The beach confronts us with crucial issues of our times: migration postcolonial power
structures and mass tourism climate change and pollution as well as gender and burkini
swimwear controversies are examples of the numerous conflicts discourses and practices that
manifest within this liminal zone and that find their focal point there. The interdisciplinary
volume understands 'the beach' as a (border) phenomenon in its own right and contributes to the
new field of beach studies. It takes its point of departure from this changing image of 'the
beach' to explore how its topographies experiences and cultural significations are constructed
through art society and culture and how 'the beach' shapes poetics and aesthetic strategies in
literature film photography painting music and performance. It aims to gain systematic
insights from an analysis of historically and geographically specific varieties of the beach
and to create a critical awareness for the contextual implications of contemporary discussions
revolving around 'the beach'.
