Border texts: border-crossing narratives and local myths in the Russian-Chinese border areas of Russia

Keywords: border, discourse analysis, Russia, China
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 08:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 09:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 59

Abstract

The paper aims at analyzing discourses on the borders and border-crossing practices in the areas of Russia bordering China, with the focus on the ways the border is described and experienced via texts. The data for the study include: 1. Interviews with the residents of the Zabaikalskii Territory of Russia conducted in 2008–2010 on the role of the border in their lives and in the everyday reality of the region in general; 2. Field observations and notes regarding non-recorded conversations with local residents about the border and the situation in the region; 3. Texts and comments published on news portals, internet-forums, and social media (collected in 2008–2021) referring to the Russian-Chinese border and its impact on the people’s lives.
The critical discourse analysis of those texts reveals how separate personal narratives become generalized and contribute to the common ‘border text’ representing shared stereotypes and images of the border and the territory behind it as a mythological place and at the same time as a reclaimed and domesticated foreign land. References to the past, in this respect, serve to create a continuous narrative, oral history of the region defined by its existence in the close proximity to the border, while changing border regulations (including the abrupt closure of the border in 2020, in the course of COVID-19 pandemic) become a base for periodization and mythologization of that history.