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On Edge: Liminality and the COVID Pandemic in Sarah Moss’s The Fell

Data publikacji: 2023

Studia Litteraria Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, 2023, Volume 18, Issue 2, s. 103 - 113

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843933ST.23.012.18182

Autorzy

Bożena Kucała
Uniwersytet Jagielloński w Krakowie, Polska, ul. Gołębia 24, 31-007 Kraków
Wszystkie publikacje autora →

Tytuły

On Edge: Liminality and the COVID Pandemic in Sarah Moss’s The Fell

Abstrakt

Sarah Moss’s novel The Fell (2021) is a fictional reflection upon the second UK lockdown in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to its topicality, the novel is likely to be read as a “time capsule,” preserving the unprecedented experience of social isolation, anxiety and domestic incarceration. Starting with the assumption that living in a time of pestilence may be characterised as a borderline experience, this article argues that The Fell revolves around the paradigm of liminality. For the characters portrayed in the book the threshold is social, psychological and existential. Nevertheless, for the main protagonist the metaphorical and the literal merge when, driven to the limit of endurance, she falls off the edge of a cliff while taking a walk on the fells of the Peak District, in defiance of the quarantine restrictions. The article analyses various meanings of liminality in Moss’s novel.

Abstrakt: Powieść Sarah Moss The Fell (2021) jest literackim odzwierciedleniem drugiego lockdownu w Wielkiej Brytanii w roku 2020 podczas pandemii COVID-19. Ze względu na swoją aktualność powieść może być odczytywana jako „kapsuła czasu” przechowująca bezprecedensowe doświadczenie społecznej izolacji, niepokoju i domowego uwięzienia. Wychodząc z założenia, że życie w czasach zarazy można scharakteryzować jako doświadczenie graniczne, niniejszy artykuł dowodzi, iż powieść The Fell jest zbudowana wokół paradygmatu liminalności. Dla bohaterów ukazanych w książce próg ma aspekt społeczny, psychologiczny i egzystencjalny. Dla głównej bohaterki natomiast znaczenia metaforyczne i dosłowne łączą się wtedy, kiedy będąc na skraju wytrzymałości, z naruszeniem przepisów kwarantanny wyrusza na spacer w Peak District i spada z krawędzi klifu. Artykuł analizuje różne znaczenia liminalności w powieści Moss.

* This research was funded by the program "Excellence Initiative – Research University" at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. 

Bibliografia

Anderson, Hephzibah. 2021. “The hills are alive with pandemic anxieties.” Review of The Fell, by Sarah Moss. The Guardian, November 7, 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/nov/07/the-fell-by-sarah-moss-review-the-hills-are-alive-withpandemic-anxieties (access: 6.02.2022).

Aarts, Emile, Fleuren, Hein, Sitskoorn, Margriet, Wilthagen, Ton, eds. 2021. The New Common: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Is Transforming Society. Cham: Springer International Publishing AG.

Achterberg, Peter. 2021. “Covid-Spiracy: Old wine in new barrels?” In The New Common: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Is Transforming Society, eds. Emile Aarts, Hein Fleuren, Margriet Sitskoorn, Ton Wilthagen, 17−22. Cham: Springer International Publishing AG.

Berger, Peter. 2016. Introduction. In Ultimate Ambiguities: Investigating Death and Liminality, eds. Peter Berger, Justin Kroesen, 1−11. New York: Berghahn Books.

Buchanan, Ian. 2010. “Liminality.” In A Dictionary of Critical Theory, 294. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Downey, Dara, Kinane, Ian, Parker, Elizabeth. 2016. “Introduction: Locating liminality: space, place, and the in-between.” In Landscapes of Liminality: Between Space and Place, 1−26. London‒New York: Rowman and Littlefield.

Elkin, Lauren. 2021. “A perspective on the pandemic.” Review of The Fell, by Sarah Moss. The Guardian, December 15, 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/dec/15/the-fell-by-sarah-moss-review-a-perspective-on-the-pandemic (access: 6.02.2022).

