Anticipation, Interpellation and Confession on the Road to the Border

Abstract

This article explores the role of anticipation in border crossing, foregrounding the spatiotemporal location of would-be border crossers—carrying state-issued documents—in relation to sovereignty and mobility regulation. Working from two contrasting episodes of people approaching inter-state borders it explores the analytical potential of two concepts developed to theorize contemporary social configurations—interpellation and confession. The article argues that these concepts can be useful tools for empirical analyses of border-crossing if deployed in a limited, precise, and pragmatic-material manner that avoids the assumptions of circularity and affective investment that their use often entails.