Academic Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, 2025, 8(11); doi: 10.25236/AJHSS.2025.081123.
Guo Liyun
School of Arts, Hengyang Normal University, Hengyang, China
The "intermediate landscape" in Nathaniel Hawthorne's literary world carries multiple implications and cultural significances. This concept refers to liminal spaces situated between civilization and wilderness, reality and the transcendental, such as the forest in The Scarlet Letter and the suburban farm in The Blithedale Romance. Examining these spaces through dimensions like spatial narrative, moral ambiguity, psychological conflict, and social regulation reveals that the "intermediate landscape" is not only a site for characters' identity reconstruction and redemption but also a profound metaphor for issues such as the disintegration of religious authority and the alienation of industrial civilization during the transformative period of 19th-century American society. Through symbolism and fluid narrative, Hawthorne constructs a poetic model of redemption that transcends binary oppositions, offering significant literary references and critical resources for contemporary ecological criticism, postcolonial studies, and spatial theory.
Nathaniel Hawthorne; Intermediate Landscape; Liminal Space; Redemptive Poetics
Guo Liyun. Redemption in Liminality: The “Intermediate Landscape” and Its Cultural Mirror in Hawthorne's Works. Academic Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences (2025), Vol. 8, Issue 11: 158-165. https://doi.org/10.25236/AJHSS.2025.081123.
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