Goring, Rosemary. 2021. “The Fell by Sarah Moss.” The Herald, December 13, 2021. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19764144.fell-sarah-moss-reviewed-rosemary-goring-novel-hazards-lurk-edges-life/ (access: 6.02.2022).

Lahlah, Esmah. 2021. Foreword. In The New Common: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Is Transforming Society, eds. Emile Aarts, Hein Fleuren, Margriet Sitskoorn, Ton Wilthagen, vii−viii. Cham: Springer International Publishing AG.

Lewis, India. 2021. “A dark night on the hills.” Review of The Fell, by Sarah Moss.

The Arts Desk.com, November 22, 2021. https://theartsdesk.com/books/sarah-mossfell-review-dark-night-hills (access: 6.02.2022).

Moss, Sarah. 2021. The Fell. London: Picador.

Nayar, Pramod K. 2022. “Foreword: Posthumanism in the year of COVID-19.” In Posthuman Pathogenesis: Contagion in Literature, Arts, and Media, eds. Başak Ağin, Şafak Horzum, xiv‒xvii. London: Routledge.

Ravenscroft, Thomas. 2016. “Remember o thou man.” In English Madrigal Verse: 1588−1632, 3rd ed., eds. Frederick W. Sternfeld, David Greer, 245−246. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Rigby, Kate. 2015. Dancing with Disaster: Environmental Histories, Narratives, and Ethics for Perilous Times. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.

Silcox, Beejay. 2021. “Just a sip of outside. A tale of quarantine-breaking in the Peak District.” Review of The Fell, by Sarah Moss. Times Literary Supplement, December 24, 2021: 20.

Smith, Gwendolyn. 2021. “Deft and evocative – but who wants to relive lockdown?” Review of The Fell, by Sarah Moss. November 11, 2021. https://inews.co.uk/culture/books/the-fell-by-sarah-moss-review-deft-and-evocative-but-who-wants-torelive-lockdown-1295467 (access: 6.02.2022).

Thomassen, Bjørn. 2014. Liminality and the Modern: Living through the In-between. Farnham: Ashgate.

Thomassen, Bjørn. 2015. “Thinking with liminality: To the boundaries of an anthropological concept.” In Breaking Boundaries: Varieties of Liminality, eds. Ágnes Horváth, Bjørn Thomassen, Harald Wydra, 39−58. New York: Berghahn Books.

Van de Donk, Wim. 2021. Afterword. In The New Common: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Is Transforming Society, eds. Emile Aarts, Hein Fleuren, Margriet Sitskoorna, Ton Wilthagen, 223‒26. Cham: Springer International Publishing AG.

Vlachos, Peter. 2020. “Liminality, subjectivity, and aesthetics in event management studies.” In Liminality and Critical Event Studies: Borders, Boundaries, and Contestation, eds. Ian R. Lamond, Jonathan Moss, 35‒54. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

Watson, Natalie K. 2021. “The Fell by Sarah Moss.” Church Times, November 26, 2021. https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2021/26-november/books-arts/bookreviews/the-fell-by-sarah-moss (access: 6.02.2022).

Informacje

Informacje: Studia Litteraria Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, 2023, Volume 18, Issue 2, s. 103 - 113

Typ artykułu: Oryginalny artykuł naukowy

Tytuły:

Polski:

On Edge: Liminality and the COVID Pandemic in Sarah Moss’s The Fell

Angielski:

On Edge: Liminality and the COVID Pandemic in Sarah Moss’s The Fell

Autorzy

Uniwersytet Jagielloński w Krakowie, Polska, ul. Gołębia 24, 31-007 Kraków

Publikacja: 2023

Status artykułu: Otwarte __T_UNLOCK

Licencja: CC BY  ikona licencji

Udział procentowy autorów:

Bożena Kucała (Autor) - 100%

Korekty artykułu:

-

Języki publikacji:

Angielski

Sugerowane cytowania: Chicago

Bożena, Kucała. " On Edge: Liminality and the COVID Pandemic in Sarah Moss’s The Fell" Studia Litteraria Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis. Nov 30, 2023. https://ejournals.eu/czasopismo/studia-litteraria-uic/artykul/on-edge-liminality-and-the-covid-pandemic-in-sarah-mosss-the-fell