Between Dog and Wolf

Abstract

Abstract Taking its cue from the novel’s title, this essay examines various forms of inbetweenness, or intermediacy, in Sasha Sokolov’s Between Dog and Wolf, especially as related to liminality, metamorphoses, hybridity, and unboundedness. It claims that the novel, which is primarily about language, creates a verbal tapestry that is depicted as a landscape of words engaging images of weaving and reweaving that produce inbetweens and result in an indeterminate narrative. The labyrinthine narrative moves back and forth in time and space, including between life and death, producing multiple meanings. All these questions are exemplified by close readings of the text (from Latin texere – “to weave”). The visual source of Sokolov’s novel is Pieter Bruegel’s Hunters in the Snow, represented as an ekphrasis; the painting serves as the primary source of the visual arts in Between Dog and Wolf. Other important topics are parody and intertextuality. (For a plot synopsis of Between Dog and Wolf, please consult the introduction.)