Border theory : the limits of cultural politics / Scott Michaelsen and David E. Johnson, editors.

Border Secrets: An Introduction / David E. Johnson and Scott Michaelsen -- 1. Reflections on Border Theory, Culture, and the Nation / Alejandro Lugo -- 2. In the Borderlands of Chicano Identity, There Are Only Fragments / Benjamin Alire Saenz -- 3. On the Border with The Pilgrim: Zigzags across a Chapl(a)in's Signature / Louis Kaplan -- 4. The Time of Translation: The Border of American Literature / David E. Johnson -- 5. Run through the Borders: Feminism, Postmodernism, and Runaway Subjectivity / Elaine K. Chang -- 6. Compromised Narratives along the Border: The Mason-Dixon Line, Resistance, and Hegemony / Russ Castronovo -- 7. Resketching Anglo-Amerindian Identity Politics / Scott Michaelsen -- Afterword: Further Perspectives on Culture, Limits, and Borders / Patricia Seed.

Challenging the prevailing assumption that border studies occurs only in "the borderlands" where Mexico and the United States meet, the authors gathered in this volume examine the multiple borders that define the United States and the Americas, including the Mason-Dixon line, the U.S.-Canadian border, the shifting boundaries of urban diasporas, and the colonization and confinement of American Indians.

These writers - drawn from anthropology, history, and language studies - critique the terrain, limits, and possibilities of border theory. They examine, among other topics, the "soft" or "friendly" borders produced by ethnic studies, antiassimilationist or "difference" multiculturalisms, liberal anthropologies, and benevolent nationalisms.