080111014 Aydın Akman

Modernist and Postmodernist Features in A Passage to India and The French

Lieutenant’s woman

In all the periods of human’s life, there was alwasys a movement describing the

period. In this paper, I will focus on the two dominated human’s life in thier own period,

Modernism and Postmodernism by mentioning about two books as examples for each of

them. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster is for Modernism and The French Lieutenant’s

Woman by John Fowles is for Postmodernism. But before starting with these books, I want to

describe these two movements (Modernism and Postmodernism) in general terms. In

Modernism, the literature was the expression of the modern era (1901-1945) and was used to

hover around themes of individuality, the randomness of life, distrust of government and

religion and the disbelief in absolute truth. There are three thinkers who mostly influence and

give shape to the Modern period and Modern Literature. These are; Charles Darwin (1809-

1882), Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Sigmund Freud. E.M. Forster is a modernist writer, as well

and is the creater of A Passage to India. There are some doubts about E.M.Forster whether he

is a Modern or a Victorian writer. I think it is because E.M. Forster lived in an age that was

dominated by so many social restrictions. For this reason did not go further in his novel

weiting even he was cabable of creating much more distinguished novels than these which he

had written. So while mentioning his book A Passage to India, I will mostly focused on his

modernist character in the book. The seccond movement that I will mention is

Postmodernism. Postmodernism does not “follow on” from Modernism, it does came after

modernism. It uses almost the same techniques with Modernism but not all of them of course.

It has a different outlook and denerally less pessimistic than Modernism. Black humour turns

to satire as in The French Lieutenant’s Woman; Sarah has some Victorian characteristics and

writer make fun of Victorian society with this character. Besides, Postmodernism uses some
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techniques such as different kinds of point of view (Postmodern writers often re-enter), satire,

intertextuality, symbolic representation, pastiche.

Forster is writer in the late nineteen century and at the beginning of twentieth century.

So, he expreriences some changes some changes such as political, economical and social. As

a writer he is exposed to Modernism which is new trend in this period. “Make it new” is also

for E.M. Forster. In the book, Adela quoted:

“ Miss Quested… announced anew that she was desirous to seeing the real India” P.g

23

Here, Adela truly wanted to experience to “ real india”. It is something new and exciting to

her. She realises that knowledge is not absolute, where what little she has seen before this

could not truly be what India has to offer. A passage to India is his most significant work

which is published after Forster’s trip to India in 1921. Since, there are both old traditions of

realism and aspects of modernism, it become an argument wheter it is realist or modernist

writer. In the novel, Marabar caves are boggles resistant to understanding the reason. At the

end of the novel, all the character’s attempt to be friend turns to in vain. Topography states;

“not yet”,“not there”. Chapter two, one of the previous chapter, analysis the tex very clearly,

focusing on one of the main characteristics of modernism in the novel. This is the spritual

turning. That is showing more concern on the iner world. With an analysis of intentional

adjustment of the cave event and its effect both on Adela and Mrs. Moore, the thesis shows

how Forster’s consideration is on the humanity and endless chase of an ideal end for human

mind. Instead of only impersonating the society and politics in reality, the novel sxpand much

on the counscious and subconscious of those characters. Capitalism, industrialism, secularism

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and building a system are the heading aspects of modernisim. For this reason the writer in

modernism should build a system and put an end to the story . Forster makes practices on

stream of counsciosness technique and point of view in terms of Modernism. Chapter Three

first reviews the modernist symbolism in literature, and based mainly on th main theme of the

novel “being friend” or “not being friend”. Different from those symbols in traditional realists

which are usually single-dimensional and remain stable in meaning, the symbols in this novel

are multi-dimensional, rather ambiguous and meant to be in accordance with its philosophical

theme.Lastly, Conclusion section summarizes that E. M. Forster goes beyond himself in his

last novel A Passage to India, gradually facing and admitting the impotence of the reason.

This admission characterizes his tentative turning from realism to modernism. Although he

does not totally abandon the realists’chronological order and traditional satires, although his

stand sometimes is rather“evasive”and“baffling”, his exploration for the future of human

mind in the modern muddle and his openness to the newness and experimentalism on

modernism should not be ignored or undervalued. The research on the modernism in the novel

will not only enrich our understanding of Forster, but also be revealing in the relationship

between realism and modernism, and in the concept of modernism itself.

In terms of Modernism, the literature tends to break the traditions. It is inner-self

oriented and is generally found by using a stream of consciousness technique. In A Passage

to India, there are several examples of stream of counsciousness way of thinking in the

chapter of “ Temple”. For example; Fielding asks Aziz to meet with Ralph and Stella and

Aziz does not speak in turn. Instead, here the writer wants reader to goes into the charcter’s

thoughts, which are not linear but circular. It is an example of human mind and emotions.

