Pukka English and the Language of the Other in E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India

A Passage to India differs from Kipling’s luscious use of Indian words or Conrad’s creativity; while Kipling’s Kim returns to the vernacular as a mother-tongue and Conrad uses linguistic distortion as a site of ethical ambiguity, Forster strays from the systematic inclusion of alien signifiers with...

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Main Author: Catherine Lanone
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée 2013-09-01
Series:Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/cve/973
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author Catherine Lanone
author_facet Catherine Lanone
author_sort Catherine Lanone
collection DOAJ
description A Passage to India differs from Kipling’s luscious use of Indian words or Conrad’s creativity; while Kipling’s Kim returns to the vernacular as a mother-tongue and Conrad uses linguistic distortion as a site of ethical ambiguity, Forster strays from the systematic inclusion of alien signifiers with his text. E. M. Forster opts instead for a deconstruction of the English attempt to appropriate Indian signifiers as a token language positing the superiority of the Raj. Ironically subverting the use of signifiers like « pukka », Forster seeks to open up the text to the very otherness of Indian culture, moving beyond the annihilating echo of the caves to enhance what McBratney sees as the voice of the subaltern in the text, through the orality of songs. Echoing foreign words become a pocket of rhythm and sound, the very matrix of a meaning that escapes colonial discourse and points towards a polyphony that remains pregnant with meaning.
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spelling doaj-art-d63536d73ccc4d7296193d9c94e5ab3c2025-01-30T10:20:37ZengPresses Universitaires de la MéditerranéeCahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens0220-56102271-61492013-09-017810.4000/cve.973Pukka English and the Language of the Other in E. M. Forster’s A Passage to IndiaCatherine LanoneA Passage to India differs from Kipling’s luscious use of Indian words or Conrad’s creativity; while Kipling’s Kim returns to the vernacular as a mother-tongue and Conrad uses linguistic distortion as a site of ethical ambiguity, Forster strays from the systematic inclusion of alien signifiers with his text. E. M. Forster opts instead for a deconstruction of the English attempt to appropriate Indian signifiers as a token language positing the superiority of the Raj. Ironically subverting the use of signifiers like « pukka », Forster seeks to open up the text to the very otherness of Indian culture, moving beyond the annihilating echo of the caves to enhance what McBratney sees as the voice of the subaltern in the text, through the orality of songs. Echoing foreign words become a pocket of rhythm and sound, the very matrix of a meaning that escapes colonial discourse and points towards a polyphony that remains pregnant with meaning.https://journals.openedition.org/cve/973hybridityheteroglossiaConrad (Joseph)Forster (E. M.)A Passage to IndiaAnglo-Indian
spellingShingle Catherine Lanone
Pukka English and the Language of the Other in E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India
Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens
hybridity
heteroglossia
Conrad (Joseph)
Forster (E. M.)
A Passage to India
Anglo-Indian
title Pukka English and the Language of the Other in E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India
title_full Pukka English and the Language of the Other in E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India
title_fullStr Pukka English and the Language of the Other in E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India
title_full_unstemmed Pukka English and the Language of the Other in E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India
title_short Pukka English and the Language of the Other in E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India
title_sort pukka english and the language of the other in e m forster s a passage to india
topic hybridity
heteroglossia
Conrad (Joseph)
Forster (E. M.)
A Passage to India
Anglo-Indian
url https://journals.openedition.org/cve/973
work_keys_str_mv AT catherinelanone pukkaenglishandthelanguageoftheotherinemforstersapassagetoindia