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The Poetry of Everyday LifeStorytelling and the Art of Awareness$
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The Poetry of Everyday Life: Storytelling and the Art of Awareness

Steve Zeitlin

Print publication date: 2016

Print ISBN-13: 9781501702358

Published to Cornell Scholarship Online: May 2017

DOI: 10.7591/cornell/9781501702358.001.0001

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Navigating Transitions

Navigating Transitions

Poetry in Rites of Passage

Chapter:
(p.143) 14 Navigating Transitions
Source:
The Poetry of Everyday Life
Author(s):

Steve Zeitlin

Publisher:
Cornell University Press
DOI:10.7591/cornell/9781501702358.003.0015

This chapter considers the poetry underlying rites of passage. Throughout the life cycle, the complex cycling and recycling of customs and rites of passage is reminiscent of the classic children's toy the Slinky. Along with the rites of passage that mark linear time, seasonal customs and holidays shape a sense of cyclical, recurrent time. Rites of passage are the mileposts that guide travelers through the life cycle. In 1909, ethnographer Arnold van Gennep compared tribal rituals in different parts of the world and noted the similarities “among ceremonies of birth, childhood, social puberty, betrothal, marriage, pregnancy, fatherhood, initiation into religious societies and funerals.” All these rites of passage, he observed, consist of three distinct phases: separation, transition, and incorporation.

Keywords:   poetry, rites of passage, life cycle, customs, holidays, tribal rituals, ceremonies, separation, transition, incorporation

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