Moreover, in the book Forster is try to discuss the traditional values with a new window

opened by Modernism. In Modernism, there is a philosophy “Make it new” the same as

Forster applied in his work A Passage to India. This term is about breaking the tradition.
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There is a clear example about breaking traditions in the novel; after coming to Marabar

caves, especially Mrs. Moore and Miss Adela Quested hear the sound of ”echo”. It leads to a

confusion and causes to the arrestment of Dr. Aziz for assaulting her. Forster does not explain

the source of “echo” , and for this reason with leaving an unexplained term “echo”, Forster is

shown as a typical modernist writer. About the sound in the Marabar caves, Forster says: “In

the cave it is either a man, or the supernatural, or an illusion. If I say, it becomes whatever the

answer a different book. And even if I know!” 1. Forster’s disavowal of narratorial and even

authorial omniscience bespoke the transition from the Edwardian to the modernist age.2. For

example; in A Passage to India, E.M. Forster maket he Topography uses these words; “not

yet”,“not there”, this means that these two nation s can not make any friendship. This is a

classical end for Modernism because the writer wants to build an order so the writer does not

leave the end to the reader. In postmodernism, this situation is vice versa. In postmodernism

writer wants reader to decide the ending of the story. This shows that the writer is dead at end

in post modernism and there is no order. This shows similarities between barthes theory

which is as follow;

DEATH OF THE AUTHOR Roland Barthes's notion of the death of the author is one

of the rallying cries for poststructuralism in its insistence that the author is not to be

regarded as the final arbiter of a text's meaning. In Barthes' view, authors had come to

be considered as authority figures, thus placing the reader in an inferior position. He

called for the death of the author (more precisely, the death of a certain conception of

the author, the author as authority figure) in order to free the reader to be creative.

Reading was no longer to be considered a passive process, but instead an active one in
1 E. M. Forster, A Passage to India. Ed. Oliver Stallybrass. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979. p. 26.
2 This page has been adapted from Pericles Lewis's Cambridge Introduction to Modernism (Cambridge UP, 2007), pp.68-69.
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which the reader was fully engaged in the production of textual meaning. The birth of

the reader, as Barthes put it, was to be achieved at the expense of the author. The

major thrust of Barthes's attack is against the modern tendency to treat authors as

cultural icons (the Author rather than the author, with the capital 'A' signalling the

importance accorded this figure), rather than authorship as such, and the death of the

author is an implicitly anti-traditional notion much in keeping with the liberationist

tenor of the 1960s when it was devised.( “Routledge Companions to Postmodernism,

Stuart Sim, 2001: p. 221.”)

The postmodernist aspect of The French Lieutenant’s Woman is primarily reflected in

the role of the narrator. What is the role of the narrator?

On the one had, the narrator is the omniscient narrator, in line with the tradition of the

literary realism (he stops the action, discusses certain things, he was the construct, invention

of the author, just like the rest of them, he is outside the world of action, not outside the novel,

he also refers to the characters in the third person, he takes the reader by the hand, he sums up

for the reader, he forms the opinion of the reader, leads him almost physically and mentally.

The viewpoint of the narrator is external because the narrator looks at what happens to the

characters and reports it, it is external, Olympian viewpoint.

He serves the function of the mediator between the protagonist and the reader. He may be

similar to the author, but it is not necessary.).

On the other hand, Fowles uses this tradition of the all knowing narrator, and plays

with it in a typical post modernist way, to suggest that such type of narrator was a convention

as everything else, that he was made up by the author just like the characters. As readers, we

can never tell if he is ridiculing or reinforces this tradition of the omniscient narrator. It turns

out he is doing both at the same time. Since these narrators are all knowing, they intervene,
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they control the moves of their characters. But the twist that Fowles deliberately does here, he

makes his narrator the all-knowing, but also makes him not intervene, not use his power. That

is how Fowles plays with the tradition of the omniscient narrator.

Fowles also applies the theory of evolution to the social context. Sara would be a

prototype of a free woman, she anticipates new times. Applying Darwin’s theory of evolution,

she makes Sarah the species who will successfully adapt to the coming times. Charles is yet to

become an emancipated men. On the other hand, Ernestina and most of the other characters

are doomed to extinction, they fail to adapt and adopt the new norms.

Postmodernism is a very playful phenomenon. On one occasion, Charles needs to

make up his mind about whether he would meet Sarah in Exiter or not. That is one of the

moments where the narrator intrudes on the action and addresses the reader. He says: look at

him now. So he stops the action and addresses the reader. The narrator suggest that he could

make Charles do what he wanted him to do, such as, go to his fiancée and forget all about

Sarah. Probably, he should go to his fiancée, the narrator says, which is a reflection of

Fowles’ irony, here we have through the narrator Fowles speaking and ironising the right and

wrong of the time, suggesting that there is no right and wrong, but simply right and wrong

from the perspective of the particular set of norms and conventions.

