Our transnational theory class has been a truly unique experience in every way I can imagine: not only are the students from all types of departments and backgrounds, but mixed-media assignments are constantly assigned and presented.  The class is taught by two professors from separate disciplines, and we read novels and scholarly articles and view films written by artists all around the globe.  To be sure, this is the most appropriate environment in which a transnational theory class could be taught.

The themes we have examined – from migrant points of view to non-binary gender identities and feminisms, from literary language to transnational cinematography – are diverse and yet all inter-related.  We live in a paradoxical world of growing homogenization alongside differential tension, and these issues are of critical importance.  With our newsfeeds, televisions, and radios filling up with headlines about racial discrimination and violence, gender gaps and inequality, immigration issues, and religious misunderstandings, time is of the essence to education oneself about the various cultures and the perspectives that accompany those cultures across all borders.

In Borderlands/La Frontera we saw issues like misogyny and territorial injustice.  These issues clearly persist today, and in concrete forms.  The most recent wave of feminism is currently in a battle with domestic violence and rape, which Anzaldúa references in some of her poetry; and the debate of immigration between Mexico and the US is far from over.  We saw some of these issues in Persepolis as well; the graphic novel takes place further from our home, which opens our eyes to issues in the Middle East, a place of utmost controversy in recent years.  We are witness to political corruption and violence in Bolaño’s Amulet, and though we may hope that the problems from 1968 have gone by the wayside, we are only reminded that these concerns, unfortunately, often resurface and can worsen.  Axolotl Roadkill demonstrates the decadence that can be found in the lives of wealthy adolescents in the twenty-first century.  After a year in which mental illness has been brought to the foreground in our culture, we can see here in Hegemann’s novel some of the roots and contributors to substance abuse and depression.

These are only a few examples of relevant literature from our semester, and they show us several very applicable and recurring themes that transcend national and linguistic borders.  This semester’s seminar has taught me that not only is literature a type of media that cannot be contained by boundaries, but that the linkages that it creates between peoples are essential for learning and surviving as a global community.