If you have, then you’ve probably been to a liminal space. On the Internet, that usually refers to empty rooms, corridors, and even streets that look surreal for some reason. Here we have a compilation of some intriguing liminal spaces, so, if you’re looking for some weirdness, scroll away. To know more about what liminality actually is, Bored Panda reached out to Lecturer in English at the University of Hull Dr. Kevin Corstorphine. He gave us some examples of liminal spaces from classical Gothic texts and explained why the concept is so important to the genre. Read his expert insights below! “This sense of being ‘in-between’ has become a useful way of thinking about the way that Gothic literature often focuses on areas that are often taken for granted: the boundary between life and [beyond] being an obvious one, with supernatural entities existing somewhere between these two states.” On the Internet, of course, the term means something different. “In modern aesthetic terms, it has taken on the meaning of the eerie feeling that you can get in a space that is neither here nor there, like an empty train station or an abandoned playground,” Dr. Corstorphine says. “It is also a novel that shows an obsession with the boundaries between life and [beyond], the integrity of the human body, animal and human, the past and the present, and the liminal spaces between all of these dichotomies. Dracula is threatening because he exists in this space,” the Lecturer in English explains. “The way that the novel is told through letters and newspaper reports even puts his existence for the reader in a liminal space.” “The Gothic attempts to disturb the reader by blurring categories and asking questions about the boundaries that make us feel secure,” the lecturer explains. “H.P. Lovecraft, in Supernatural Horror in Literature (1927), writes of cosmic horror as the feeling of listening to ’the scratching of outside shapes and entities on the known universe’s utmost rim.’ The Gothic thrives in those gaps between our understanding, for example between religion and science.” Follow Bored Panda on Google News! Follow us on Flipboard.com/@boredpanda! Please use high-res photos without watermarks Ooops! Your image is too large, maximum file size is 8 MB.
