Borderlands and Liminal Subjects - Transgressing the Limits in Philosophy and Literature

Borders are essentially imaginary structures, but their effects are very real. This volume explores both geopolitical and conceptual borders through an interdisciplinary lens, bridging the disciplines of philosophy and literature. With contributions from scholars around the world, this collection closely examines the concepts of race, nationality, gender, and sexuality in order to reveal the paradoxical ambiguities inherent in these seemingly solid binary oppositions, while critiquing structures of power that produce and police these borders. As a political paradigm, liminality may be embraced by marginal subjects and communities, further blurring the boundaries between oppressive distinctions and categories.


Jessica Elbert Decker is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at California State University San Marcos, USA.  Her current research investigates the symbolic structures of western patriarchy, especially as they appear in ancient philosophy, mythology, and psychoanalysis.

Dylan Winchock is a lecturer for the Literature & Writing and Liberal Studies programs at California State University San Marcos, USA.  His scholarship focuses on contemporary literature and the emergence of borderlands as sites of hegemonic struggle in city space. His most recent project is a critique of utopian fantasies in literature.