FORSTER’S ITALIAN NOVELS AS A TESTGROUND FOR A PASSAGE TO INDIA

Abstract

M. Forster is one of the authors whose auto-referentiality manifests itself on several levels, from the choice of themes regarding his novels and short stories, over his styllistic features, leitmotifs, symbols, and clear social engagement with concern to major global issues, to the transtextuality of his characters as, probably, the most outstanding one. Through the prism of some key notions of colonial/postcolonial discourse, the paper deals with Forster's 'Italian novels' (A Room with a View and Where Angels Fear to Tread) as a testground for some of the themes and motifs elaborated in A Passage to India.

Keywords

• Forster's Italian novels
• A Passage to India
• cultural grammar
• colonial mimicry
• cultural contact