Forster's Absorption And Domestication Of Indian Culture-A Postcolonial Reading Of A Passage To India

E. M. Forster is acknowledged as one of the greatest novelists in the twentieth century. Forster's literary achievements mainly rest on six novels and one literary essay. His fifth novel, A Passage to India was published in 1924, and is considered as best-known and most widely read novel. With the publication of this novel, Forster approached his prime, and his artistic talent was recognized by the literal circle.Since its publication in 1924, A Passage to India has received a wide acclaim and aroused a good deal of discussion. Critics approach the novel with particular interests from their own points of view. It has been treated mainly as a political novel from the very beginning. Some studies assume the text's collusion with imperialism, while others interpret it as an anti-colonial text. Then critics shift their attention to the themes and writing techniques of the novel. Critics believe that the application of the writing techniques, such as rhythm, image, symbolism, elevates this work to a higher aesthetic realm. In current discussions of A Passage to India, sexual and racial politics have replaced writing techniques as the dominant topics. However, Forster's attitudes towards Indian culture are not fully studied. Therefore, this thesis intends to adopt postcolonial method to study how Forster, a Western and Orientalist, sees and treats Indian culture and then find out the causes for his paradoxical attitudes.This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One briefly introduces the personal background of Forster and his literary works, gives a literature review of the study of A Passage to India and previews the thesis. Chapter Two introduces the theoretical framework of postcolonialism, and the application of postcolonialism in literary criticism, particularly how it is used in the thesis. Chapter Three examines Forster's absorption of Indian culture and its reflection in A Passage to India. Having been to India twice, Forster is deeply influenced by Indian religions'mysticism, the embodiments of which are the characters'uncertainty, multifaceted symbolism of Indian animals, and the mythic image of God. Moreover, Forster perceived the segregation caused by the caste system in India and the conflicts among different religions. In A Passage to India, the segregation of Indian society can be seen not only between Muslims and Hindus, but also between Indians and Anglo-Indians. Chapter Four presents Forster's domestication of Indian culture."Domestication"is a term which is often used in translation. It is the translation strategy in which a transparent, fluent style is adopted in order to minimize the strangeness of the foreign text and cater for the target language readers'culture. Similarly, in this chapter of the thesis,"domestication"refers to Forster's description of Indian culture caters for Western culture and accords with Westerners'traditional and stereotyped views on India and Indians. In Westerners'mind, the East is the inferior"Other". Under Forster's pen, Indian culture is also depicted as the"Other"to Western culture. Like many Westerners, Forster has stereotyped views on Indian culture. On the basis of the analysis of Forster's attitudes towards Indian culture, Chapter Five concludes that Forster's paradoxical attitudes toward Indian culture are related to his cultural identity and analyzes the root and limitation of such identity. Furthermore, it points out the work's realistic significance in today's world of multicultural coexistence.