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6

Mind the Gap: An Analysis of  the Construction and 
Cultural Function of  Borders in Media

Grace Babcock, Cara Walsh, Cali Fehr, Aurora Hibbert,
Sam Scoma, Calvin Sheinfeld, Digital Literature Review Editorial Team

 Borders confine and divide; they keep “us” in and “them” out–what was fruitful 
coexistence yesterday could become a turbulent division tomorrow. Yet the borders raised 
up out of  these shifting relationships remain subject to the constraints of  the people 
who build them, the places and realms they divide, and, ultimately, time itself. Just as a 
physical wall may be built brick-by-brick, a border is raised gradually, often secretly, as the 
temperature of  the sociopolitical climate rises. These physical walls are often built from the 
bricks of  metaphysical borders, laid on the foundation of  power and fortified by majority 
acceptance of  a border’s reality. 
 A prototypical example of  a border both physical and metaphysical is Brexit, the 
United Kingdom’s vote to withdraw from the European Union in 2016. The repercussions 
of  Brexit are still echoing throughout the world, just as how Brexit itself  took decades to 
develop. As in the case of  Northern Ireland, Brexit drew new lines over ancient maps. These 
revised borders were enforced by those in power, their force exerted over those who walked 
where fences now lie. In her essay “Fences: A Brexit Diary,” Zadie Smith reveals first-hand 
how perceptions of  social attitudes create a veil that can hide conflicting views, especially 
from those living within the same community. She notices how Brexit revealed not only 
the split in political views in her community, but the flawed democratic system that spurred 
Britain’s departure. Although the question of  whether ‘to leave or stay’ was posed as a 
binary, the network of  consequences that would ensue prompted complex reasoning among 
citizens. Two years later, borders that have been rising slowly now stand jagged and sharp 
in the forefront of  a political climate wrought with fear. At the time of  writing, the world 
watches Russia dispute the borders of  Ukraine, still reeling from the outbreak of  a global 
pandemic where friend and enemy; life and death; hope and reality itself  are thinly veiled.



Psychologically, humans are social creatures who possess a deep-rooted desire to protect 
our kind. In the modern world’s sea of  ever-changing diversity, however, everyone must 
constantly seek out ways to differentiate between friend and foe. Therefore, we establish an 
increasing number of  physical borders every day to divide groups which possess distinct 
social traits. Prison yards separate law-abiders and law-breakers, Lima’s Wall of  Shame 
carves out the rich and poor neighborhoods, Belfast’s Peace Walls separate Catholics and 
Protestants. 

 

  
 Yet oftentimes, citizens cross these borders by uniting through a common identity. 
China’s Great Wall once kept out invading nomads but quickly became a walkable symbol 
of  regional pride, while East and West Berlin came together to tear down the Berlin Wall. As 
identity fluctuates, borders come in and out of  relevance; they are built and destroyed in a 
constant battle to define identity.
 But not all borders are so easily identified—metaphysical borders also determine who 
belongs within a group and who is worthy of  protection, such as race, nationality, sexuality, 
religion, and identity. They can invisibly divide one’s internal life from their external, their 
real feelings from their overt expression. Borders are simultaneously concrete and abstract, 
inter-and-intrapersonal, social and individual.
 Many pieces of  literature focus on challenging a character’s sense of  identity, either to 
strengthen their sense of  self-worth or to rebuild their selfhood entirely. This phenomenon 
occurs in countless ways, from inward reflection to peer-led awakenings, from minor 
accidents to world upheavals. Real and fictional characters across both geography and history 
traverse borders in both physical and mental space in order to overcome confining, border-
like circumstances and discover what lies across the fence.
 It is because of  the diverse, continuously shifting nature of  borders across time, 

Introduction

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Belfast’s Wall of  Separation serves as 
a physical border between Catholics and 
Protestants (image via Grace Babcock)

