A Study On E. M. Forster’s Italian Novels From The Perspective Of City Heterotopia

E. M. Forster (1879-1970) is one of the greatest novelists in20th century inEngland. He has equal fame with James Joyce, D. H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf. ARoom with a View and Where Angels Fear to Tread are known his Italian novels. E. M.Forster has long been occupying an important position in English literature and evenworld literature. He lived in the transition point from Victorian Era to Edwardian Era,therefore, strong humanistic concern and significant realistic meaning can be found inhis works. Although there are only six novels produced in his life, they revealForster’s seeking for warmth, intelligence and soul in the alienated world. This thesiswill study the Italy in the two Italian novels from perspective of city heterotopia. Inorder to see what the Italy heterotopia looks like in the two novels and make out thereason why it exists in that way, this paper will study the spatial, residential andspiritual aspects of it in detail and get a conclusion that the writer’s own experience,expectation and the social environment in which he lives have an effect on his novelwriting.This thesis consists of four parts: the first part offers a brief survey of theresearch background, the assumptions, city heterotopia and the contribution of thethesis.The second part consists of two sub-parts: the first mainly introduces the origin,the configurative mechanism and the research category of city heterotopia; and thesecond is a brief introduction to the previous research on Forster’s Italian novels.The third and fourth chapter is the core part of this thesis, Italy as the cityheterotopia will be studied from three aspects: the spatial aspect, the residential aspectand the spiritual aspect respectively in the two Italian novels.The last part serves as the conclusion to summarize the whole thesis analyzedabove to endow us with better understanding of the city heterotopia and Forster’sItalian novels.