The essays in Borders of Identity explore the shifting territories of identity formation and expression, and tackle the ways in which our sense of identity is challenged and mediated through various experiences including travel, reading, and participating in secret social groups.

In these four essays, the self explores, reveals, engages, and transgresses borders as presented through examples from real lives and/or the literary imagination. Frank Koshel addresses the hard limits of simple freedom of expression in his essay “Secret Societies and the Perils of Oversharing [abstract].”  Koshel discusses the complex structures of secret societies—such as the Freemasons, Knights of the Templar, and Skull and Bones—unpacking the ways in which subscription into these groups demands adhering to strict borders of communication. In “Change In Place Changes Us: Exploring the Self’s Response to Travel,” Jennifer MacDonald illustrates that memorable moments during travel are akin to peak experiences as defined by Maslow, and discusses what happens between a point of departure, arrival, and a return home in regard to time and place to change one’s personal autobiography, using the travel narratives Motorcycle Diaries and Long Way Round as examples. Berni Moestafa explores the effects of novel reading on the reader’s self in his essay “Novel Reading and the Self in Flux.” Suggesting that the reader fluctuates between two points of view—that of the fictional character and the detached observer—Moestafa argues that this dynamic is central in explaining the transformative effects of novel reading on readers. Finally, Mattheus Oliveira further delves into the narrative of the novel in his essay, “Quarrelling with Scaly Beasts and Excitable Goddesses: Navigating Expectations of Desire.”  Through an examination of the popular series Harry Potter and 50 Shades of Grey, Oliveira details how these works represent and describe the ways in which social expectations constrain and shame desire across gender.