engleski

Forster’s A Passage to India: the echo beyond the echo

A Passage to India, E. M. Forster's most famous novel, has been read in stunningly different ways, particularly concerning the Marabar Caves episode, the climax of its plot. Starting from the basic premise, grounded in repeated close readings, that this is not a realistic, but symbolic novel, the author of the present article concentrates on its beginning sections, mostly the very brief first chapter, in order to show how the entire novel not only springs from it, but is even enclosed within it. The article tracks the most representative appearances of the Caves, throughout their metamorphoses, down to the very incident which produces Adela and Mrs Moore's traumas. As opposed to content-ridden readings, that in works such as A Passage to India do not take us too far towards their proper appreciation, the article highlights the splendid, filigree workings of language − content's form − that in themselves function as an echo, a stylistic echo with metaphysical resonances, that is so much more than the merely plot-based echo. Of special interest in this respect is the device of prefiguration − borrowed from theological typology and itself a kind of echo − which is identified in the novel as its subtle driving force.

A Passage to India, Marabar Caves, language, style, prefiguration

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