Liminal

Abstract

Liminal or liminality can best be understood as both a state and a process at the midpoint of a transition or rite of passage. Although it is primarily the work of Victor Turner that has explored the liminal stage between two identifiable states, the theorizations of Arnold Van Gennep in relation to rites of passage are also foundational. The theory of liminality as one of Turner's three identified cultural manifestations of communitas became a nexus around which his most prolific theorizations revolved. The liminal phase of a transition represents an instance of incompleteness when the “liminars” – the ritual subjects in this phase – slip through the classifications that traditionally locate states and positions in cultural space. Turner's later work shows an evolution toward a further conceptualization of the liminal – the liminoid – in the context of the kinds of practices pertinent to industrial societies.