Liminality

I am intrigued by the idea of liminality especially in relation to death. Liminality, I initially thought, was a concept describing events involving change and which could be thought of as a fence with space and ideas existing on either side of this fence and with the possibility of sitting on the fence between those two ideas. However, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of the word liminal comes from the Latin word ‘limen’ which translates as threshold. So, rather than my idea of sitting on a fence, a more accurate description of the liminal space is the state of transition between one place or another or between one state and another. It can be thought of as a contradiction where the space is both inside and outside but at same time is neither inside or outside (Xenou, 2023). A liminal space might be physical such as a doorway between two rooms or between the inside or outside, or an airport departure lounge, a space which has no function in of itself and which makes sense only when related to where we have come from or where we are going to, or an elevator in between two floors. It can also be as emotional space such as death, illness, grief, pregnancy or divorce. The liminal space can be metaphorical, a space in between ideas which seems appropriate for the student exploring different theories. The liminal space is not a place of balance or certainty or of comfort or familiarity. Anthropologist, ethnographer and folklorist, Arnold van Gennep wrote of the ritual ceremonies which surround funerals. Gennep introduced the term, ‘rites of passage’. These rites are diverse and have many forms according to the period in time the ceremony might have taken place, the culture to which the ceremony belongs, the position the person who has died occupied within that culture, the type of death involved, the sex of the deceased as well as their age. Gennep breaks down the rite of passage into rites of separation, rites of transition and rites of incorporation. He describes rites of separation for people in mourning as separation from the person who is grieving towards the person who has died but also says there is a separation from societal norms. The right of incorporation is when mourning is lifted and the person can reintegrate with society. Depending on which culture this act takes place in, the incorporation might be said to be when the deceased passes into the world of the dead. In between these two stages is the rite of transition which is the liminal state.

The liminality of death intrigues me not least because I can imagine the liminal space can provoke a base emotional response. The idea which Gennep proposes that the living and the dead share this liminal space on the threshold of life and death is powerful. Gennep goes on to speak of the different societies and their beliefs around death, the funeral and the passage to ‘the world of the dead’. I am not religious so will be honest that my interest is academic rather than based around any belief in an afterlife. At this stage am not sure if such examples are relevant for my research so I mention a few examples in the passing. The idea of an un-baptized child and belief that they do not possess a soul therefore cannot cross to the land of the dead and must remain in a ‘transition zone’ is a haunting concept. Gennep speaks of this, “Like children who have not been baptised, named, or initiated, persons for whom funeral rites are not performed are condemned to a pitiable existence, since they are never able to enter the world of the dead or to become incorporated in the society established there. These are the most dangerous dead.” (Gennep, 1960, p. 160)

Another tale concerns passage across the River Styx to Hades. The dead person must pay the correct fee to the ferryman otherwise they condemned to wander the banks of the river as wraiths. The idea of ghostly apparitions at the edge of the space between life and death interest me. Are the banks of the river and the ‘transition zone’ liminal spaces or a final destination for such wraiths I wonder? Gennep says that mourners and the deceased are “situated between the world of the living and the world of the dead, and how soon living individuals leave the group depends on their closeness with the dead person.”  He continues to explain that this closeness is related to kinship with those closest to the dead grieving for the longest but is also impacted by fame. (Gennep, 2017, p. 35) The death of an important person such as a ruler might mean periods of national ‘mourning’ and the suspension of public and social life. This suspension of public and social life and withdrawal from society is replicated in the lives of ‘ordinary’ people in a smaller and more intimate way. Gennep adds that the dressing in black and the display of the dead in their coffin in the house are part of this transitional period. It worth noting that Rites of Passage was written in 1909 so many of the conventions or fashions around death have changed. His work pre-dates World War One with its mass industrialisation of death and comes before the discovery of the psychological condition then known as shell shock. (Dr Jones, 2012) Do more recent works agree with Gennep or expand upon his understanding? Scottish anthropologist Victor Turner wrote in his essay, Betwixt and Between of the three states calling them “separation, margin (or limen) and aggregation”. He says that the ritual state of the ritual subject, “is ambiguous; he passes through a realm which has few or none of the attributes of the past or coming state.” Interestingly Turner raises point that society does not ‘see’ such statuses between one state and another. A person in a puberty right is not considered as “not boy not man”. Speaking of such rights Turner mentions it as if the person is, “neither living nor dead from one aspect, and both living and dead from another” (Turner, 1967, pp. 93–97) I take the word dead not to mean whether or not their heart has stopped beating but instead they are still in the space between life and death and where they not yet been laid to rest. They are in this space with those who are mourning. Turner quoted Lloyd Warner who states of the movement in life crisis from, “a fixed placental placement within his mother’s womb, to his death and ultimate fixed point of his tombstone and final containment in his grave as a dead organism” Warner goes on to speak of emotions and sentiments not appropriate or permitted at the funeral but which appear at gatherings where laughter and tears are expressed in public. (Warner, 1959, pp. 303–304)

