Liminality and Cognition in The Shadow-Line by Joseph Conrad. Between the Universal and Contextual Understanding of Initiation
Katarzyna Szkaradnik
Uniwersytet Śląski w KatowicachAbstract
The axis of "The Shadow-Line" by Joseph Conrad is the issue of initiation in the seaman craft and, at the same time crossing the threshold of adulthood. The author of the article, referring to the concept of the rites of passage of van Gennep, Turner and Eliade, as well as the model of Campbell’s mythic “hero’s journey”, analyses the process and anthropological implications of this initiation and considers to what extent the rites de passage are universal, and to what extent they are contextual. The ship crew turns out to be a communitas, a community of the liminal phase of the rite of passage, and the protagonist must realize the model-archetype in concrete circumstances. Even though the plot resembles the structure of a magical tale, one may find there the cultural reality of seamen’s work and the Victorian era.
Keywords:
liminality, initiation, rite of passage, magical tale, Joseph ConradUniwersytet Śląski w Katowicach
License
Articles published on the platform of Białostockie Studia Literaturoznawcze are available under the license CC-BY-SA 4.0 (CC Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0).
All interested parties have access to the published articles under the following conditions:
1.They must acknowledge authorship, which means crediting the author, title, source, together with the disseminated work (including the hyperlinks to the original work and doi) as well as the same license under the same conditions.
2. Derivative works can be distributed only under the same license as the original work.
The University of Białystok retains the right to the entire journal (layout, graphic design, title, cover design, logo, etc.).
The author retains the property right but confers on the University of Białystok the right to use the work.
