Modernism In A Passage To India

E. M. Forster was the well-established British novelist, critic, and liberal-humanist at turning of the end of nineteenth century and the dawn of the twentieth century. His time witnessed the radical changes in politics, economy and social sciences. He was, as a novelist, among those who have been subjected to the influence of all the new trends including modernism.A Passage to India, his last and the most acknowledged novel, derived its materials from Forster's two visits to India in 1921 and 1921 respectively. Since its publication in 1924, criticisms on it have accumulated up to a big store and ever been from a variety of perspectives including Marxism, feminism, psych-analytic criticism, post-colonialism and so on. As in the novel there are both old traditions of realism and the traces of modernism, whether it should be categorized as a realist or a modernist has been a subject of critical controversy interests many foreign scholars. But so far at home the researches on this have been far from adequate.In Introduction, a brief review on the life experience of E.M. Forster and the related criticism both at home and abroad are made. A survey on the origin and the definitions of modernism in literature is done. In addition, the major characteristics of modernism involved are defined.Chapter One focuses on the change occurred to Forster's liberal-humanism thoughts while he was writing A Passage to India. During the twelve-year gap in the middle of the writing process, the political circumstances in India changed greatly and his own experience in the First World War also brought great impact on his thoughts. As a result, he revised his first draft and the original plan for the novel. Though born a member of the middle class intellectual group, he keenly realizes that the main stream of British middle class have"underdeveloped hearts", which forms hindrance keeping them from good personal relationships."Only connect"is Forster's long-held liberal-humanist belief reflected in many of his previous works. However his later experience in India gradually revealed to him that the imperialists with their racial superiority and prejudice only established the Empire"on sand"and would inevitably see its collapse. Forster's Utopian proposal for redemption,"democratic empire", reflects his latent empire complex and paradoxical attitude. First, A Passage to India conveys the strong sense of liberal-humanists like Forster and meanwhile shows the dilemma they are in: They stand on the margin of the Empire but can neither assimilate themselves into"the other"camp. The novel conveys Forster's growing sense of misgivings and discontentment toward his"only connect"ideal when he feels the crisis of the empire. In the novel, India, the Marabar caves are both ever the muddles resistant to the grasp of reason. At the end of the novel, unlike what are in his previous ones, all the main characters'attempts to connect turn out to be in vain. Forster states:'not yet","not there".On the basis of the previous chapter, Chapter Two studies the text carefully, focusing on one of the main characteristics of modernism in the novel—an inward turning. That is showing more concerns on the inner world. With an analysis of the purposeful arrangement of the cave event and its influences both on Adela and Mrs. Moore, the thesis discusses Forster's preoccupation with the humanity and the endless pursuit of an ideal end for human mind. The novel, instead of only imitating the society and politics in reality, elaborates much on the conscious and subconscious of those characters. Forster makes experimentation on stream of consciousness and point of view in narration in the light of modernism.Chapter Three first reviews the modernist symbolism in literature, and based on this, proposes the specific interpretations of the main symbols in the novel and their relationships with the theme:"to connect"---"connect fails". Different from those symbols in traditional realists which are usually single-dimensional and remain stable in meaning, the symbols in this novel are multi-dimensional, rather ambiguous and meant to be in accordance with its philosophical theme.Lastly, Conclusion section summarizes that E. M. Forster goes beyond himself in his last novel A Passage to India, gradually facing and admitting the impotence of the reason. This admission characterizes his tentative turning from realism to modernism. Although he does not totally abandon the realists'chronological order and traditional satires, although his stand sometimes is rather"evasive"and"baffling", his exploration for the future of human mind in the modern muddle and his openness to the newness and experimentalism on modernism should not be ignored or undervalued. The research on the modernism in the novel will not only enrich our understanding of Forster, but also be revealing in the relationship between realism and modernism, and in the concept of modernism itself.