Tracing and theorizing the concept of the boundaries through literary works, visual objects and cultural phenomena, this book argues against the reification of boundaries as fixed and empty non-spaces that simply divide the world. Expanding on her previous work on gender and Orientalism, Inge Boer takes us into uncertain territories of fashion and art, tourism and travel, skilfully engaging the ambivalence of boundaries, as both protecting and confining, as bringing distinction while existing by virtue of their ability to be transgressed. In her close readings of that boundaries as desert, as frame, as home (or lack of it), Boer shows that boundaries are spaces within, through, and in the name of which negotiations take place. They are not lines but spaces ; neither fixed nor empty but flexible and inhabited.

By now Jacques Derrida′s legacy has taken the form of a veritable (post-)deconstructive Babel. Its lasting presence is marked by a crucial oscillation between the echoes of its earlier success and the claims of a radically different sensibility. This volume takes stock of the controversy in three main fields: philosophy, literary studies, and law. For all those who are confronted with the variety of Derrida′s legacy this book serves as an invaluable map and takes a reconstructive approach to move beyond deconstruction.