Exploring the Intersection of Liminality and Identity Formation in S. B. Divya’s Meru (2023)
Exploring the Intersection of Liminality and Identity Formation in S. B. Divya’s Meru (2023)

Summary/Abstract: In the last couple of decades, there has been a proliferation of science fiction narratives that focus on the aspects of identity alongside a deep critique of political autocracy, dictatorship, and coloniality. Such narratives explore deeper nuances of self and identity by situating characters into a suffocatingly controlled society, thus magnifying the significance and potentialities of the adolescence stage in the process of identity formation. This article aims to analyze S. B. Divya’s Meru (2023) with a particular focus on the theme of identity formation, employing Victor Witter Turner’s theory of liminality and Erik Erikson’s theory of personal identity. The study goes beyond the scrutiny of the liminoid protagonist of the novel to discern the planet Meru as a liminal space. Establishing its argument on this discussion, it addresses the following questions: a) How are the different contours of liminality portrayed as sites of deviant possibilities in the novel? b) How does the protagonist’s identity formation function as a resistance against the status quo and bring revolutionary transformations in the novel?

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