2016-01-252016-01-252008Flannery, Eoin (2008) ‘Rites of Passage: The liminal in Colum McCann’s Songdogs and This Side of Brightness’, Irish Studies Review, 16(1) 1-17http://hdl.handle.net/10395/2055This article deals with two novels by the Irish writer Colum McCann: Songdogs and This Side of Brightness. Reading the narratives of both texts through the work of anthropologist Victor Turner, the essay reveals how McCann’s characters undergo processes of liminal experience, which occasion structural changes in their familial relationships and in their individual identity. Turner’s work primarily focused on the ritual behaviours of tribal groups and how liminality was used as a physical means toward spiritual ends; I diagnose similar dynamics in McCann’s two literary fictions.engCopyright © Routledge Taylor and Francis. Full publication can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cisr20/16/1Colum McCannSongdogsThis Side of BrightnessLiminalityDiasporaVictor TurnerArticlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09670880701788205