Death, Love and Liminality in the Fiction of Ali Smith The morbid marriage of love and death is not an original topic to postmodernist writing or to Scottish literature. Diverse forms of literature from Greek myth to Shakespearian tragedies have hosted stories of tragic love and romantic deaths, with varying nuances of darkness and romance. Nonetheless, this paper will attempt to establish a link between Ali Smith’s writing, postmodernist fiction and Scottish fantasy, while looking at the topic
In 1492, Christopher Columbus discovered America and began an era of colonialization, Eurocentrism and cultural assimilation. In the following centuries, the Europeans took control of America and enforced their culture onto the Native Americans that have always lived on the continent. Dorothy M. Johnson’s “Lost Sister” tackles this assimilation through the character of Aunt Bessie, who, like many Native Americans, refused to completely adopt the colonizers’ way of life. Accordingly, the short story
The Epic of Gilgamesh is seen as the oldest great work of literature, dating back to ancient Mesopotamia. It depicts the great king Gilgamesh, whose tyranny was ended by the arrival of Enkidu, a wild man who soon became Gilgamesh’s closest companion. As the tale progresses, Enkidu dies, forcing Gilgamesh to begin a long journey resulting in him eventually accepting his own mortality. Both Enkidu’s death and Gilgamesh’s journey can be analyzed through Van Gennep’s lens of the rites of passage, as
in most cultures. The transition from secondary to tertiary education, a progression from one liminal space to another, is a process which also has structuralized social conventions; the rituals of high school graduation, the transitory period of liminality, the assimilation into university society. Society’s formal rituals serve to signpost the individual through the transitory process and to recognize the possible stressors associated with this period; to provide a path through the liminal state
Ritual Dimension Summary The ritual dimension of religion is vital for living worldviews. It emphasizes not only the beliefs that surround God, but the various acts of worshipping God. Worship is the outward expression of paying reverence to God. The rituals utilized in worship are performative acts – typically accompanied with visual aids such as candles or icons, music, words and bodily gestures – that communicate feelings and convey the relationship between the participant and the god he or she
Valerie Swisher Professor Stainton Religion 177 12 October 2014 The Concept of Liminality Death and what happens after one dies has been questioned since life began. While what happens after death has key importance in most religions, what happens between life and death can sometimes play a larger role in how death is treated. Liminality, or the period of transition between life and death, influences the steps taken after a person has died. Usually, death is viewed as a journey, one which no one
in a much smaller setting. Furthermore, Van Gennep identifies the transitional process to take place in three stages: separation, transition and reincorporation. ... ... middle of paper ... ... but a communal group in which all are equal. In “Liminality and Communitas,” Turner starts by defining liminal individuals or entities as “neither here nor there; they are betwixt and between the positions assigned and arrayed by law, custom, convention, and ceremony” (Turner 1969, p95). Van Gennep and Turner
Frederick Paduani - Martello Shelter by Harlan Coben 1 Pronouncement - A formal or authoritative announcement or declaration. “This won’t sound like an earth-shattering pronouncement, but boys get funny around really hot girls. Rachel could tell the lamest jokes and boys fall about the place in laughter.” The president pronounced the war with iraq. 2. Dilapidated - (of a building or object) in a state of disrepair or ruin as a result of age or neglect. “I had heard the rumors, of course. The
We often wonder why we act a certain way in certain places and there must be a reason why? Why is that we act a certain way when we go to concerts or when we go to the library? Through a showcase of articles, we will discover the reason why we act a particular way. This is because we are entering a liminal space that has its own set of rules and boundaries where people can act out differently than the social norms because it is acceptable. We will specifically be looking at how the punks and ravers
Turner (1969) provides his own explanation of ritual and introduces the theory of ‘liminality’ and ‘communitas’. Turner explains how an individual must first be separated from society, and from the social order and structure, to fully accept the ritual and allow for deeper bonding between the participants. Next is the stage of ‘liminality’. This is the transitional period during any ritual, for example a rite of passage, in which the individual lacks any social
Every one in one part in their life feels torn between childhood and adulthood. This feeling is called liminality The best example of liminality would be adolescence. During this time you gain more responsibilities and freedom but you also have harsher consequences for your actions. At least that's how I feel. I know that this year in ninth grade I have found myself transitioning from childhood into adulthood. We see this concept all the time in outcast united when we take a look at some of the
common? A child dropped off for his first day of kindergarten, a girl receiving her driver’s license and a boy preparing to move out for his first year of university. The answer: they have crossed the liminal stage and entered a new phase of life. Liminality, or the liminal stage, a term coined by University of Chicago anthropologist Victor Turner, is the transitional stage one crosses as they pass through into a new stage of life. Ambiguity fills this indeterminate period as one attempts to find their
Salamander” by Mercè Rodoreda can be described as a fantastic story because of the fantastic elements it contains, such as hesitation and liminality. The short story fits well into Todorov’s definition of the fantastic because it creates hesitation for the readers when the narrator experiences rebirth and it includes several examples of liminality. Liminality can be seen when the defined lines between human and animal, and life and death are blurred.
meaning, but never receive a second thought about the depth behind such rituals. Anthropologists, Victor Turner and Maurice Bloch have both created ritual models that describe the obtainment of higher social statuses. Turner discusses ideologies about liminality and how this relates to the rites of passage for humans. Whereas, Maurice Bloch describes his ideas of rebirth and how they relate to the rituals within various cultures. According to Turner, the period of transition for humans is a fixed state
celebrate this maturation, societies created the rites of passages to show an individual’s change of state. A French anthropologist named Arnold Van Gennep visions the rite of passage rituals as being separated into three phases; preliminary, liminality, and post liminality. Van Gennep views that the rites of passage develop the idea of how each institution, role and norm form together and establish societies in a steady state; supporting social stability. However, British anthropologist Victor Turner challenges
concept of liminality to analyze the Christian rite of passage of baptism. Turner built upon Arnold van Gennep’s three-stage model of rites of passage, focusing on liminality rather than reaggregation and introducing the concept of communitas as the unstructured community during the liminal stage in which all members are equal. By using the anthropological lens of Turner to analyze baptism, specifically Jesus’ water baptism in the book of Mark, I hope to apply his concepts of liminality and communitas
La Loca’s liminality experience began when she claims to have been to hell and no longer can exist among human beings due to their scent. This event places La Loca in Anzaldua’s borderland where she “seeks community rather than human society,” (Olmedo 3). Kaul points
through his studies and analysis, developed the concept of liminality which was first introduced by Arnold van Gennep. He focused on social change and revealed the processes that individuals go through in their rites of passage. The Devil’s Playground is a documentary film which depicts the social changes that is experienced by Amish youth in their rites of passage during ‘rumspringa’. This study focuses on applying Turner’s ideas of liminality, communitas, rituals of status elevation, and rituals of
playwrights in terms of depicting women's status at that time. By using the psychological concept ,liminality; I am going to examine the relationship between Viola's speech , society's authority and her public space which is consists of two main parts: her private life as Viola and her public life as Cesario and how this relationship has a great impact upon her character development. The liminality can be defined as a psychological state when a person wavers between two worlds. The character's
The Dead and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Unlike the preceding stories in Dubliners, which convey the basic theme of paralysis, "The Dead" marks a departure in Joyce's narrative technique. As one critic notes, in this final story of Dubliners: "The world of constant figures has become one of forces that, in relation to each other, vary in dimension and direction" (Halper 31). Epstein has offered some insight into Joyce's technique in Portrait: "Each section . . . contains significant