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conversation dynamics, of discourse vitality, e.g. have had, paused, seemed, to fill, have never
known, result, attempt, to be, is, have been, has gone, has been, kept, set, see, happens, ruined, can’t
see, can, wish, had never lived, to see, know, should have lived.
The formality and appropriateness of long sentences in discourse is disrupted
strategically by elliptical sentences, meant to dramatize what is being said at the moment the
disruption occurs. Such stylistic manipulation of language is obvious in:
‘I have had twenty-five years’ experience of this country’–he paused, and ‘twenty-five
years’ seemed to fill the waiting-room with their staleness and ungenerosity–‘and during
those twenty-five years I have never known anything but disaster result when English
people and Indians attempt to be intimate socially. Intercourse, yes. Courtesy, by all
means. Intimacy–never, never. The whole weight of my authority is against it. I have
been in charge at Chandrapore for six years, and if everything has gone smoothly, if there
has been mutual respect and esteem, it is because both peoples kept to this simple rule.’
The same stylistic effect is created by breaking the canon of well-formed sentences,
with a view to expressing the speaker’s indignation considering the present state of affairs,
e.g.
‘New-comers set our traditions aside, and in an instant what you see happens, the work
of years is undone and the good name of my District ruined for a generation. I – I – can’t
see the end of this day’s work, Mr. Fielding. You, who are imbued with modern ideas –
no doubt you can. I wish I had never lived to see its beginning, I know that. That a lady,
that a young lady, engaged to my most valued subordinate –that she– an English girl
fresh from England–that I should have lived – –’
The text is thus clearly subjective at all levels and the ideas and the concepts expressed
are, at all times, supported by artful pleating of stylistic functions of language.
When considering the stylistic peculiarities of the texts analyzed, we cannot deny
Forster his rightful place as one of the precursors of the stream-of-consciousness. His clever
combining tradition and innovation resulted in high-quality prose that already displays
(violent or less violent) disruptions of the formality of the vocabulary used, of the strict rules
of morphology, syntax, semantics and logics, as already proved in the passages discussed.
References
Forster, E. M. (1991). A Passage to India, London: David Campbell Publishers Ltd.
Abstract
E. M. Forster’s discourse in A Passage to India may be accepted as subjective at all levels; the
ideas and the concepts are always supported by the mastery assembling of the stylistic functions of
language. Taking into consideration the stylistic particularities of the texts in focus, Forster’s
being a forerunner of the stream-of-consciousness can hardly be denied. His witty juxtaposition of
tradition and innovation resulted in a high quality prose which already reveals (more or less
violent) discrepancies regarding the formality of the vocabulary, the strict rules of morphology,
syntax, semantics and logic, as the analysis of excerpts shows it.
Résumé
Le discours d’E. M. Forster dans A Passage to India peut être regardé comme étant subjectif à tous
les niveaux; les idées et les concepts exprimés sont toujours supportés de l’assemblage artistique
des fonctions stylistiques du langage. En considérant les particularités stylistiques des textes à
analyser, nous ne pouvons nier la place méritée de Forster comme l’un des précurseurs du
“stream-of-consciousness.” Ses combinaisons intelligentes de tradition et innovation ont produit
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