“Speaking on the Threshold of Being”: Liminality and Heterotopia in the Poetry of Sohrab Sepehri

Abstract Liminal and heterotopic spaces play a critical role in the meaning-making (ma’nā-sāzī) process in Sohrab Sepehri’s poetry. This article examines Sepehri’s works through the concept of “between-ness,” positioning it not as a withdrawl from socio-political engagement, but as an alternative mode of aesthetic and philosophical resistance. Drawing on Victor Turner’s theory of liminality, Michel Foucault’s notion of heterotopia, and related cultural theories, the study foregrounds Sepehri’s recurring motifs such as dreams, boats, and windows as poetic sites that transcend binary oppositions: East and West, sacred and profane, self and other. By situating Sepehri’s aesthetics within this liminal-hybrid space, the article argues for a reading of his poetry as both culturally synthetic and politically resonant.