BREAKING WITH TRADITION
A PORTRAIT OF THE
ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN
(1916), JAMES JOYCEThe first novel by Irish writer Joyce
(see p.216), A Portrait of the Artist
as a Young Man traces the early
years of a character who would
later reappear in Joyce’s 1922
masterpiece, Ulysses. Stephen
Dedalus rebels against the norms
of Ireland and Catholicism, and sets
out to forge his own destiny—as
a writer in Paris. The book uses
stream-of-consciousness narrative
in a way that foreshadows the
author’s later work.THE HEARTLESS
(1917), YI KWANG-SUA South Korean journalist and
independence activist, Yi Kwang-su
(1892–1950) was the author of the
first modern Korean novel, The
Heartless. It tells the story of a
young teacher of English in Seoul,
torn between two women in the
period of Japanese occupation: one
is traditionalist and working as a
kisaeng (geisha), the other is inclined
to liberated Western values. The
protagonist’s predicament is used
to dramatize social tensions in
Korea, but the book also explores
personal, sexual awakening as
well as cultural ambiguities.SIDDHARTHA
(1922), HERMANN HESSEHugely popular in the 1960s due its
exploration of Eastern spirituality,
Siddhartha by Swiss writer Hesse
(1877–1962) describes the spiritual
life of a young Brahmin in ancient
India. The title is Sanskrit, meaningMarcel Proust (1871–1922). In a
famous early scene, the taste of a
madeleine releases memories of
boyhood for the first-person
narrator. Proust’s leisurely, analytical
prose outlines detailed accounts of
the inner lives of both himself and
the characters of the work, including
love and jealousy, homosexuality,
artistic ambition, and many varieties
of vice and virtue. The experience of
living in wartime Paris is vividly
conveyed. Throughout, social
nuances are subtly registered.
Eventually the narrator learns that
the beauty of the past lives on in the
memory—time is regained. He then
begins writing his life’s story. This
autobiographical dimension is one
of the work’s many fascinations.“he who has attained his goals.”
The hero opts not to join the order
newly created by the Buddha, but
to discover his own form of insight.
Sidetracked by wealth and erotic
desire, he finally gains wisdom and
love in the consciousness of the
world’s unimprovable completeness.
The book fuses spiritual thinking
with psychoanalysis and philosophy.A PASSAGE TO INDIA
(1924), E. M. FORSTEREnglish author E. M. Forster (1879–
1970) sets A Passage to India during
the period of the British Raj in India,
amid the stirrings of the movement
for independence. The book’s central
event is an alleged and unspecified
attempt at sexual impropriety in a
cave complex, by a young Muslim
Indian doctor against a British
woman with whom he is on friendly
terms. The case against the doctor,
which leads to a trial, brings to the
surface tensions between colonized
and colonizing nations. Forster
questions the underlying principles
of British imperialism, in the
process puncturing the romantic
delusions of those seduced by the241
D. H. Lawrence
Born in 1885, David Herbert
Lawrence was the son of a
coal miner and the first from
his village in Nottinghamshire,
England, to win a scholarship
to the local high school. His
early promise led to college
and a teaching career, but his
writing talent—his first story
was published in 1907—
persuaded him to quit teaching
in 1912. He eloped to Germany
with married aristocrat Frieda
Weekley in the same year.
Marked by a spontaneous,
vivid realism, Lawrence’s
writing subverted prevailing
social, sexual, and cultural
norms, earning him censorship
and—at the time of his death in
1930—a tarnished reputation.Key works1913 Sons and Lovers (see left)
1915 The Rainbow
1920 Women in LoveIn England the moon had
seemed dead and alien; here
she was caught in the shawl
of night together with earth
and all the other stars.
A Passage to India
E. M. ForsterUS_240-245_FR_CH5.indd 241 08/10/2015 13:08