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BETWEEN TWO WORLDS: the FUNCTIONS of LIMINAL SPACE in TWENTIETH- CENTURY LITERATURE Adam J. Engel a Dissertation Submitted to Th

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BETWEEN TWO WORLDS: the FUNCTIONS of LIMINAL SPACE in TWENTIETH- CENTURY LITERATURE Adam J. Engel a Dissertation Submitted to Th BETWEEN TWO WORLDS: THE FUNCTIONS OF LIMINAL SPACE IN TWENTIETH- CENTURY LITERATURE Adam J. Engel A dissertation submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English in the Department of English and Comparative Literature. Chapel Hill 2017 Approved by: Pamela Cooper John McGowan Shayne Legassie George Lensing Ruth Salvaggio © 2017 Adam J. Engel ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Adam J. Engel: Between Two Worlds: The Functions of Liminal Space in Twentieth-Century Literature (Under the direction of Pamela Cooper) "Between Two Worlds" examines strategies used by Joseph Conrad, E. M. Forster, Virginia Woolf, Thom Gunn, and David Lynch to craft spaces in which characters can articulate seemingly ineffable experiences. To give meaningful accounts of isolation at sea, World War I's impact on a family structure, the dissolution of an AIDS-riddled body, the spiritual dissonance produced by colonization, and the danger of ignoring materiality in favor of ideological nostalgia, these authors establish spaces in which characters can challenge their bodies' boundaries. The "liminal" or middle phase of the rite of passage, treated as a real or imagined setting, enables this by temporarily dissolving conventional social hierarchies. The author hopes to draw attention to the potentially therapeutic practice of communicating liminal experience through writing, especially as it manifests during crises unique to the twentieth-century. This study intervenes in both anthropology and ontology by revealing artists' use of liminal spaces to challenge hierarchies, reimagine connections between individuals, and return voices to people who have lost them. Two central questions emerge: Why do in-between spaces enable extraordinary communication? What sort of self exists in a space that is, by definition, between identities? In a departure from contemporary modernists such as T. S. Eliot, Conrad, Woolf, and Forster face the unsettling possibility of the self's dissolving without a new form or afterlife to follow. Gunn and Lynch never expect such a world. Rather, they learn to embrace the transient world they inhabit. To cross the threshold into liminal space is to confront all of these possibilities, and to emerge— if at all—with shifted bodily boundaries. iii To Brandon, whose strength, love, and laughter made this adventure possible. And to Dante, who helped. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I could not have completed this tome without the support of my mentors: John McGowan, Shayne Legassie, Ruth Salvaggio, and George Lensing. Thank you for contributing your time, wisdom, and patience. I would especially like to thank Pamela Cooper, for whom no idea of mine is too weird to work with. Your constant encouragement, feedback, and belief in my ability to succeed were vital to this project. I would also like to thank my past mentors who have helped me blaze this trail: David Venturo, James Stacey Taylor, Steve Runske, and Stephen O’Toole—you taught me to walk and chew gum at the same time (a skill I am still mastering). I owe many thanks to Brandon Linz and Dante von Blitzen, who put up with me throughout this endeavor. I would like to thank Autumn McClellan for her formatting expertise, life-enriching friendship, and wonderful dog Garvey. I offer gratitude to Katie Walker and Doreen Thierauf for their editorial eyes, advice, and steadfast friendship. Finally, I thank my parents, Jeff and Sheila Engel, who have provided constant support and have always encouraged my interest in literature. v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 2: APPROACHING THE EVENT HORIZON IN JOSEPH CONRAD’S “THE SECRET SHARER” AND HEART OF DARKNESS......................................................... 11 A Brief History of Nothing ............................................................................................................ 14 Liminal Golems ............................................................................................................................. 18 Threshold People ........................................................................................................................... 26 Flirting with the Base ..................................................................................................................... 35 CHAPTER 3: THE LIMINAL SHARED MEAL IN VIRGINIA WOOLF’S TO THE LIGHTHOUSE AND DAVID LYNCH’S TWIN PEAKS ............................................................ 45 Gazing into the Boeuf .................................................................................................................... 46 Something's Fishy in Twin Peaks .................................................................................................. 55 CHAPTER 4: FRAGMENTS OF MEMORY IN THOM GUNN'S THE MAN WITH NIGHT SWEATS ........................................................................................................................... 74 The Problems of Safety and Containment ..................................................................................... 76 The Material of Memory ................................................................................................................ 82 The Body in Gunn's Liminal Dreamscapes ................................................................................... 88 CHAPTER 5: LISTENING TO NOTHINGNESS IN E. M. FORSTER'S A PASSAGE TO INDIA ...................................................................................................................................... 97 Nothing Lurks in the Marabar Caves ........................................................................................... 100 Navigating Liminal Waters .......................................................................................................... 110 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION ................................................................................................... 116 ENDNOTES ............................................................................................................................... 120 WORKS CITED ......................................................................................................................... 122 vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Joseph Conrad, E. M. Forster, Virginia Woolf, Thom Gunn, and David Lynch craft interstices in which their characters are able to articulate seemingly ineffable experiences. To give meaningful accounts of isolation at sea, World War I's impact on a family structure, the dissolution of an AIDS-riddled body, the spiritual dissonance produced by colonization, and the danger of ignoring materiality in favor of ideological nostalgia, these authors establish spaces in which characters can challenge their bodies' boundaries. The "liminal" or middle phase of the rite of passage, treated as a reified or imagined setting, enables this by temporarily dissolving conventional social hierarchies. This study intervenes in both anthropology and ontology by revealing artists' use of liminal spaces to challenge hierarchies, redraw subjective boundaries, and return voices to people who have lost them. The theory of liminal space begins with the study of ritual. In The Rites of Passage (1960), Arnold van Gennep lays the foundation for the study of threshold ritual. Van Gennep, concerned with “ceremonial patterns which accompany a passage from one situation to another or from one cosmic or social world to another,” divides such rites into three subcategories: “preliminal rites (rites of separation), liminal rites (rites of transition), and postliminal rites (rites of incorporation)” (van Gennep 11). All of these rites may apply either to an individual or a social group—including an entire culture. For the individual, rites of separation involve a physical removal from the activities of daily life. Rites of transition involve time spent in a space apart from one’s society, often in the company of a mentor with whom the participant exchanges knowledge, objects, gazes, or more—van Gennep likens this exchange to a communion (31). 1 Rites of incorporation involve a reintegration into society with the knowledge needed to fulfill a particular role (typically in a hierarchy). In “Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage” (1964), Victor Turner pushes van Gennep’s argument further by analyzing the second category, rites of transition. During the liminal phase of a rite of passage, participants are often rendered symbolically invisible, forbidden to interact with non-participants. They become “not yet classified” and are symbolized by their cultures as embryos or newborns (Turner 236). In this way, a participant loses any tie to his or her socialized self, at least temporarily. As beings invisible to their cultural structure, the participants are regarded as close to their conception of infinite power (perhaps a deity) (236). They are compensated for this isolation with complete equality to all other participants in the ritual. By the end of this phase, Turner claims, participants are supposed to have been imbued with gnosis, the “arcane knowledge” of their culture that will allow them to take their place among their peers (239). This passage through the ritualized threshold, whether part of a coming-of-age ritual or a graduation, is a point of no return. Participants have been permanently altered, either in
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