61
Border Literature and Human Rights
Some scholars argue that globalization has made movement across borders easier—as “persons, goods, information” flow constantly between nations (Bill Ashcroft, Steven Vertovec). Others are less convinced about the permeability of borders, and are reluctant to declare the nation-state dead—especially in the wake of 9/11 and 7/7, which paved the way towards the creation of surveillance programs under Department of Homeland Security (Timothy Brennan). From Trump’s “impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful, southern border wall” between the US and Mexico, to the Syrian refugee crisis in Europe, from Norway’s new fence on the Russian frontier, to the unremitting security checks along the Gaza strip, borders continue to regulate and restrict human traffic, and thus shape national cultures and individual lives. On the other hand, despite heightened security and rising nationalism, borders are regarded as “contact zones” that can trigger a new kind of consciousness that can lead to double vision and hybridity.
This course will tackle the ambivalence of borders by examining transnational movement via cosmopolitan ethics. Are borders necessary? Will they become more or less important over the coming years? Are they fixed and determinative, or are they flexible and reactive? Do they reflect and reinforce difference or do they encourage blending and hybridity? Drawing on border theory and poetics (Gloria Azaldua, Homi Bhabha, Timothy Brennan, etc.), we will study how postcolonial literature responds to different kinds of tensions and anxieties about border-crossing, cultural translation, liminality, and cross-cultural appropriation. We will also dedicate time to define what “border writing” looks like in distressed territories, and how it is energized by the rhetoric of human rights.