Border Narratives

Friday, 13:45-15:15

Room C10.105 (2/N105)

First meeting: 16.10.2026

Content

The topic of borders has attracted interest across several disciplines for many years, ranging from literary to cultural studies, postcolonial to migration studies, or even affective to psychological approaches, due to its multiple implications for aesthetic, cultural, socio-political or mere spatial issues. Recent developments like the refugee crisis in Europe, the COVID-19 crisis, or the renewed tensions at the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland after Brexit exemplified the consistent relevance of borders – whether it is in the sense of the general “debordering” strategy in the EU or a “rebordering” (McCall 2012) of nation states in the face of illegal immigration, security or health threats. Based on these observations and imminent questions of how to conceptualise borders, this seminar seeks to illuminate how borders are “presented, marked, represented, medialized” (Schimanski/Wolfe 2007) by contemporary writers, such as Mohsin Hamid, Zadie Smith and others, as well as how current events influence the perception and depiction of borders.

Objectives

Students are made familiar with different conceptualisations of borders, for example, by Walter D. Mignolo, Thomas Nail, Johan Schimanski and others, to reflect on the different manifestations of borders and to develop a critical understanding of how borders function in diverse contexts. This will be enhanced by a discussion of selected literary works and their representation of associated themes, like flight, migration, ethnonational conflicts, anxiety or xenophobia.

Requirements for Credit:

Active participation in every session of the class based on students’ close readings of the selected texts is required. 

Set Texts:

A reading list will be announced at the beginning of the seminar. Most readings will be made available via OPAL.