Lima’s Wall of  Shame contains the poor community (left) 
to keep them from mixing with the rich community (right) 
(Robinson)



regional space, and personal experience that the Digital Literature Review felt compelled 
to explore them. When considering how borders continue to affect global sociopolitical 
relationships, our team began to centrally question how we can best define our observation 
of  and connection to our own experience of  culture, those of  our authors, and those 
detailed in texts. The theoretical framework under which we operated was outlined by 
Homi K. Bhabha in his introduction to The Location of  Culture. Our frame of  reference for 
captivating culture became a multifaceted exploration of  the “past and present, inside and 
outside” of  any of  our conceptions of  what culture “meant” (Bhabha 2). This edition of  
our journal attempts to understand how the construction, destruction, and redefinition of  
the borders around us (established both physically and through the media we consume) 
reflect the “cultural hybridities that emerge in moments of  historical transformation;” it is 
our version of  a project that attempts to encapsulate “ambivalencies and ambiguities enacted 
in the house of  fiction” (Bhabha 3; 27). The Digital Literature Review wanted to provide 
another space to create cultural conversations between texts, between authors, and between 
critical perspectives. 
     In doing so, then, we must confront the real dangers that strict border-making has 
on global politics and on human life. In Gloria Anzaldúa ‘s Borderlands/La Frontera: The 
New Mestiza, she utilizes a mixture of  Spanish and English to reveal how culture can divide 
and limit self-identity. She examines how culture has both expanded and confined her own 
identity as a lesbian Chicano, and illustrates her struggle to break out of  a cultural narrative 
that rejects her sexuality, her ambition, and her mixed racial background. Anzaldúa takes 
the position that the conscious and unconscious fear of  rejection creates feelings of  unease 
with the inner self, the parts of  the soul that are deemed unsavory, which she refers to as 
the “Shadow-Beast”(Anzaldúa 38). She discusses growing up in America and experiencing 
prejudice against Spanish and her accent, uncovering how Chicano Spanish, a dialect which 
she calls a “border-tongue,” was a part of  her expression of  culture and heritage (Anzaldúa 
77). Similarly, in her speech “Grievability and Resistance,” feminist theorist Judith Butler 
reminds her audience of  the necessity to bring “intellectual resources to bear” on the 
damage that artificially constructed borders across Europe, and to consider how borders 
like those which separate countries are “determined and interpreted.” Butler states that the 
enforcement of  borders and the cementation of  isolationist policies continue to redefine 
“who is considered living;” borders, then, take on a “lethal power” to dictate who is assigned 
dignity and who is not. In many of  our selected essays, there is a marked recentralization of  
human dignity and a deep exploration of  the many “forms by which grievability is asserted” 
by refugees, by survivors, and by the artists who encapsulate these experiences (Butler, 
“Grievability and Resistance”). 
  One of  the biggest barriers for the expression of  selfhood, autonomy, and culture 

Introduction

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are those constructed by the institutions of  the global community and authors themselves. 
The threats to refugees outlined in Butler’s speech are made manifest in Riley Ellis’s essay 
“Stranger Danger: the Imperialist Tendencies of  Peacemakers.” Ellis discusses how abusive 
patterns of  peacekeeping organizations, namely the United Nations, affect the creation and 
enforcement of  physical borders. Through her analysis of  the novels Girl at War by Sara 
Nović and Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, Ellis details the experiences of  three unique victims 
of  war. She illustrates how peacekeeping institutions like the United Nations reinforce 
geographical borders and endanger the people on either side, often stripping them of  
their humanity in exchange for the enforcement of  their policy. Ellis cultivates an in-depth 
look into imperialism to explain how the peacekeeping organizations’ invasion of  privacy 
and repeated violation of  human rights in war-torn countries leads to desperate, often 
treacherous border crossings like those shown in Nović’s and Hamid’s texts. 
Delving further into the discussion of  the social institutions that provoke protagonists to 
cross institutional borders, author Erin McKee continues analyzing Nović and Hamid’s 
novels in her essay “Currency and Border Crossings: the Role of  Social Class in Exit West 
and Girl at War.” McKee details how access to money correlates with access to and through 
borders. Her essay picks up the economic threads woven through Ellis’s discussion of  
geographical borders, but focuses further on how immigration is primarily hindered or 
bolstered by the institution of  social class. Finally, McKee argues that even when people such 
as the refugees in Girl at War and Exit West successfully cross geographical borders, they are 
still bound by physical borders which encircle them. Social class limits access to currency, 
which McKee argues reinforces physical borders like food security, xenophobic racism, and 
other barriers low-income immigrants face on either side of  the geographic borders between 
their countries. 
 Class and financial stability are often weaponized by border agents and wielded 
against the most vulnerable. Labor, the primary asset of  the working class, is rarely protected 
by profit-driven capitalists and frequently contributes to the abuse of  employees. The 
government of  the UK, with its decision to secede from the European Union, made physical 
the preexisting economic and social borders between demographic groups. As explored in 
Natalie Fulghum’s essay, “My Neighbor is Lesser: A Look At Xenophobic Social Borders 
That Would Lead To Brexit,” the underlying, dangerous xenophobia hurt recent migrant 
families and festered in the UK before the government’s official decision to “Brexit.” 
Through her analysis of  Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go and Steven Frears’ss Dirty Pretty 
Things, Fulghum illustrates the multiple ways that xenophobic ideology violates immigrants’ 
sense of  bodily autonomy and often dehumanizes them to capitalize off  of  the labor they 
produce without guilt. Work becomes more essential than personhood, while the borders 
that slice through Britain’s population continue to divide its population into those who “fit” 

