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Eve Darian-Smith, "Rabies Rides the
Fast Train: Transnational Interactions in PostColonial Times," Law
and Critique 6/1 (1995), 75-94: This essay examines English reactions
to the building of the Channel Tunnel between England and France as a means
of exploring how law features in redefining relations of identity in the
New Europe. The Tunnel materially and symbolically undermines the "natural"
coastal borders of the British island state, at the same time physically
joining it to the European mainland. I argue that the resulting shifts in
spatial, political and jurisdictional relations are creating a sense of
unease amongst many English people. This is expressed through public exaggerations
of the threat of rabies that supposedly will ride the fast train under the
sea and infiltrate the "clean" British state. In connecting images
of foreigners and disease with England's imperialist history of railway
technology, l conclude by highlighting some of the legal intersections between
postcolonial rhetoric and transnational activities.
Eve Darian-Smith is Assistant Professor Department of Anthropology University
of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA 93106 fax: (805) 893 8707;
tel: (805) 893 8180; e-mail: darian@sscf.ucsb.edu
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