From the Semantics to the Ontology of the Border in Instrucciones para cruzar la frontera: A Focus from Jean-Luc Nancy’s Theory of Corpus

Abstract

The present article ontologically explores the ‘being’ of the U.S.-Mexico border, investigates the mechanism that permits the coexistence of the two nations and proposes the communal attitude required to better coexist around the border. The central objective is to review how the U.S.-Mexico border is represented in three texts from Instrucciones para cruzar la frontera (2011) by Luis Humberto Crosthwaite, in an analysis that moves from the semantics of the border towards the ontology it implies. As a Mexican from a border region, the author shares his experience of living near the border and of being a witness of border crossings. The theory of ‘between’ by Jean-Luc Nancy explains our world and the history through the corpus or body; his premise that all bodies move towards others and that they are already in contact with each other effectively applies to literary texts on the border. This application will allow us to view both countries as a world of bodies, instead of considering them through the discourse of the Others. With this analysis, the limitations of the semantics of the border are accepted and are being overcome through ‘writing body-border’.