The space of ‘betwixt and between’: liminality and activism in Keum Suk Gendry-Kim’s Grass(2019)

Abstract

ABSTRACT The concept of liminality is fundamentally borrowed from anthropology to explore its application in literary and cultural studies, which remains largely understudied to this date. Liminality essentially signifies a state of in-betweenness characterised by significant factors, such as uncertainty, ambiguity, anxiety, loss of previous values, identity-crisis, isolation and dilemma. The present paper intends to investigate the tropes of liminality in the graphic novel as well as its application to understand the process of transformation of the protagonist as expressed through grids, gutters and panels by employing Victor Turner’s ‘Theory of Liminality’. Further, the later part is dedicated to explore the silhouettes of activism using Turner’s concept of ‘anti-structure’, through the theme of vegetation visible throughout the novel. The present work not only attempts to trace the liminality of the protagonist in Gendry-Kim’s Grass(2019) but also ventures into establishing the liminal status of the genre of graphic novel itself. The study, thus, presents us an opportunity to explore one of the aggressively silenced and traumatic histories of ‘comfort women issue’ through the lens of Gendry-Kim’s recently published graphic novel Grass(2019).