The Lincoln Humanities Journal Fall 2014 Volume 2 2 LHJ The Lincoln Humanities Journal Fall 2014 | Volume 2 Borders Editor ABBES MAAZAOUI The Lincoln University Editorial Board J. KENNETH VAN DOVER The Lincoln University ERIK LIDDELL Eastern Kentucky University KIRSTEN C. KUNKLE Scholar & Opera Singer HÉDI JAOUAD Skidmore College EZRA S. ENGLING Eastern Kentucky University JEAN LEVASSEUR Bishop’s University, Canada Annual publication of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences - The Lincoln University. All rights reserved. Copyright Pending. The Lincoln Humanities Journal Fall 2014 Volume 2 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS The Invention of Borders: An Introduction 4 ABBES MAAZAOUI, Editor Secession and Borders of Territorial States 10 DANA R. FLINT, The Lincoln University Vietnam's Invasion of Cambodia: Humanitarianism or Unwanted Occupation? 17 FRANK FULLER, The Lincoln University STEPHEN MCCULLOUGH, The Lincoln University East, Ocean, West: Whaling, Cultural Symbolism, and Conflict 26 FRANKLIN R. HALPRIN, Law Street Media 15 Cross Identity and Metaphysics of Sensuality of a Young Polish- Ukrainian Intellectual of the Early XX Century: Jarosaw Iwaszkiewicz 35 GIUSEPPE PERRI, ULB Université Libre of Brussels, Belgium Examination of the Connections of the “Great Migration” to the Creation of the Black Panther Party and Electoral Politics: A Preliminary Study 45 JEAN WAITES-HOWARD, The Lincoln University CARMEN L. MANNING-MILLER, The Lincoln University Border Crossing, Hidden in Plain Sight: From Urban Community to Urban Campus 53 JAMAL BENIN, Temple University The Educational Benefits of Commissioning and Premiering Vocal Repertoire at the Undergraduate Level: A Case Study of Students at Youngstown State University and Shorter 62 KIRSTEN C. KUNKLE, Scholar & Opera Singer Fantasy, Feminism, Islamism, and Sexuality in the Literature of El Saadawi, Rifaat, al-Shaykh, and Mernissi 70 SAMAA GAMIE, The Lincoln University “You Devil!”: The Governess as Gothic Outsider in Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw. 85 LAURA MCKENZIE, Durham University ABSTRACTS 92 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS 96 SUBMISSION GUIDELINES 98 The Lincoln Humanities Journal Fall 2014 Volume 2 4 The Invention of Borders: An Introduction ABBES MAAZAOUI Editor A border is not something we can see, it's an invention of men, nature doesn't care. -- Jean Renoir, La Grande illusion1 In the context of this volume, the word “borders” is used both literally and figuratively. Literally, it refers to the legal, geopolitical frontier line between countries, states, provinces, government entities and the like. Metaphorically, it is liberally used to designate any form of boundaries, real or imagined, between people based on sex, wealth, religion, race, gender, or any other perceived difference. Let's briefly examine these two aspects of borders before introducing the articles included in this volume. Obsession with Borders The primary meaning of the word “border” is geopolitical and is predicated on people's making a self-defined territory the equivalent of a home. In the context of this definition, sedentariness is essential, even though the attachment to a specific homeland constitutes a brief moment in the human evolution if we believe Jacques Attali, a French scholar and politician who argues that humans have been mostly nomads: “Sedentary lifestyle is a brief interlude in human history,” he writes (Attali 13; my translation)2. Yet despite their nomadic tendency, humans have always had an “obsession with borders” and territories to use the title of a book by Michel Foucher, a top expert on borders. For instance, Foucher writes that: Since 1991, more than 26,000 kilometers of new international boundaries have been established; 24,000 more have been agreed upon . If we add the walls, fences and metallic or electronic barriers that [many countries] have announced within the last few years, these boundaries would stretch to over 19,000 kilometers. (Foucher3; my translation) 1 “Une frontière ça se voit pas, c’est une invention des hommes, la nature s’en fout” (Renoir; my translation). 2 “La sédentarité n’est qu’une brève parenthèse dans l’histoire humaine” (Attali 13). 3 “Depuis 1991, plus de 26 000 kilomètres de nouvelles frontières internationales ont été instituées, 24 000 autres ont fait l’objet d’accords de délimitation . Si les programmes annoncés de murs, clôtures et barrières métalliques ou électroniques étaient menés à terme ils s’étireraient sur plus de 18 000 km” (Foucher; cited in Didier Masfrand). The Lincoln Humanities Journal Fall 2014 Volume 2 5 This ongoing proliferation of physical borders flies in the face of those who believe that modern globalization would make the world “flat“ and would hasten the abolition of borders4. Not only new borders are continuously being drawn, but a quick survey of the current geopolitical situation shows that the most serious international conflicts relate to the delimitation of territories5. In addition, whether in North America or elsewhere, the presence of cameras, fences, minefields, barbed wires, and patrols at border crossings