“On the Threshold of Change”: Liminality and Marginality in Steven Carroll’s Fiction

Abstract

The paper deals with Steven Carroll’s quartet of novels about a Melbourne suburb. Carroll’s original brand of realism is an attempt to capture “life in motion” and focuses on the way individuals and communities evolve. Hence his predilection for describing liminal moments in his narratives – moments when people and places are on the cusp of change. His novels are in this sense the expression of a philosophy of change as well as examples of narrative methods meant to give concrete form to that philosophy. Liminality sometimes gives way to marginality: instead of evolving with their social context, some characters retain features that make them out of place in their brave new world. They are stranded on the wrong side of liminality, a notion whose promises of resolution do not always come true.