Liminal Communities in Contemporary Postcolonial Novels (Working Title)
This PhD project analyses recent novels by Michael Ondaatje, Michelle de Kretser, Nadeem Aslam and Wendy Law-Yone, writers that can be associated with the field of postcolonial literature. At the heart of these novels are communal clusters that are temporarily formed in deserted, dilapidated or dangerous – in various ways liminal – places. The characters that form such clusters must all come to terms with traumatic events in their personal history (e.g. war, dislocation and the loss of loved ones), which they are initially unwilling or unable to confront. In their temporary communities, the characters learn to accept their unpleasant history as a productive part of their sense of self.
The temporal qualities of the locations in which communal structures unfold are crucial for the characters’ re-appropriation of the past. In this context, the concept of spectrality, as established by Jacques Derrida, forms my main tool of analysis. The spectre, whether understood as a literal form of haunting or an uncontrollable memory, provides “[a] becoming-body” (Jacques Derrida) for elements of the past, while at the same time reaching into the future. Interestingly, the main characters in the novels of my corpus share the qualities of the spectre in several ways. In my project I will chart these different forms of spectrality, focusing in particular on the empowering potential of the characters’ spectral states of existence.
In order to bring together the productive potential inherent in the characters’ painful pasts and the desolate locations to which they retreat, I will link the creative independence of the spectre to that of the “liminal personae” assessed by Victor Turner. By analysing the relationship between spectrality and liminality in the locations in which communities are formed, I aim to fashion a multi-faceted approach to the characters’ re-appropriations of their personal histories.
Even though they are of limited duration, the heterogeneous communities established in the novels of my corpus lastingly influence their (former) members’ perception of time and space as parameters that regularise human coexistence. In this context it is significant that the characters that temporarily form small social clusters embody experiences that have taken place in different spatial and temporal environments. Drawing on David Harvey, I will assess the impact of the intersection of “[d]ifferent forms of space-time” (Harvey) within the communities on the characters’ subsequent positioning in relation to “social structure” (Turner).
Although their retreat into a liminal environment opens up the possibility of renewed investment in social structure, the characters in the novels of my corpus need not be fully re-encompassed by its “norm-governed, institutionalized, abstract nature” (Turner).
My project assesses the role of temporal and spatial parameters in the creation of an “in-between” (Homi K. Bhaba) for the characters to enter into after the dissolution of their heterogeneous communities. Ultimately, I thus hope to comment on recent trends in the literary representation of the hybrid space in which ever more individuals (are compelled to) locate their personal identity.
