On Liminality In Joseph O’neill’s Netherland

Netherland,written by Joseph O’Neill,is a novel about the friendship between Hans van den Brock,a rich and wise Dutch analyst and Chuck Ramkisson,a Thinidadian immigrant,as well as about how things had been and were before and after 9/11.On the surface,America appeared to be much more united in that people from all over the world seemed to be breaking through their prejudices to face the aftermath of the disaster,but beneath the surface,the rooted problems of identity,culture and society still existed.This thesis studies the experiences of Hans and Chuck,their memories and interactions with each other and others through the perspective of liminality developed by Victor Turner,who divided liminality into three stages: separation,limen and aggregation.It is argued that Hans and Chuck,one sojourner and one immigrant,represented this liminal living of a lot of New Yorkers,whose lives are characteristic of being ambiguous,between and betwixt and emblematic of cultural heterogeneity,social hybridity in New York City.O’Neill depicted the dark,pedantry and illegal netherland through Hans’ experiences,views,memories and his observation of arguments,politics and cultures both in New York and London.To him netherland remained a lower land in New York formed by ethnic people and outsiders who wanted to achieve the liminal journey from low identity to higher one and from darkness to brightness,but the death of Chuck ended the dream and leave identity,cultural heterogeneity,social hybridity still in suspense.