On Edge: Liminality and the COVID Pandemic in Sarah Moss’s The Fell
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RIS BIB ENDNOTEOn Edge: Liminality and the COVID Pandemic in Sarah Moss’s The Fell
Publication date: 2023
Studia Litteraria Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, 2023, Volume 18, Issue 2, pp. 103 - 113
https://doi.org/10.4467/20843933ST.23.012.18182Authors
On Edge: Liminality and the COVID Pandemic in Sarah Moss’s The Fell
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.
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Information: Studia Litteraria Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, 2023, Volume 18, Issue 2, pp. 103 - 113
Article type: Original article
Titles:
On Edge: Liminality and the COVID Pandemic in Sarah Moss’s The Fell
On Edge: Liminality and the COVID Pandemic in Sarah Moss’s The Fell
Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Gołębia 24, 31-007 Kraków, Poland
Published at: 2023
Article status: Open
Licence: CC BY
Percentage share of authors:
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EnglishView count: 229
Number of downloads: 240
Suggested citations: Chicago