What happens when we cross a significant boundary? We step into an unsettling in-between zone
where we have to abandon accepted structures and truths. Yet this liminal zone can also open up
possibilities for inner transformation leading to the birth of a new sense of fellowship.
Since 1994 South Africans have been experiencing the anxieties of old structures breaking down
and of new ones being built - a process that South African authors have been powerfully
representing and questioning. Beyond the Threshold analyzes the transformative powers of
liminal states and hybridizing processes in literature. Its authors discuss a wide range of
intriguing liminal characters dangerous liminal situations and unique transformations in
recent books mainly from South Africa. These books tell the compelling stories of marginal
characters giving their stories moral authority while exploring their transformative
possibilities.
