Trapped In Transition:Liminal Ireland In John McGahern’s Novels

John McGahern(1943-2006)is a distinguished contemporary Irish writer.His novels The Barracks(1963),Amongst Women(19990)and That They May Face the Rising Sun(2002)are often dominated by a dark and miserable sensorial.The thesis,with liminality as a vantage point,explores the tragedy and bleakness caused by the aftermath of colonization.The thesis aims to reveal the underlying problem presented in the three novels deriving from the reconstruction of nationalism.The thesis comprises of five chapters.The opening chapter provides an introduction to John McGahern and his works.Attention will also be directed toward revealing perspectives of liminal theory.Chapter two addresses the disillusionment and tragedy in the three novels caused by the lingering influence of liminal political revolution.It discusses three ways in which the lingering effects of liminal revolution influence the post-war life and causes tragedy—institutionalized power hierarchy,crisis of ongoing political division and the failed redressing strategy.It is argued that the underlying problem of such frustrations is the reconstruction crisis of nationalism through politicsChapter three engages the tragedy and misery endured by migrants in a liminal space or third space.Analyzing characters’ dilemma and sad reflections within the"border space" or "third space" between rural Ireland and metropolitans like London or Dublin,the thesis sets out to describe how old and young generations in these three novels are trapped in the liminal space.Unhomeliness depicted in The Barracks,the double identity in Amongst Women and failed redemptive homecoming in his last novel discloses pain inflicted by the failed reconstruction of economic nationalism.Chapter four moves to characters’ engagement in religious liminal rituals like ceremonies,sacraments,daily pray and rosary.It probes into the question of characters’tragic reflection on institutional Catholic values and the approaching secularization.Those who make reflections on liminal rituals are torn between the real meaning of religion and rigid doctrines of authoritarian Catholic Church,through which McGahern denounces rigid control of state-backed Catholic Church,expresses his concern over complete secularization and his complicated religiosity.The misery deriving from Catholicism is a testament to the nation’s foiled attempt to rebuild distinctive cultural nationalism.Though all the fictions studied are set in rural county of Ireland,they achieve a universal resonance by probing into the underlying cause of bitterness and misery—nationalism reconstruction.Depiction of the bitterness and bleakness world in the form of art reveals McGahern’s reflection on suffering caused by colonization and concern for the future of independent Ireland.