Narrating the Borderlands: Literature, Legality, and Solidarity

This course explores multiple issues concerning crossing, living, and narrating the United States-Mexico border. We will focus on the border as a legal space bound to interpretations about what it means to migrate legally or illegally across that territory. We will explore the border as a vast and uneven expanse that entails diverse and often contradictory narrations and imaginaries that range from idealized landscapes to apocalyptic wastelands. Finally, we will discuss how border-crossing is a theme for artists and writers working on the solidarity networks from those who have dealt with the journey and its perils.