At the end of Gayl Jones’ novel Corregidora, the protagonist, Ursa, says the following in her moment of self-realization: “In a split second I knew what it was, in a split second of hate and love I knew what it was… A moment of pleasure and excruciating pain at the same time, a moment of broken skin but not sexlessness, a moment just before sexlessness, a moment that stops just before sexlessness, a moment that stops before it breaks the skin” (Jones 185). Why is this the resolution of the novel; why is Ursa able to find comfort in this state of suspension? Ursa herself, being unable to conceive, is a liminal figure—both alienated from her matrilineal heritage and consumed by the legacy of her matriarchs. Where can heroism be found in a character who never seems to escape in-betweenness?

Building on this fundamental question, this thesis project aims to pinpoint expressions of liminality in jazz aesthetic literature, theorizing how liminal characters find power in transitions and use interchanges between the margins as a survival tactic. My answer will be informed by three novels within which I find liminality to be a central and overarching presence: Gayl Jones’ Corregidora, Toni Morrison’s Jazz, and Toni Cade Bambara’s The Salt Eaters. I will first contextualize the moment in which each author is writing their novel, as it is necessary to understand the social circumstances out of which they position their stances. I will then do a close reading of several moments throughout each text in order to show how liminality and jazz function in tandem. Lastly, I will end with a coda that looks forward in time to the present moment, reflecting on how the framework for inner sustainability that these women have begun has grown in today’s rhetoric. Ultimately, I claim that centering healing within a Black feminist tradition is necessary in realizing both inner and communal wellness, as well as understanding how music can be an effective restorative tool.