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Anyone want to talk about Donne or A Passage to India with me?

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StringFever:
I've found that the best way to revise for Lit is to discuss - in that way, I can talk views and values; and why they may or may not work. Also, by talking to relative strangers, I become aware of alternative readings that I never encountered.

So just maybe I'll offer a few points about Donne's poetry and India, and hope this thread grows into something beautiful and worthwhile for those fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to study the aforementioned texts.

Donne:
* The distinction between public and private audience (as seen quite clearly in perhaps "His Mistress" and "Song" respectively), and how that shapes the poet's language use and, by extension, use of conceits.
* The recurring motif of subject/s of poems being objects of Donne's love and affection (even in the later Divine poems)

A Passage to India
* Forster embracing and endorsing the Hindu/Oriental lifestyle as a means of explaining the "spiritual muddledom" of India
* Because "India" in "in compartments", the only link between the separate entities that make up the "hundred Indias" are the Hindu/Orientals.

Discuss? :)

iamdan08:
It has been a while since i have looked at a Passage to India but i think this thread is a good idea.

I found with A Passage to India, Forster imparted a lot of his own personal traits into the character of Mrs Moore, who was portrayed as "the ideal British woman" because of her accepting and anti-racial attitudes that were so different from the majority of the British living in India at the time. After she died, i felt Forster changed her character from a mortal woman into something greater, a symbol or even a God. I thought this was shown particularly in the scene outside the courtroom when the Indian public started shouting her name, because it showed that even despite her death, her presence and the influence she had was still felt.

StringFever:
You know, I heard a really interesting reading that suggested that Forster made Fielding a representation of himself - like Fielding, Forster did not see Christianity as the all-encompassing religion that could explain the mysteries of the world. By that same token, Fielding and Forster were outcasts in a highly facile and vacuous society (The Club) - Fielding for his liberal humanist views, and Forster for his homosexuality, something not particularly "tolerated" in England at the time.

For Mrs. Moore, on the other hand, I personally believe that she is an Oriental/Hindu, and like Godbole, she manages to survive India; by that I mean, she leaves India in the same fascinated state she arrived in. Similarly, there's this very non-Western idea of reincarnation that is applied to Mrs. Moore; as you mentioned, she reappears in the courtcase as "Esmiss Esmoor", the Hindu goddess, but she also reappears in the form of her son, Ralph, who also shares the same timidness and "premature aging"...

I mean, does that sound too far-fetched?

iamdan08:

--- Quote ---You know, I heard a really interesting reading that suggested that Forster made Fielding a representation of himself - like Fielding, Forster did not see Christianity as the all-encompassing religion that could explain the mysteries of the world. By that same token, Fielding and Forster were outcasts in a highly facile and vacuous society (The Club) - Fielding for his liberal humanist views, and Forster for his homosexuality, something not particularly "tolerated" in England at the time.

--- End quote ---
Yes, i think i remember reading something about that. Through writing A Passage to India, Forster was potentially ostracizing himself from his peers and many people in England at the time, since he is almost antagonising the British in his novel and portraying them as petty in some of the scenes when they are insulting the Indians attempts to conform to the British way of life (particularly in the scene where they had that party and the Indians were on one side and the British on the other-sorry memory a little fuzzy).


--- Quote ---For Mrs. Moore, on the other hand, I personally believe that she is an Oriental/Hindu, and like Godbole, she manages to survive India; by that I mean, she leaves India in the same fascinated state she arrived in. Similarly, there's this very non-Western idea of reincarnation that is applied to Mrs. Moore; as you mentioned, she reappears in the courtcase as "Esmiss Esmoor", the Hindu goddess, but she also reappears in the form of her son, Ralph, who also shares the same timidness and "premature aging"...

I mean, does that sound too far-fetched?

--- End quote ---
No, you have made a good point, and that doesn't sound too far fetched at all! Actually, I remember my lit teacher saying something about  "esmiss esmoor" and her Goddess influence.

I didn't actually do A passage to India on the exam, and i'm just going by what i remember from the sac, but i think the ideas you have are very good!!!

StringFever:
I got a prac exam back, and got an average mark; I got told that it was a good idea to talk about HOW the text creates meaning rather than WHAT meaning it creates - so I am wondering what they mean by that? Do I perhaps focus more heavily on language use?!

Do you have any tips for a good response which isn't too "dry" and "WHAT"-orientated? Haha!

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