I find myself a little frustrated as have not yet found the idea of what I am looking for. Again, as with Gennep I wonder at Warner’s as being a dated opinion. Tears and laughter in my experience are things which happen directly in the funeral. The dressing in black is no longer compulsory. In my culture and at the time in which I live, is the reaction to death and the removal of death from the home to hospitals, hospices, care homes and undertakers an indication that the liminal space isn’t fixed and shifts with time and culture much as do moving sands? Is that sense of not grasping the boundaries of the space around grief and mourning and death part of this discomfort? I wonder about the rite of incorporation which Gennep postulates ends with the closure of the mourning period. What if the mourning period does not end is there then no rite of incorporation and the liminal state becomes open ended? For people trapped in trauma or grief could it be said they have become the wraiths at the edge of the River Styx? The idea of a spcae between life and death occurs in other cultures. In my research I came across a Celtic term, of a ‘thin place’. This refers to the thinness of the boundary between this world and the next. It is often used in religious context for places where people feel close to the spiritual world. An example would be the Isle of Iona. (Béres, 2012) Such thin places were thought to be a permeable delineation between worlds. Interestingly such physical spaces were often places where burial mounds or chambers or standing stones might be located or where votive offerings made in bodies of water. (Healy, 2016)

I have thought about sound in relation to my external facing work. At a feedback session, my tutor mentioned Suspended Conversations: the Afterlife of Memory in Photographic Albums by Martha Langford. In this book Langford references Ulysses by James Joyce where one of main characters, Leopold Bloom, suggests placing a gramophone into the grave or maybe keeping this recording in the house. It’s job is to help us remember the dead.(Langford, 2021, pp. vii–viii) (Joyce, 2017, p. 86) In modern times in my society, the photograph rather than the sound recording is the common choice to help us remember the dead.

I started to think about individual words since I was already considering keywords from the start of this unit.This lead, almost by accident, to a small collaboration with a woman I found on Twitter, Angela Miller, a writer and librarian at Dumfries and Galloway Libraries. Together we constructed a small 2 verse haiku. She wrote the first verse and I used her words as inspiration to write a second verse.

I often find inspiration from poetry and the expression of the ideas which I myself try to express in my own way. TS Eliot wrote The Hollow Men in 1925 when the wounds from World War were fresh. (Baldwin, no date)

To different people who have faced death at different points in their lives, they can come up with a myriad of meanings and interpretations of liminality. Different emotional responses in a space which is deeply troubling, unhealthy and not at all comfortable. Ambiguous and disorientating and not a space to spend more time that we have to. In a visual sense this opens up many possibilities within my practice to create works attempting to synthesis the sense of the mininal space surrounding death. In this I think that there is no single sense of the liminal.

References

Baldwin, E. (no date) The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot Poem + Analysis. Available at: https://poemanalysis.com/t-s-eliot/the-hollow-men/ (Accessed: 31 January 2024).

Dr Jones, E. (2012) ‘Shell shocked’, American Psychological Association, 43(6), p. 18. Available at: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/06/shell-shocked (Accessed: 22 March 2023).

Gennep, A. van (1960) The Rites of Passage. Translated by M. B. Vizedom and G. L. Caffee. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Gennep, A. van (2017) ‘The Rites of Passage’, in Robben, A. C. G. M. (ed.) Death, Mourning, and Burial: A Cross-Cultural Reader. Second. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, p. 362.

Healy, C. (2016) Thin Place: An Alternative Approach to Curatorial Practice. University of the West of England, Bristol.

Joyce, J. (2017) Ulysses. 3rd Editio. Richmond, Surrey: Alma Classics.

Langford, M. (2021) Suspended Conversations: The Afterlife of Memory in Photographic Albums. Quebec City: McGil-Queen’s University Press.

Turner, V. (1967) The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual. London: Cornell University Press.

Warner, W. L. (1959) Living and the Dead: Study of the Symbolic Life of Americans. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press.