From Dialogue, Conflict To Rupture

Edward Morgan Forster (1879-1970) is a literature master being good at elaborating flimsy relationship of people with different cultural backgrounds. His novel A Passage to India, published in 1924, is universally considered to have reached the peak in his literary career. In the writer's other works, the complicated social interactions reflecting different social identities and different cultural backgrounds are completely or partly made into reconciliation or tempered successfully. However, the stereotyped paradigm is not employed in A Passage to India. It is because of this reason that the novel is full of special charm to be read and the great value to be researched in deeper and different views. It is also because of this that A Passage to India has it's special charm in the whole British literary history. The researches to A Passage to India in the literature field vary in wide ranges. There are some analyses of cultural identification of the persons entangled, the analyses of the art skill called "Bathos" and the analyses to the mysticism etc.. However, through the careful studying of the text, the author of this thesis discovered that in this novel, just as Edward Said commented on, "the key problem in A Passage to India is the permanent antagonizing between England colonizers and Indians."(Said 1993:201). This study aims to use the postcolonial studies criticism theories as the bases of the research, based on the careful studying of the text, with the new reading and analytical perspectives, the thesis studies and analyzes how the Orientalist and the Other came into the dialogue, became to conflict and ended in rupture in the novel. The study tries to explain the essential reasons about the mentioned processes, to reveal the deep influence and erosion that western civilization imposed to India civilization. The thesis probes how ancient India civilization resists the dominant and arbitrary western civilization and investigates how the ancient old India civilization shows it's wisdom, and how it conceives it's power and reconstructs itself in silence and turbulence. At the same time, the amazing phenomenon of cultural colonization is revealed and analyzed here.The thesis consists of five parts:The first part is the introduction. The focus, the researching medium and the significance of the thesis are explained briefly. It contains a survey of the domestic and the international commentary responses to A Passage to India. The particular perspectives, academic and practical significances of this study are also explained in this part.The second part is "Seeking dialogue and communication". Beginning from analyzing original text, the thesis explains that the cultural colonization is a higher stage of the colonial policy and the final purpose of the colonizers. However, out of various reasons and impulses, both colonialists and Indians are eager to get in touch with each other, so it is a necessary and inevitable process for both sides to look for dialogue and communication. Two British females' visit to India provides a chance, which they both requested. Then, the thesis analyzes how the colonizers as the Orientalist "look and study" the colonized Indians as the Other, showing the colonizers' haughty and despotic attitude to Indian people. Simultaneously, the study examines and explains both the Orientalit's and the Other's complicated identities and attitudes toward the relationship between Britain and India.The third part is "From dialogue to conflict". Based on the careful reading and examining some events, including the most important Marabar trip and so-called Marabar rape event, the study expatiates and exposes British political and cultural hegemony. On the one hand the Orientalist consciously or unconsciously attempts to control and manipulate the process of dialogue and communication, on the other hand they are frustrated again and again because they meet the elastic resistance of the sophisticated and wise India civilization. As a result, the contact and the communication between the West and the East were spoiled, suspended and even aborted, making both sides frustrated and upset.The forth part is "From conflict to rupture". Beginning with analyzing some key characters, such as Fielding, an English professor and Aziz, an Indian doctor and their special experiences, one can clearly understand the abnormal relationship between British and Indians. English colonizers aim to deepen their cultural colonization as their major enterprise but the Indians, especially some responsible intellectuals, make their hard effort to recognize their real and already complicated cultural identities. So the Orientalist gradually adjusted their strategies in order to continue their colonial ruling successfully. At the same time, the waking up of Indian nationalism makes the future of this country more complicated and mysterious.The fifth part is the conclusion. Reading the whole novel makes it clear that from seeking for dialogue, coming into conflict and ending in rupture both the colonialists and the colonized Indians, especially the intellectuals and humanitarians did not arrive at a peaceful and understanding circumstance though they all experienced a lot of varied events. The novel forces one to consider that the relationship based on unequal political economical status and different cultural status is too flimsy to depend on. The novel is endowed a kind of universal significance that alarms people to think further how to deal with and adjust the subtle relationships between individuals, races and countries.