Universität KonstanzFachbereich LiteraturwissenschaftWintersemester 2010/11Proseminar: Introduction to the Analysis of Literary Texts: Edward Morgan Forster Dozentin: Dr. phil. Claudia Rapp Referentin: Viktoria Moosmann
10.11.2010
E.M. Forster: his background
1. Forster's childhood
• * 1st January 1879, died 7th June 1970
• only child, parents: Lily and Edward Morgan Forster (architect), who died in 1880
• was raised by his mother and his aunts, he grew up over-protected
• his great-aunt (father's side), Marianne Thornton, was a descendant of the ClaphamSect of evangelists and reformers; Forster was brought up religious, later herejected his Christian faith
• Clapham Sect: members shared common political views (liberation of slaves,abolition of slave trade and reform of penal system)
• 1888: death of Marianne Thornton: Forster inherits 8000 pounds (gave Forster thefreedom to travel and to write
2. Education
• 1890: he attended preparatory boarding school; made him unhappy, so his mothermoved to Tonbridge, so he could attend as a dayboy
• Tonbridge changed him from a beautiful, eloquent child into an awkward, repressedadolescent
• 1897: Forster enters King's College, Cambridge
• for the first time in his life he experienced freedom and real friendship
3. Cambridge Apostles / 'Conversazione Society' (founded in 1820)
• secret society, debated questions of religion, morality, ethical conduct and arthad their self-declared freedom from intellectual restrains, but also taboos indiscussion, e.g. sexuality
• membership by election, women excluded
• own rituals: undergrade members (Active Brethren), senior members (Angels)
• met Saturday evenings when a formal paper was read (e.g. G.E. Moore, whoplayed an important part in Forster's intellectual awakening in Cambridge)
• Forster was elected member in 1901
• live in Cambridge was really different to his childhood, especially because of theexclusively male environment while he was brought up in a circle of adoring women
• opened to him new vistas of human relationship; for him it was the honesty and therelationship that mattered most
• on the other hand, Cambridge, King's and the Apostles might have entrapped him:all his novels were given to further explorations of human relationship
4. Bloomsbury Group
• owed its name of the district of London where intellectuals were disposed to live
• was formed by some members of the Apostles, now with the addition of two women(Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell), what made a great difference
• set of intellectuals and artists; central nucleus: Virgina Woolf, Leonard Woolf,Maynard Keynes (economist), Lytton Strachey (biographer), Vanessa Bell, DuncanGrant (painter), Clive Bell and Roger Fry (art critics)
• Gordon Square (Leonard Woolf's house) became the central meeting place
• Bloomsbury stood for independence of mind and culture, for liberation of the criticalfaculties
• collective will to sustain itself in a world of massive antagonistic forces
• creative achievement: Hogarth Press, a publishing firm: great progressive force incontemporary literature after the first World War
• but Bloomsbury also aroused hostility (opponents: Wyndham Lewis, L.H. Myers,F.R. Leavis, D.H. Lawrence)
• they were worshipped by some (for being disciples of beauty, love and friendship),derided by others (for making a religion of artiness and their own convolutedrelationships)
• Bloomsbury presented themselves as at war with Victorianism and stultifyingconventionality
• the real importance of it was the encouragement and stimulus it gave to the work ofits individual members
• Forster valued Bloomsbury, because it continued and extended some of theCambridge values that meant most to him; Forster's fruitfulness derived from hisrelationship within the circle; he had a close friendship with Leonard Woolf andRoger Fry, but he was not a central figure
• Forster's relationship to the Group is described as a peripheral and ambivalent one,what is reflected in his work, too
• 'his writings have been read as an uncomplicated elaboration of what the Group asa whole espoused' (Medalie 2007: 36)
5. Summary
• The Apostles and Bloomsbury highly influenced Forster's live and writing
• especially the values demonstrated in his fiction and criticism derive from theirinfluence
• In Cambridge he experienced real friendship and honesty
• Bloomsbury continued and extended some of the Cambridge values, especiallyfriendship was central to their creed
Literature
• Medalie, David. “Bloomsbury and other values”. In David Bradshaw (ed.) TheCambridge Companion To E. M. Forster. Cambrigde: Cambridge University Press,2007: 32-46.
• Saunders, Max. “Forster's life and life-writing”. David Bradshaw (ed.) TheCambridge Companion To E. M. Forster. Cambrigde: Cambridge University Press,2007: 8-31.
• Gillie, Christopher. A Preface To Forster. New York: Longman Group Limited, 1983.
• Page, Norman. E. M. Forster. Houndmills/London: The Macmillan, 1987.