According to Victorian norms, what would be right for Charles to do would be to go to

his fiancée and forget about the mysterious woman. He should decide not to have an affair

with her, because it is right from the Victorian perspective. “That is what he should do, but he

won’t, what can I do?”, says the narrator, “I could intervene, but I won’t, I am just here, I

want to make my characters free (another paradox, how can we make someone free, we can

only grant freedom, which only means that they are not free).” As an another aspect of post

modernism, the writer uses deconstraction with which he rewriting the novel by making fun
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of victorian age. This shows similarities with the thoughts of Jacques Derrida which is as

follows:

DECONSTRUCTION Deconstruction is a term coined by the French philosopher

Jacques Derrida in the late1960s to offer mode of reading which is attentive to a text's

multiple meanings. Rather than attempting to find a true meaning, a onsistent point of

view or unified message in a given work, a deconstructive reading carefully teases out,

to use Barbara Johnson's words, 'the warring forces of signification' at play and

waiting to be read in what might be cal1ed the textual nconscious. As a mode of

reading, then, which exposes a text's internal differences and attends to its repressed

contradictions or inherent Ulnerabilities, its strategy is also interventionist, and as

such, despite many a claim to the contrary, deconstruction is political. This is not only

because of the ways in which a deconstructive reading can turn a text's logic against

itself by howing how the logic of its language can differ from and play against the

logic of its author's stated claims, but also because deconstructors tend to seize on the

inconsistencies, inequalities, or hierarchies which are expounded or glossed over either

by a text, by a whole discourse, or even by an entiresystem of beliefs. ( “Routledge

Companions to Postmodernism, Stuart Sim, 2001: p. 221,222.”)

There is also an ending. At the end of the novel, Charles enters the house, sees Sarah

and they have a typical Victorian happy ending. Another indication that Sarah has completely

changed and accepted the new times is reflected in the fact that Charles finds her living in the

house of the artists, Pre-Raphaelites (another postmodernist element), who rejected Victorian

morality, which reinforces the theory of evolution applied on the social context. Fowles
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deliberately associates her, the invented character of his fiction, to the Pre-Raphaelite artists

who truly existed, which is another postmodernist mix. There are fictitious characters,

functioning on the same level with true personages who truly existed in history.

As a result, we are confused and the borderline between fiction and reality is very thin.

In the traditional happy ending, he is happy to have found her, they decide happily ever after

as husband and wife and miraculously, they even have a daughter, who is the child of love,

born from one sexual encounter they had.

All of the sudden, the narrator reappears, takes his watch, winds the hands of the

watch backwards 15 minutes, which suggests narrator’s unlimited control and power. We then

see Charles re-entering the house and we see the whole episode rerun, but with a different

outcome. It is very 20th century like ending, more in tune with the expectations of the

20thcentury reader, who feels the first type of ending to be sweet, but unrealistic.

She decides to let him go, they realise that their differences are too great to be bridged, she is

not very happy about the idea of marriage.

She has simply found some model, some way of life that appeals to her. She also

decides not to tell him of the child. This is much more realistic, much more down to earth

ending.

On his way out, Charles sees the child, and it never occurs to him it could be his child. That is

another example of intervention in the name of non-intervention.

Charles is the character that develops throughout the novel, he dares not to marry

Ernestina, proving, in line with the Darwin’s theory, that he will adapt to survive.

Sarah does not grow, we already find her different at the beginning of the novel. Even

her first appearance in the novel establishes her as a rebel, with her back turned to the village.

Only her circumstances change, and she finds her place, she finds her true, natural

environment, and she no longer seems to be an outcast.

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To sum up, every period in human’s life has its own movement and this movement

influence the lifestyle and literature. This literature grows on the movement of the era and

gives its own features to the Works of art as well. A Passage to India is one of the novel

effected by Modernism which is the movement of the period and the same is for The French

Lieutenant’s Woman but it is effected by Postmodernism.

Work Cited:

 .Routledge.The.Routledge.Companion.to.Postmodernism.Dec.2001 Edited by Stuart

Sim

 A Passage to India by E.M. Forster

 The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles

 Bran_NicolThe_Cambridge_Introduction_to_Postmodern_Fiction_(Cambridge_Introd

uctions_to_Literature)(2009) Bran Nicol

 Introductory_Guide_to_Post_Structuralism_and_Postmodernism -- Madan Sarup

 The French Lieutenant’s Woman: The Strong chains of Victorian society by Gülrah

Moramollu

 Unveiling Nations - Criticism