Grenze und Ästhetik: Repräsentationen von Grenzen in den kulturwissenschaftlichen Border Studies

First of all the border is examined as a place of aesthetic production. The author explains first of all that the border in this context must not merely be understood as a boundary, but also as a space (borderlands). In it a dynamic force emerges that makes it possible to produce hybrid forms of aesthetic representations, which arise out of the contact between cultures and critically scrutinise power structures. The element of hybridity produces "defiant energies and creative forces, which have the potential to disrupt, to denaturalise and deconstruct hegemonic formations" (p. 440). What is more, border spaces have, as the author illustrates with the Mexican-Us borderlands, the potential for decolonising approaches.

After that the author explores the theme of aesthetic portrayals and representations of borders. For this she draws on Chicanx literature, which is understood as "dedicated border literature" (p. 444) and "[conceived] as an aesthetic product of the border, a literature that makes the border tangible for readers" (ibid.). Likewise this writing is characterised by border crossings and blendings, by "multilingualism and a multilingual poetics“ and "genre hybridity" (ibid.). Thematically, questions of identity are often centre stage, along with a critical stance with regard to the hegemonic Anglo-American culture. In the field of performance art there is also a focus on getting to grips with the border. In addition to a substantive engagement with the border and borderlands, through performances the latter "themselves become the stage for aesthetic productions. On the one hand, invisible borders in space are rendered tangible and embodied, however at the same time the social conceptions and implications of borders are also debated.“ (p. 448).

Finally the author outlines some conceptualisations of border aesthetics.  In order to be able to grasp the concept of the border in all its complexity as closely as possible, it is possible to take an interdisciplinary approach, which furthermore provides an insight onto border-forming discourses and practices. This gives border poetics an artistic force in the process of literary creation. Resulting concerns on the specific way of reading border poetics concentrate on the question of "with what strategies and narratives  different borders such as national, institution and generic borders are established and overstepped in a literary text" (S. 450). The field of border aesthetics concerns itself, however, predominantly with changes that occur due to a convergence between borders and aesthetics. Finally the concept of border texturing offers the possibility of "exploring various interwoven relationships between aesthetic representations of the border with other discourses and practices" (p. 451).