“Ek is besig om iemand heeltemal anders te word ...”: die ontginning van liminaliteit in Vaselinetjie deur Anoeschka von Meck

Date
2006-04
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
AOSIS Publishing
Abstract
The concepts of liminality, transition and borders are utilised extensively in “Vaselinetjie” by Anoeschka von Meck (2004). This is especially the case regarding her use of characterisation, focalisation, time and space (including place and landscape) in the construction of identity. As a liminal character, Vaseline finds herself in different kinds of liminal spaces on a regular basis, like the children’s home, which is foregrounded in the novel, as well as in consecutive preliminal, liminal and postliminal phases. The children’s home is an essentially liminal space, but from the perspective of Vaseline it is firstly gradually transformed into a place to which meaning is attached, and secondly to a landscape of belonging, as she expresses her solidarity with the scorned group of children in the home. On the one hand the children’s home is characterised by a certain liminal essence, but on the other hand it can be regarded as “a realm of pure possibility” (Turner, 1967:97).
Description
CITATION: Van Zyl, D. 2006. 'Ek is besig om iemand heeltemal anders te word ...': die ontginning van liminaliteit in Vaselinetjie deur Anoeschka von Meck. Literator, 39-56, doi: 10.4102/lit.v27i1.178.
The original publication is available at http://literator.org.za
Keywords
Von Meck, Anoeschka. Vaselinetjie -- Criticism and interpretation, Liminality in literature, Construction of identity in literature
Citation
Van Zyl, D. 2006. 'Ek is besig om iemand heeltemal anders te word ...': die ontginning van liminaliteit in Vaselinetjie deur Anoeschka von Meck. Literator, 39-56, doi: 10.4102/lit.v27i1.178