Liminality

As Victor Turner explains in his text “Liminality and Communitas”, the middle stage of a rite of passage is called liminality and this allows for people to see the lower side of that society and experience it first hand. He believes that without this structural mobility there would be no social bond amongst the members belonging to…

The social ritual of carnival takes place in a liminal space. Liminality is a space between boundaries. It is a constantly undefined space that allows for any social interaction that takes place within these spaces to be without the restrictions of defined societal restrictions. The majority of the complex discourses the characters have occur within these undefined spaces. For instance, in Crime and Punishment, discourse demonstrates key liminal spaces such as the stairs, bridges, and even…

In “The Challenge”, Gary Soto introduces Jose as a young boy who experiences a change in his personality as he undergoes liminality. Prior to liminality, Jose is a teenager boy who is ingenuous and has a lack of experience of loving a girl. Jose is naïve because he thinks that receiving perfect test scores will make Estela notice him. Jose is exited to show Estela his new grades in history class: “Although Jose received another A-plus for his history quiz, Estela did not congratulate him.…

Jose’s Great Dilemma Literary thesis statement: In “The Challenge”, Gary Soto introduces Jose as a young boy who experiences a change in his rite of passage in his personality as he undergoes liminality. I. Prior to liminality, Jose is a teenager boy who is ingenuous and has a lack of experience to loving a girl. A. Jose is naïve because he thinks that receiving perfect test scores will make Estela notice him. 1. “But when the quizzes had been returned and Jose bragged, ‘Another A-plus,’…

Liminality Today Not much is similar across the globe in each and every human being. Hence, the few similar phenomena that do exist prove to be very important in the understanding of human beings. Liminality is such a phenomenon. First discussed and classified by Arnold van Gennep, liminality is an universal anthropological phenomenon that refers to the transition stage during a ritual. Liminality is an essential element of the human experience. However, liminality is not only confined to an…

In my senior thesis, “An Identity Journey of My Own: Transnationalism, Identity Journeys and Liminality in Sandra Cisneros and Reyna Grande’s Work”, I survey Cisneros’ memoir A House of My Own: Stories from My Life (2015) and novel Caramelo (2002). Additionally, I engaged Cisneros work into a comparison dialogue with Grande’s The Distance Between Us: A Memoir (2013) along with her fictional texts Across a Hundred Mountains (2006). As indicated by the title, through an interdisciplinary approach…

In her text Sex in Transition: Remaking Gender & Race in South Africa, Amanda Lock Swarr credits Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner for the concept of liminality, which describes “passage from one cultural state to another” (Swarr 3). However, liminality does not necessarily have to express a temporary state; it can be applied to a state which is permanently between social categories (Enke, Lecture 3/8). Swarr applies this concept to gender to create an alternative term to more widely used…

Jaime Rivas ID 914273392 ANT 002 Prof. Smriti Srinivas Ritual of the Rumspringa Within most cultures and communities there is alway some ritual to accompany an individual’s transition within the social structure whether higher or lower. Amish religious communities are no exception to this quality. The Amish believe that only an adult is able to truly choose to be baptized and accepted into the church. Thus, when Amish children reach the age of sixteen they enter a stage of their Amish live…

Us: A memoir Reyna Grande’s arrival in the U.S. and her first time attending an American school. In the same way, Grande’s first return to her native town puts her in a stage of social liminality since she has changed and is no longer fully incorporated. On the other hand, in Across a Hundred Mountains social liminality is best observed in the dual identity of Juana (Adelina) as she incorporates some aspects to U.S. society, but does not abandon her internal strives that belong to…

deciding rather or not to officially join the Amish church. By using Turner’s concepts of liminality, communitas, rituals of status elevation and status of reversal, one can gain a greater understanding of the ceremonial process shown in the documentary. During the period of rumspringa, the adolescents undergo a process of liminality. This can be recognized as a state of transition. As Turner argues, “liminality is frequently…