Grace Melbury and the experience of liminality by Yvonne Anderson (Independent Academic)
A BSA Auto/Biography Study Group Event
5 February 2026 (17:00-18:00 GMT)
Online
About the Event
Grace Melbury and the experience of liminality by Yvonne Anderson (Independent Academic)
Abstract
Grace Melbury is a principal character in Hardy's The Woodlanders, whose destiny is shaped by a broken promise to childhood sweetheart Giles Winterborne and subsequent marriage to the faithless doctor, Edred Fitzwilliam. Hardy's work was poignant, often melancholy and tragic, but in this, as in some other of his novels, there is optimism for the human condition and even moments of comedy. In multiple layers of meaning Hardy deftly weaves together the connection of people to the land and nature with romantic love, imbuing the story of lives lived with considerations of social class, social standing and the limits of social mobility. Into this I read the text as a richly described example of the struggle of the individual to find their identity and place in the world when circumstance has removed them from their humble origins. Grace returns to Little Hintock a changed young woman who no longer fits into the social world from which she came, yet who neither is able to fully inhabit the world that her education has taught her to aspire to. In demonstrating the myriad ways in which Hardy alerted his reader to this dilemma of liminality, I will draw upon the work of Bourdieu on social capital and the individual.
Registration
- Auto/biography Study Group Member/BSA Member: FREE
- Non-Member: £10
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