They do like to be beside the seaside: Sea monsters and the liminal coast of Great Britain and Ireland between the wars

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Benbough-Jackson, M orcid iconORCID: 0000-0002-4367-5441 They do like to be beside the seaside: Sea monsters and the liminal coast of Great Britain and Ireland between the wars. Coastal Studies & Society. (Accepted)

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Abstract

Different meanings are attributed to the coast and sea. Ideas about broad changes in our relationship with the coast are complicated when attention is given to a specific aspect. This article will argue that a particular place and period, the interwar years in the British Isles, represented a peculiar time in the history of the coastal imaginary. The concept of layered liminality is used to illustrate the way in which the monster was entwined with other physical, social, and political coastal liminalities of the time. By combining a study of sea monsters with notions of the coastal imaginary the study provides another way to explore the meaning of the coast. This article is not concerned with the sea monster found in the middle of the ocean but the monster close to shore. Such beasts thus occupy a liminal geographical as well as ontological space. Understanding the significance of these creatures requires careful consideration of the histories of leisure, popular culture, and international politics as well as that of the monsters themselves. This Fortean aspect of the coast offers another layer of liminality onto the liminal coast and illustrates how the mystery of the sea came ashore.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Divisions: Humanities and Social Science
Publisher: Sage
Date of acceptance: 22 May 2025
Date of first compliant Open Access: 28 May 2025
Date Deposited: 28 May 2025 11:33
Last Modified: 03 Jul 2025 13:15
DOI or ID number: 10.1177/26349817251348339
URI: https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/26445
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