Collapsing the Binary in Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands
Keywords:
collapsing the binary, Gloria Anzaldúa, critical thinkingAbstract
This paper describes how the author uses Gloria Anzaldúa’s _Borderlands_ in critical thinking class to address black-and-white opposition and the imperative of achieving a middle ground by collapsing the binary. Anzaldúa’s major images of binary opposition, the serpent and the eagle, represent faculties that must work together in _mestiza_ or Borderlands consciousness to form a new third thing that is greater than the sum of the parts. She becomes a Guadalupe figure who unites opposites in her person, though her project is slightly marred by the black-and-white thinking that she inveighs against.
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