Monstrous Liminality: Or, The Uncanny Strangers of Secularized Modernity

by Robert G Beghetto

This book examines the transformation of the figure of the stranger in the literature of the modern age in terms of liminality. As a 'spectral monster' that has a paradoxical and liminal relationship to both the sacred and the secular, the figure of the modern stranger has played a role in both adapting and shaping a culturally determined understanding of the self and the other. With the advent of modernity, the stranger, the monster, and the spectre became interconnected. Haunting the edges of reason while also being absorbed into 'normal' society, all three, together with the cyborg, manifest the vulnerability of an age that is fearful of the return of the repressed. Yet these figures can also become re-appropriated as positive symbols, able to navigate between the dangerous and chaotic elements that threaten society while serving as precarious and ironic symbols of hope or sustainability. The book shows the explanatory potential of focusing on the resacralizing - in a paradoxical and liminal manner - of traditionally sacred concepts such as 'messianic' time and the 'utopian, ' and the conflicts that emerged as a result of secularized modernity's denial of its own hybridization.
This approach to modern literature shows how the modern stranger, a figure that is both paradoxically immersed and removed from society, deals with the dangers of failing to be re-assimilated into mainstream society and is caught in a fixed or permanent state of liminality, a state that can ultimately lead to boredom, alienation, nihilism, and failure. These 'monstrous' aspects of liminality can also be rewarding in that traversing difficult and paradoxical avenues they confront both traditional and contemporary viewpoints, enabling new and fresh perspectives suspended between imagination and reality, past and future, nature and artificial. In many ways, the modern stranger as a figure of literature and the cultural imagination has become more complicated and challenging in the (post)modern contemporary age, both clashing with and encompassing people who go beyond simply the psychological or even spiritual inability to blend in and out of society. However, while the stranger may be altering once again the defining or essentializing the figure could result in the creation of other sets of binaries, and thereby dissolve the purpose and productiveness of both strangeness and liminality.
The intention of "Monstrous Liminality" is to trace the liminal sphere located between the secular and sacred that has characterized modernity itself. This space has consequently altered the makeup of the stranger from something external, into a figure far more liminal, which is forced to traverse this uncanny space in an attempt to find new meanings for an age that is struggling to maintain any.

220 pages, Paperback

Published January 24, 2022

Reviews

[Rina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book. I've studied English and have recently been on a bit of a Gothic kick, so when I saw that this book had an average rating of five stars, this wonderful cover and a title mentioning "monstrous liminality", I thought it would be a fitting addition to my theoretical reading. I only later realized that the book had only been given one review prior to mine, hence the previous high rating. I also only later realized the book is not really about gothic literature or monsters at all. Now both of these are clearly my own mistakes and I simply went into the book with wrong expectations. But nevertheless, I was still ready to love the book.

Sadly, it's just not good. Quite frankly, I was a bit shocked to see the author had completed a PhD in Humanities. Overall, the book felt more like a very overwritten Master's thesis, at most. And one that might not receive the highest mark either.

First of all, I can't believe this was officially published, since there are just no hints of an editor. There are so many typos and even some sentences left over with two different beginnings. I think just reading over your own work and having a loved one looking over it after that (again, thinking of Uni papers here) usually solves these issues. What were the editors doing? (Looking up the publisher, ubiquity press, this might actually be more like a self-publishing situation? I couldn't quite figure it out, they SEEM to have editors?).

Secondly, sadly, the book is incredibly overwritten, sometimes to a point where it feels like it confirms all the worst bad-faith criticism about the humanities in general and critical theory, specifically . I was exhausted by the amount of times the word "liminal" was used when it didn't even seem particularly fitting. Lots of throwing around of concepts such as resacralization, hybridity, or the abject, without solid definitions, evidence for claims made and specific analysis. Generally, everything is written in a very vague way and things are just connected in the broadest, most sweeping terms. Again, I was reminded of papers I wrote at university. Good papers, don't get me wrong, but in the end just university papers by a non-native English student.

And that leads me to my last criticism. It seems quite obvious, to me, that the author isn't a native English speaker. Again, this is no big deal and I find it important to read analysis by people from all over the world since they will be able to point out things people from English-speaking countries wouldn't have considered (which is why I did enjoy his multiple references to Italian authors and artists, many of which I had never heard of). However, again, this is something editors would or should improve and smooth out. That wasn't really the case. Once more, my own university papers came to mind. There seems to be a certain cadence that non-native academics of English develop.

Overall, I enjoyed the second chapter on Leopardi and Baudelaire the most and I would suggest you start checking that one out online (the whole book is available online, open-access) before buying a copy. The book isn't bad, it was just in need of a lot of editing and a lot of cutting down.