Espacio social y representacion literaria de la frontera en la literatura mexicana contemporanea

Abstract

This dissertation traces contemporary theories perceiving the border as an abstract concept mostly defined by migration and crossing processes between Mexico and the United States. My purpose is to decentralize and deinstitutionalize such an idea by examining contemporary literary texts written in the Northern Mexican border region. In such region and texts, the border seen as both a geographical limit and as a margin of a national culture and identity is part of a daily routine that reaches a symbolic quality through social, historical, geographical and political processes. In order to illustrate the Mexican border perspective, I analyze representative literary texts in the light of premises drawn from social and geographic border studies. By exploring this social and symbolic field, my dissertation contributes to the configuration of a border theory intended to promote a transcultural dialogue between dominant discourses and those that oppose them.