TRANSFORMATION OF THE OTHER IN E. M. FORSTER’S MAURICE

Abstract

1. M. Forster’s novels represent a comprehensive oeuvre in terms of theoretical discussions, mostly those inspired by Forster himself in a series of public addresses as regards the role and nature of novel entitled The Clarke Lectures. Nevertheless, this assessment refers only to the five novels published over the course of his life, which, without exception, reached the status of a literary classic and which were either adapted for screen or stage. In opposition to that, the paper deals with Forster’s posthumously published novel Maurice, offering, on the one hand, an insight into the most intimate nooks of the author’s life within the context of homosexuality as a proscribed sexual orientation in the then British society and, on the other hand, into those elements of his published fictional works that critics had not dealt with until postcolonial/colonial studies were established as a full-pledged field of literary research. In that sense, the paper focuses on the notion of the Other and on its transformation from a dehumanised epitome of social margin to a perfectly camouflaged representative of dominant structures that surpasses, in many respects, its metropolitan role model and deconstructs it successfully, providing us with a prophet-like vision of the destiny of the British Empire in a decolonised world.