Paradox of freedom: coastal islands as absolute and abstract space in The Awakening and The Moon and Sixpence

At the turn of the 20th century, coastal islands emerged in literature as paradoxical spaces, promising liberation yet delivering confinement. Kate Chopin’s The Awakening and W. Somerset Maugham’s The Moon and Sixpence exemplify this paradox through spatial-psychological transformations of Edna Pontellier and Charles Strickland. Applying Henri Lefebvre’s concepts of absolute and abstract space, this paper explores how these islands embody a dual symbolic mechanism of ‘freedom-imprisonment’—first appear to be free absolute spaces, yet gradually display underlying abstract logics encoded by patriarchy, capitalism, and colonialism. Ultimately, such analysis reveals a deeper truth: true freedom resides within the courageous confrontation of oppressive ideologies instead of geographical escape; coastal islands stand not merely as an absolute Arcadia reconstructing subjectivity, but as an abstract mirror, reflecting the universal and timeless dilemma of selfhood.