Mehrdad Gholami

Politics of Liminality in Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner": an Anthropological Study Mehrdad Gholami

In spite of being regarded as a difficult and controversial term, one thing unanimously agreed upon about Romanticism is its ?endowment with drastic and radical changes and transitions; French ?Revolution, American Revolution, Industrial Revolution, Declaration of ?Rights of Man are but few to name. During this period, the universe was no ?longer a stable place for man to occupy a middle position in; man was not ?as important as he used to be; the structure of society was being transformed into ?mass society; poets and artists were not indifferent and began, in their turn, to react to ?these great shifts and transitions; from among many diverse responses ?given to these enormous phenomena, this book investigates ?Samuel Taylor Coleridge?s ?Rime of the Ancient Mariner?. Regarding ?the poem as a ritual and mainly applying Victor Turner?s theory of ritual ?and liminality, this book shows in what manner "The Rime" ?represents Coleridge?s sociopolitical stance toward the holistic impact of the shifts, changes, and transitions of the Romantic era.