A Passage to India: Essays in Interpretation

186 Pages·1985·19.858 MB·English

by  John Beer (eds.)

A PASSAGE TO INDIA
Essays in Interpretation
Also by John Beer
COLERIDGE THE VISIONARY
THE ACHIEVEMENT OF E. M. FORSTER
COLERIDGE'S POEMS (editor)
BLAKE'S HUMANISM
BLAKE'S VISIONARY UNIVERSE
COLERIDGE'S VARIETY (editor)
COLERIDGE'S POETIC INTELLIGENCE
WORDSWORTH AND THE HUMAN HEART
WORDSWORTH IN TIME
E. M. FORSTER: A HUMAN EXPLORATION
(editor with G. K. Das)
A PASSAGE TO INDIA
Essays in Interpretation
Edited by
John Beer
pal grave
macmillan
© John Beer 1985
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1985
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication
may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication
may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or
in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued
by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T
4LP.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
Companies and representatives throughout the world.
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave
Macmillan division of St Martin's Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.
Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom
and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European
Union and other countries.
ISBN 978-0-333-40457-7 ISBN 978-1-349-17994-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-17994-7
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and
made from fully managed and sustained forest sources.
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
Transferred to digital printing 2002
Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgements ix
Key to References X
Notes on the Contributors xii
1 A Passage to India: a Socio-historical Study
G. K. DAS 1
2 The Caves of A Passage to India WILFRED STONE 16
3 The Politics of Representation in A Passage to
India BENITA PARRY 27
4 Negation in A Passage to India GILLIAN BEER 44
5 Listening to Language JUDITH SCHERER HERZ 59
6 Muddle etcetera: Syntax in A Passage to India
MOLLY TINSLEY 71
7 The Spirit behind the Frieze? JOHN DREW 81
8 A Passage to India, the French New Novel and
English Romanticism JOHN BEER 104
Conclusion: A Passage to India and the
Versatility of the Novel JOHN BEER 132
v
vi Contents
Notes 153
Booklist: Texts and Further Reading 164
Index 168
Preface
Anyone attempting to formulate a unified 'theory of the novel'
has to come to terms with the fact that different readers, faced
with the same text, will read a very different novel. Each reader,
according to training, temperament and present interests, will
attend to particular features in the presentation and build up an
interpretation based upon those.
A Passage to India is increasingly recognised as a novel which,
answering to Forster's own complexity of mind, is rich in
interpretative possibilities. In this collection various critics have
approached the novel with a particular theme or interest in mind
and presented a reading in terms of what they have found. The
separate essays, each of which presents a coherent view of the
novel from its own point of view, are followed by a Conclusion
written in a more open manner, suggesting further perspectives
which open out from the main lines of approach and mentioning
examples of further criticism in each case. Students who come to
the collection after studying Forster's novel will find in it both
stimulating sources for discussion and a range of varying ideas
from which to build their own patterns of interpretation. In
some cases they will find it rewarding to look at what different
critics have made of the same passage (whether they conflict
with or reinforce one another) and to work on from there.
It is hoped that all readers of Forster will find interest in these
pages. The appearance of a film based on A Passage to India
naturally arouses a good deal of discussion, since a presentation
which leaves out large and important sections of the novel must
in one sense be a distortion. What a film offers, however, is a
particular kind of 'reading' - a reading that is sensitive to the
dramatic qualities and resources of visual imagery afforded by
the text. Those who have written here on Forster's novel from
the point of view oi its documentary accuracy or its symbolism
have relevant things to say about these matters; more often,
however, it will be found that critics are complementing such an
vii
viii Preface
approach by their sensitivity to Forster's language, philosophy
and narrative purposes. While giving a vivid sense of India and a
sharp yet subtle commentary on British rule, A Passage to India
is a meditative novel that reflects not only on the world but on
fiction itself; even its language is constantly drawing the reader's
attention to its own limitations and its own marvellous powers.
These are qualities that a film can hardly touch on.
A Passage to India is an unusually rich example of what the
novel can do. The approaches offered in the collection will
therefore suggest possibilities for examining other works of
fiction, helping to preserve readers and critics alike from the
mistake of thinking that there is a single, 'right' way to read a
novel of any complexity.
Acknowledgements
Chapter 3 is a revised version of an essay from E. M. Forster: A
Human Exploration, ed. G. K. Das and John Beer (1979);
Chapter 4 appeared originally in Essays in Criticism, xxx (1980)
151-66, and in Approaches to E. M. Forster, ed. V. A. Shahane
(New Delhi, 1981); Chapter 6 in the Journal of Narrative
Technique, IX, no. 3 (1979), and in E. M. Forster: Centenary
Revaluations, ed. Judith Scherer Herz and Robert K. Martin
(1982); Chapter 8 in the latter volume. Permission to reprint
these items is gratefully acknowledged in each case. The other
chapters were written specially for the present volume.
I am most grateful to Dr J. L. Fellows for providing the Index.
The volume first took shape in response to a proposal from
the British Council's Literature Unit: I wish to express my
thanks to members of the Unit, and especially to Yolande
Cantu, for their interest and encouragement.
ix