“Let me listen to the murmur of the sea”: Atlantic soundscape and colonial undertones in N. Hawthorne’s “Foot-prints on the Sea-Shore”

This study investigates Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Foot-prints on the Sea-Shore,” as an early tale that encapsulates a number of themes that Hawthorne will develop in later works. It considers Hawthorne's piece as a contribution to nineteenth century nature writing, where strolling is a philosophical activity necessary for ontological and ecological understanding, and where the coastal ecosystem, with its layered maritime soundscape, is a source of observation, and a site of critique of commerce and its colonial import. By moving away from the urban space and looking for a different set of ecosystems and sensorial experiences, Hawthorne, via the narrative voice, creates a space of reflection and communication within the natural world, in the unique and liminal area of the coast. In so doing, he manages to insert himself in a romantic tradition of natural philosophers, such as hermits, while also presenting a critique of his era’s commercial endeavors.