Borders in the English-Speaking World

Overview & Synopsis

This collective volume brings together thirteen contributions focusing on the transgression of borders in the English-speaking world from the beginning of the 19th century to the 21st century, in literature, history, geography, cultural studies, visual arts and political discourse. This collective volume brings together thirteen contributions focusing on the transgression of borders in the English-speaking world from the beginning of the 19th century to the 21st century, in literature, history, geography, cultural studies, visual arts and political discourse. Far from being static and immutable, borders are shown to be permeable and performative, fluid sites of division and contact, processes rather than straight and rigid lines. The chapters explore the ways in which borders contribute to the shaping of identities and are negotiated in complex and subversive ways at cultural, territorial, individual and national levels. Borders are treated from an interdisciplinary perspective that articulates the literal and the metaphorical, the concrete territory and the imagined community, highlighting the imbrication of political, social, environmental, discursive and aesthetic considerations.