Forster's Confusion And Contradiction:A Study Of A Passage To India From The Perspective Of Homi K.Bhabha's Hybridity Theory

Colonial and post-colonial times are the indispensable parts in the development of modern human civilization.Remarkably,its complex cultural phenomenon,especially the issue of cultural identity has generated a wealth of theories and researches both at home and abroad.With the deepening of globalization,people pay more and more attention to cultural identity,confusion and construction.When communicating with a different culture,they are eager to seek ways to construct their own culture identities,striving for more discourse power and equal opportunities to participate in globalization.Edward Morgan Forster(1879-1970),one of the most famous British writers in the 20~thh century,devotes much of his writing to man's self-identity and personal relationship in that special period.He holds the idea of liberal-humanism which includes democracy,equality,fraternity,and opposition to aggression and despotism.In his A Passage to India,cultural identity confusion and conflicts in the mutual acceptance and integration of colonizers and colonized are well displayed,not simply provoking reflective thoughts about this special culture phenomenon but deeply expressing the author's profound humanistic care for the unique hybrid culture.In light of Homi Bhabha's hybridity theory,this thesis,based on previous studies,attempts to make an in-depth study of the novel and its profound significance.As one of the post-colonial theories,Homi Bhabha's(1949-)hybridity refers to the hybrid characteristics of the mixture of different races,cultures,languages,etc.especially focusing on man's identity problem.From this perspective,this thesis adopts a hybridity strategy to analyze and examine the hybridity phenomenon in A Passage to India.The following are the main findings.Firstly,this thesis reveals that class and race,estrangement and prejudice are the protruding production of the confusion and conflicts of human existence in the colonized Anglo-India.Forster investigates individual cultural identity in the hybrid context,which indicates his positive reflection of achieving true communication and interaction among diverse cultures and nations on the condition of equality and mutual respect.Secondly,colonial culture hybridity offers a Third Space of culture interaction.Adela,as a representative of the Western middle-class,the incident happened in the Marabar Caves exposed her limitation when confronted with the mystique of Indian culture.Through the mimicry strategy of typical hybrid identity of Aziz,Indian has realized the significance of identification to their own culture,which provokes resistance towards colonial hegemony.The breakdown in the relationship between Aziz and Fielding proves Western-middle class cannot eliminate prejudice to“other”culture so easily.Thirdly,A Passage to India strongly reflects Forster's humanistic ideology and social responsibility.His deep concern for and exploration into the culture coexistence and identity construction are of profound practical significance in the modern period.Nevertheless,as a westerner himself,Forster could not transcend his own cognition and unavoidably fell into the dilemma of cultural identification with“other”culture.His liberal-humanism to some degree remains as utopianism.Finally,Forster's life experience deepened his understanding of culture differences and culture hybridity,thus contributing to the creation of A Passage to India.Forster calls for the harmonious coexistence and connection between different cultures.Whereas owing to Forster's own limitations,confusion and conflicts are caused in his acceptance of hybrid culture.Besides abstract and conclusion,this thesis mainly consists of four parts.Chapter one begins by reviewing previous studies on A Passage to India at home and abroad.Chapter two synthetically explains and expounds Bhabha's Hybridity theory from its historical sense,theoretical basis and its major concerns.Chapter three is the body part,focusing on the conflicts of the hybrid cultures in British India,especially the identity predicament of the main characters in the novel,the mutual attraction and exclusion between the colonists and the colonized,and the resistance of the colonized to the cultural hegemony as well.The fourth chapter focuses on the causes,main contents and reflections of Forster's liberal-humanism in his A Passage to India,discussing the difficulty of realizing Forster's liberal-humanism due to the deep-rooted influence of western-centrism.