Introduction

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and those who do not. 
 Access to reliable transportation, too, is an inherent luxury of  middle-to-upper 
class life. The two road narratives included in The Digital Literature Review simultaneously 
provide an exploration of  moving through, across, and over regional space while detailing 
the effects that these travels have on the arc of  the narrative’s characters. Like the works 
which preceded it, Cassidy Forbing’s essay, “An Exploration of  the Ford Within The Remains 
of  the Day,” details the way social and economic class affect the perception individual 
characters have of  one another. Stevens, an English butler hired in service of  a new-
money American entrepreneur, navigates both the countryside of  his homeland and the 
social expectations of  the evolving elite class as he drives across England in an expensive 
Ford and encounters new acquaintances and old friends. In Eden Fowler’s analysis of  the 
multiple borders in the film Little Miss Sunshine, the vehicle the Hoover family uses to cross 
state lines is far less glamorous: a barely-functional Volkswagen van. As the family struggles 
(both financially and logistically) to get their daughter Olive to her dream beauty pageant, 
each member experiences embarrassment, discomfort, companionship, and contentment 
at different points throughout their story. Both Stevens and the Hoovers experience 
substantial individual development as they move across their native territories and transgress 
both physical and emotional borders; they gain an understanding of  their own personal 
experience, their connections with those they meet and love, and finally their place in the 
world that surrounds them. 
 At this point, the editors of  the Digital Literature Review noticed a distinct evolution 
of  argumentative focus away from a discussion of  the constructions, institutions, and 
physical borders that fracture our society and towards those which explore the effects of  
metaphysical, psychological, or social borders. The throughline, however, was evidently 
the fact that the borders identified by our authors still had similar effects on the narrative 
outcomes and character trajectories in-text. In her essay “Dreams, Doors, and Death: 
Exploring Liminal Space and Mortality in Exit West and The Farming of  Bones,” Grace 
Babcock explores the ways in which constructed space can affect growth. However, Babcock 
explores not physical spaces, but rather the liminal spaces present in Danticat’s The Farming 
of  Bones and Hamid’s Exit West and their contrasting effects on emotional healing. It is the 
crossing into these intangible spaces that Amabelle in The Farming of  Bones and Nadia and 
Saeed in Exit West are confronted with the borders they construct within themselves. Brigid 
Maguire similarly centers her discussion on the novel’s exploration of  mortality. Rather 
than turn her attention to the internal borders discussed by Babcock, Maguire focuses on 
the other moments in the texts that mirror the border of  death for Liesel and Amabelle. 
Death, as the character that appears in The Book Thief, and death, as the concept and the 
border between life and the absence of  it, interact with the main characters of  The Book 

