A Passage to India的作品及背景介绍

A Passage to India (1924) is a novel by E. M. Forster set against the backdrop of the British Raj英属印度and the Indian independence movement in the 1920s. It was selected as one of the 100 great works of English literature by the Modern Library and won the 1924 James Tait Black Memorial Prize布莱克小说纪念奖for fiction. Time magazine included the novel in its "TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005““1923年至2005年最好的百部英语小说”.The novel is based on Forster's experiences in India.1.2 Historical background of the Novel 1、E.M. Forster wrote A Passage to India in 1924, the last novel that he published during his lifetime. The novel differs from Forster‘s other major works in its overt (公开的)political content, as opposed to the lighter tone轻快的笔调and more subdued温和的political subtext contained in his other works. The novel deals with the political occupation of India by the British, a colonial domination that ended after the publication of Forster's text and still during his lifetime.2、The colonial occupation of India is the background of the novel. Britain occupied an important place in political affairs in India since 1760, but did not secure control over India for nearly a century. InAugust of 1858, during a period of violent revolt反抗against Britain by the Indians, the British Parliament passed the Government of India Act《印度政府法案》, transferring political power from the East India Company to the crown. This was a system of aloof, condescendingsovereignty这是一个典型的居高临下的英国殖民分离体系in which the English bureaucracy did not associate with the persons they ruled, and finds its expression in characters such as Ronny Heaslop and Mr. McBryde in A Passage to India.3、Indian nationalism began to foment around 1885 and nationalism found expression in the Muslim community as well around the beginning of the twentieth century. Reforms in India's political system occurred with the victory of the Liberal Party自由党in 1906, culminating in the Indian Councils Act《印度议会法案》of 1909, but nationalism continued to rise.4、India took part in the first world war, assisting the British with the assumption that this help would lead to political concessions让步, but even with the promise after the war that Indians would play an increased role in their own government, relations between the English and Indians did not improve. After the war tension continued; in 1919 hundreds of Indians were massacred屠杀during a protest游行示威. It is around this timethat Mohandas Gandhi became a preeminent force in Indian politics, and it is also around this time that Forster would write A Passage to India. More than twenty years later, after a long struggle, Parliament passed the Indian Independence Act in 1947, ordering the separation of India and Pakistan and granting both nations their sovereignty自治.The Content of A Passage to IndiaIn A Passage to India, Forster takes the relations between the Englishmen and the Indians in India in the early 1920s as a background, tells us a story about an Indian doctor’s being accused falsely of insulting an Englishwoman, and explores the possibilities of establishing true friendship between Englishmen and Indians under the British colonialist rule. The story develops mainly around the relations of Aziz, a Muslin Indian doctor, and Cycil Fielding, an English humanist, who works in India as the principal of the Government College.Mrs. Moore and Miss Adela Quested have strong liberal ideas and are eager to meet Indians onan equal position. In order to meet the needs of Adela’s deeply and truly understanding of India,Aziz invited the two women and his friend Fielding to visit theMarabar Caves. While visiting one of the caves, Adela seems to have a hallucination of being insulted by someone in the cave. She rushes down alone and is picked up to go back to Chardrapore. Aziz fails to find Adela, but is arrested for having insulted Adela according to the latter’s own testimony. Adela’s accusation brings the already strained relations between the British and the Indians to a crisis. During the stormy trial, Adela recovers from her hysteria, and realizes that she has made a big mistake. The crisis is resolved, and Dr. Aziz is set free. But Adela fells into a lonely position and is dropped by all the British community except Fielding, who now admires her and helps her back to England. Fielding comes back to India again after two years and meets Aziz. Aziz clearly expresses that there will be no true friendship between the two peoples before India gets complete independence.。