- Enseignant-e: Simon Swift
In this seminar, we will explore three novels by E.M. Forster, one of the most celebrated novelists of the Edwardian period. Although Forster is often remembered as a novelist of the English belle époque of the years leading up to the First World War, and a comedian of social manners among the English bourgeoisie, his work is in fact possessed by deeply wild and
mysterious energies around sexuality (Forster was himself gay), the loss of faith in God and the survival of mysticism, changes to the class system (and especially the rise of “the masses”) and the relation between Englishness and its cultural others. Alongside of three of his six novels, we will engage Forster’s ground-breaking contribution to novel theory in his book Aspects of the Novel, as well as his humanism. We’ll also watch the celebrated Merchant-Ivory film adaptations of the novels, and think about the enduring appeal of Forster’s representations both of English insularity and English curiosity about otherness.
· Please note that, due to the size of the room, which has a maximum capacity of 20 people, inscriptions for this seminar are limited to 19.