Introduction

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Thief  and The Farming of  Bones in intimate, heartbreaking ways. These essays do not navigate 
geographical space, but detail borders’ effects on the characters’ own internal lives, lived 
experience, and responses to traumatic events.
 Metaphysical borders are complicated still through Olivia Grenier’s analysis of  the 
multitude of  ways that language and culture define the ways that both authors and readers 
understand the experiences of  a narrative’s characters. In Grenier’s essay, “Confronting 
Potential Cultural Barriers in Translated Works,” she discusses the impact of  the linguistic 
and cultural translation present in the short stories “No Name Woman” and “Woman 
Hollering Creek,” by Maxine Hong Kingston and Sandra Cisneros. Grenier notes that 
translation occurs when Cisneros provides both English and Spanish phrases in her writing 
to make it accessible for the monolingual reader while Kingston retells the story of  her aunt 
living in China for an audience unfamiliar with Chinese social expectations.Grenier’s analysis 
digs into the question of  whether the continued crossing of  the border of  translation is one 
that benefits the reader and respects the culture of  the author. In discussing the impact of  
translation on literature, readers are introduced to a metaphysical border that is not so finite 
as the border of  death discussed in the previous papers. Rather, we interact with a border 
that can be crossed and recrossed repeatedly for different purposes and to different effects. 
 Cultural expectations have perhaps the most influence on the construction of  
social borders. Kingston’s exploration of  behavioral expectations as dictators of  gender 
performance are further examined throughout the conclusion of  this edition of  the Digital 
Literature Review. Specifically, Media and popular culture shackle and restrain identity by 
laying out limits on how different genders should behave. Specifically, superhero film culture 
continues to engage itself  in a battle to depict toxic masculinity as either favorable or 
disdainful through the character arcs of  popular superheroes and supervillains. 
 In the DLR’s penultimate essay, “Borders of  Masculinity: The Hero’s Journey in the 
Marvel Cinematic Universe,” Cara Walsh argues that the MCU illustrates masculinity as a 
border to emotional and character growth in relation to the hero’s journey. Walsh bases 
her argument on the MCU’s three foundational heroes—Iron Man, Captain America, and 
Thor—to analyze the ways in which toxic masculinity manifests in their identities to create 
roadblocks for their personal lives and progression along the hero’s journey. Walsh claims 
that sociocultural notions of  masculinity influence not only their self  identity but also the 
way in which they attempt to fulfill the hero archetype. Though Iron Man, Captain America, 
and Thor demonstrate these effects in ways distinct to their character, the conflicts they 
face are rooted in toxic masculinity and halt their growth as heroes. Sam Scoma’s essay, 
“It’s All About the Punch(line): The Crossing of  Masculinity’s Border as Portrayed in Todd 
Phillips’s Joker” analyzes the character arc of  awkward, isolationist party clown Arthur Fleck. 
Fleck initially has no access to social status, wealth, or confidence due to his unmasculine 

Introduction

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appearance and temperament, but is able to gain social acclaim, newfound happiness, 
and confidence once he adopts the toxic masculine traits of  physical violence, emotional 
suppression, and sexual dominance. Scoma argues that young men who are still developing 
their identity see themselves in Fleck the underdog, and are thus susceptible to mirroring 
his toxic behaviors to gain similar social acclaim. Both Walsh and Scoma’s essays rely on the 
theoretical framework of  hegemonic masculinity, a hierarchical social structure which allows 
men who adopt harmful traits to hold the most power in society. This theory emphasizes the 
social act of  grooming men, which can occur through watching films and participating in 
pop culture.
 The world of  literature is rife with examples of  borders, both physical and 
metaphysical. These works featured in the following journal are ordered intentionally 
to guide the audience through the ways in which our institutions, our perceptions, our 
relationships, our language, and our culture simultaneously construct intimidating barriers 
and provide avenues for personal and collective growth. We encourage both personal 
reflection and critical engagement with these essays, and aim to provide the space for the 
analysis which identifies the dangers, the luxuries, and the lasting effects of  the many borders 
which influence identities. The turn of  each page, the click of  each link, and the inspiration 
behind each assertion is a border-crossing itself; we urge you to recognize, to notice, and to 
consider the borders which influence your own understanding of  this work. 

Thank you, and see you on the other side, 
Grace Babcock, Cali Fehr, Aurora Hibbert, Sam Scoma, Calvin Sheinfeld, and Cara Walsh.

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Works Cited

Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands, La Frontera: The New Mestiza. Aunt Lute Books, 1987.

Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of  Culture. Routledge, 1994.

Butler, Judith. “Grievability and Resistance.” Borders and the Politics of  Mourning, The Zol-
berg Institute on Migration and Mobility, 2016, The New School, New York City, NY. 
Keynote Address.

Robinson, Julian. “Divide: Pictures Show Peru’s Ten-Foot High Wall of  Shame Topped with 
Razor Wire which Divides the Rich and Poor to Stop the Less Well-Off  Stealing from 
the Wealthy.” Daily Mail, Associated Newspapers Ltd, 22 Dec. 2018, https://www.
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3370316/Peru-s-ten-foot-high-Wall-Shame-topped-ra-
zor-wire-divides-rich-poor-stop-stealing-wealthy.html.

Smith, Zadie. “Fences: A Brexit Diary.” The New York Review of  Books, 18 August 2016, 
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/08/18/fences-brexit-diary/.

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