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Rezension zu Marlen Bidwell-Steiner. Das Grenzwesen Mensch. Vormoderne Naturphilosophie und Literatur im Dialog mit postmoderner Gendertheorie. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2017. 319 S.

The perspective on the Mexican-US Border is modified when looked at as frontera norte or as Southern Border. Along this enormous division line, the crossing of persons or merchandise between two distinct geopolitical entities becomes possible or is restricted. It is an emblematic zone to conceive the phenomenon of crossing. Contemporary literature, cinema and arts reflect a focus on displacements, a tendency that can be understood as a movement towards a transborder approach. Which phenomena of crossing between Mexico and the US exist, and how are they constructed and described in texts and images from and about the Northern/Southern Border? Transborder appears as an inherent category in the best-known concepts of the Border at the end of the 20th century (Anzaldúa, Canclini, Mignolo, amongst others). This article sounds out how crossings manifest in contemporary expression of Border writers, artists and theorists (such as Laura Varela, Norma Cantú, Mayra Martell, Perla de la Rosa, Puro Borde, Azzul Monraz y Aldo Guerra, Guillermo Gómez Peña). This way, the outline of a Phenomenology of Crossings is revealed, which is characterized by the double presence of crossing and not crossing, of difference and similarity, of vulnerable experiences and their transformation. The understanding of «two sides» starts to be interrupted, disseminated. In the act of crossing, the Border is, ambiguously, division and unity, regional and superregional entity, violence and healing.

iMex XVII. Transborder Matters, año 9, n°17 | Romana Radlwimmer(ed.)

INHALT: Hanno EHRLICHER: Zum Geleit; Romana RADLWIMMER: Von glücklichen Räumen. Impresiones introductorias; Cosima Julia BALLMANN: Entgrenzung und Entortung kubanischer Literatur im Exil; Fabiana BRAUNSTORFER: Nur ein Augenblick? Graciela Iturbides Juchitán de las Mujeres und die hybride Sprengkraft von Fotografie; Mirele CIFRIC: Sefardic Identity as Nepantla: An Interpretation through Images; Juliana HAZOTH: The Question of Identity in Abre los ojos: Development and Concealing; Mark LUXENHOFER: The Rhythm of Cinema. An Essay on the Resurrection of the Author; Moritz MAINKA: Otredad y espacio en la película Branco sai, preto fica (2014)

After thirty years, Gloria Anzaldúas theory keeps moving artistic, political and academic communities. Out of my own practice of reading and rereading "Borderlands", and observing its impact in different discursive cirumstances, I have come to understand that the text´s immediate and lasting success lies in its quality to touch, to disrupt, to stir up, and to move. In this essay, I will discuss how Anzaldúa´s border thought has changed since her first publications in the 1980s and her last texts, written shortly before her passing in 2004. Furthermore, I shall sound out how different practices have interpreted Anzaldúa´s theory, contributing to and reinforcing transborder thinking in diverse media and formats. Two Chicana artists dealing with (crossings of) borders in specific and metaphoric ways are the filmmaker Lourdes Portillo and the writer Norma Elia Cantú; two Latina artists conceiving borders materially and symbolically are the singer Lourdes Pérez and the painter Liliana Wilson., Treinta años después, la teoría de Anzaldúa sigue moviendo a las comunidades artísticas, políticas y académicas. Desde mi propia práctica de leer "Borderlands" y de volver a leerlo, y observando el impacto en tantos ámbitos discursivos, creo hoy que la fuerza impactante y el éxito inmediato y duradero del texto está en su calidad de tocar, de perturbar, despertar y conmover. En este ensayo discuto cómo el pensamiento sobre fronteras de Anzaldúa se ha modificado desde sus primeras publicaciones en los años 1980 hasta sus últimos textos escritos ya en el nuevo milenio y antes de que falleciera en el 2004. También indago en las prácticas que interpretan la teoría de Anzaldúa a su manera, y que retroalimentan el pensamiento transfronterizo en diversos medios y formatos. Entre las artistas chicanas que tratan la frontera de forma concreta y metafórica, se encuentran la cineasta Lourdes Portillo y la escritora Norma Cantú; dos artistas latinas que conciben la frontera materialmente y simbólicamente son la cantante Lourdes Pérez y la pintora Liliana Wilson.

Memoria ID11-086. Ayudas de la Universidad de Salamanca para la innovación docente, curso 2011-2012.