has reached an unprecedented level. Security has moved to the forefront of globalization, making borders a thriving market for new mechanisms of scrutiny6. No wonder, border crossings are often the dramatic locus of migration control, exchange, underground traffic, resistance, and transgression7. This obsession with borders is not only important to the military- industrial complex (whose tasks include defending and protecting borders), it manifests itself at the local level, albeit on a smaller scale, in the form of gated communities, fences, and private guards. More importantly, the concept of border is extended figuratively to other human practices dedicated to establishing all types of boundaries and divisions within the same group, or between societies, races, sexes, cultures, genders, neighborhoods, etc. This second use of the word “border” opens up the domain of borders to media studies, the humanities and the social sciences. Whether real or metaphoric, natural or artificial, visible or invisible, all these categories of borders have one thing in common: they are effectively used as a tool of exclusion and disengagement8. Erecting / Crossing Borders As object of fascination, borders are the center of two contradictory and competing forces. On the one hand, there are the apologists who advocate erecting borders and defending them against all forms of intrusion. For Charles- Yves Zarka, a French philosopher, a borderless world would be a desert populated with interchangeable individuals9. Regis Debray goes further in the defense of borders. In his book, Eloge des frontières (In Praise of Borders), he argues that borders are essential to peace: 4 This is the thesis of Thomas Friedman's book, The World Is Flat. 5 Just to cite few examples: Israel and Palestine, Pakistan and India, Russia and its old satellites, China and its neighbors, and the two Koreas. 6 For instance, specially equipped airports in the United States were tasked to be the stop-gate for the recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa. 7 Immigration is a hot and divisive issue worldwide. Migrant literature abounds, and reports of abuse and tragedies are recurrent events, particularly between Africa and Europe, and Mexico and the United States. Cf. for example Partir (To Leave) by Tahar Ben Jelloun. For a study of immigration in this novel, see Maazaoui. 8They are particularly potent when the figurative and literal dimensions of borders are combined to exacerbate the effect of exclusion. Such would be the case under the Apartheid regime, or during racial or religious pogroms. 9 Cf. his recent book, Refonder le cosmopolitisme, whose philosophical principle was laid down in L’inappropriabilité de la Terre : principe pour une refondation philosophique. The Lincoln Humanities Journal Fall 2014 Volume 2 6 The border is peace. Where there is no border, there is a state of war... The border is something vital that we Westerners have pumped into the illusion of 'borderlessness'... Those who do not want boundaries are being pushed to building walls. The border is the vaccine against the wall. See the Middle East. As long as there is no border between Israel and Palestine, there will be a wall. The essence of a good border is that we cross it on both sides. This is a round trip10. (Interview; my translation) Conversely, proponents of cosmopolitism seek to cross if not eliminate borders, and build bridges. They believe that borders are unnatural, and infringe on people's freedom of movement. Far from being a solution, borders are considered a means of control and repression, an obstacle to peace and cooperation, and a perpetual source of conflicts and violence. Writer and world traveler Hédi Bouraoui epitomizes this view. His poems, novels and essays denounce all forms of borders and argue for world citizenship and nomadic lifestyle11. Bouraoui's dream is “To be a mere mortal / Who spends his life / in the world / Motels / Without identity” (Echosmos 28; my translation)12. His reluctance to be confined within the boundaries of a particular territory or any categorization is well established. In Echosmos, he writes: “I refuse to be / Classified / Even in the family / Of shellfish,” wanting simply to be called “a neutral Yes / without a rhyme or Home / Who denies all fortunes / labels and Nations / Nationalities / Source of hate / and immortality” (28; my translation)13. It is no surprise that living between borders is how some would like to define their own mosaic identity. To describe this experience of hybridization and 'borderlessness' various scholars introduced concepts such as the “rhizome” by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, the “tout-monde” and the “divers” by Édouard Glissant, or the “borderlands” and “mestiza” consciousness by Gloria Anzaldúa. For this self-described “Chicana dyke-feminist” writer, Borderlands are physically present whenever two or more cultures edge each other, where people of different races occupy the same territory, where under, lower, middle and upper classes touch, where the space between two individuals shrinks with intimacy. (Anzaldúa, Preface) 10 “La frontière, c’est la paix.