Document Type

Thesis - University Access Only

Award Date

2006

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department / School

English

Abstract

In this thesis, I plan to examine, through his biography, novels, and later political writings, E. M. Forster's egalitarian and liberal sensibilities regarding the social concerns of England in the early decades of the twentieth century. These liberal sensibilities distinguished Forster from a number of his contemporaries (such as T. S. Eliot, Wyndham Lewis, and especially Ezra Pound, for whom right-wing politics led to quite unfortunate ends) who seemed more willing to side, politically and artistically, with rightwing ideologies. And while critics do not hesitate to discuss Forster's novels and political views and combine discussions of his works of fiction with details from his political and critical writings and biography, relatively few examine these matters in much depth (Claude Summers and S. P. Rosenbaum are two of the few exceptions). Forster's writings demonstrate an adherence to the liberalism that was strongest before the First World War and was certainly not characteristic of modernism in general. This devotion to more democratic views ( especially in terms of who was to inherit England) as solution to society's ills, which probably seemed old-fashioned after the carnage of World War I, for which the inept liberal democracies were blamed, arguably offered better answers to the problems of class relations and how governments treated people than did the more right-leaning propositions of other modernists. Forster did, though, especially after World War I, seriously question and even doubt his liberal beliefs. As he questioned his beliefs, he found weaknesses and readily acknowledged them. But rather than give in to the temptations of right-leaning (or even left-leaning) political theories, Forster maintained his beliefs in liberalism as he saw greater dangers in most of the other political notions in the air after World War I than in adhering to his liberal notions. Furthermore, Forster's more traditional, less experimental prose style made his novels, which are not without their difficulties, more accessible to a wider audience than a number of modernist texts, thus opening his beliefs to a wider range of readers. The fact that Forster's views and the reputation of his work survived two World Wars, a depression, and the assaults of modernist perspectives suggest that his perspectives were more than quaint holdovers from a prior age.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Forster, E. M (Edward Morgan), 1879-1970 -- Criticism and interpretation

English fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism

Liberalism in literature

Liberalism

Format

application/pdf

Number of Pages

179

Publisher

South Dakota State University

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