سیروس امیری

This dissertation endeavors to address the issue of liminality in the selected novels by the South African novelist, André Brink. The concept of liminality, here, is defined from the viewpoint of the British cultural anthropologist, Victor Witter Turner. Rumors of Rain (1978), An Act of Terror (1991) and The Rights of Desire (2000), are the three novels which will be exclusively examined in this dissertation. South Africa, as a multi-ethnic country comprising different ethnic groups such as blacks, whites, coloreds and Asians, is known as the Rainbow Nation. Brink's novels depict liminality as a significant factor in the lives of South African ethnicities during apartheid, the transition period, and the post-apartheid era. Although the dominant impression supposes the blacks to be in a more in-between situation, Brink reveals liminality in the lives of other ethnic groups as well. This study comes up with this conclusion that being a minority serves as a unifying factor that negates other differences and gathers different ethnicities in the communitas. Consequently, liminal beings are in communitas rather than a structured society. They are like guests in a carnival who are equally welcomed regardless of their respective significance. The holders of the carnival are the socio-political authorities who observe minorities as a whole rather than separable entities. The fixation of the beings in liminality has made it an integral component of South Africa. Regarding the lives of ethnicities, the transition of power does not change anything for the better.