Forster in Sinhala
A long standing need had been fulfilled by two scholars: Professor
Kulatilaka Kumarasinghe and Amali Boralugoda with their translation of E
M Forster's well known series of Clark lectures entitled Aspects of the
Novel. Forster is known to the English reading and speaking world as an
acclaimed creative writer with his wonderful world packed with a series
of novels. One outstanding novel is A Passage to India, which was later
turned into a celebrated film by David Lean.
Edward Morgan Forster (1879-1970), known as a novelist, was selected
to deliver the Clark lecture series at the Cambridge University in
1926/27. Ever since the appearance of the notes that went into the
making of the series of lectures into a book form, the literary scholars
knew it was seminal but significant work.
This book laid emphasis of much needed clarity on several salient
factors in novel writing. They were classified by Forster under broad
titles that went as story, people ('characterization' came to be used
later), plot, fantasy ('imagination' was the term used later), prophesy
('vision' or 'point of view' as used later), pattern and rhythm.
These features or factors were seemingly interesting from various
points of view. I am not sure whether any other text preceded these
segments as useful for the understanding of elements that go into the
making of a narrative. Other standard texts used by the literary
scholars happened to be Understanding Fiction by Warren and Brooks,
Elements of Fiction by Robert Scholes and Theory of Literature by Rene
Wellek.
Forster's compilation of his series of lectures into a book form
helped the literary scholar gauge the value of a fiction or a narrative
in a broader perspective. In fact as I see it the two translators have
given better glossarial terms for these factors laid above. Story is
termed as katha pravurthiya and prophesy is termed as bhavisyat
vidarshanaav. Perhaps two better terms I felt were katha vastuva and
drushtiya or dekma. Glossarial terms may not matter much in the
understanding of narratology.
The pioneer insights of Forster are observable in his collection of
essays titled Abinger Harvest (1936). Perhaps this is a rejoinder to
Aspects of the Novel, which was widely discussed in England, America and
India. Unlike most other English literary critics Forster kept one step
ahead by taking the oriental literature into serious discussion. In
Abinger Harvest, he selects the works of Tagore, an indigenous creator
who sprung up from the folk tradition. Perhaps there are certain
creative traits in Forster's work A Passage to India (1924) that had
seeped into the creative structure.
As such it is said that the fame of A Passage was as much political
as literary, for a while it is absorbing in characterization and
incident. Its impact was made as a presentation of the deep-lying racial
resentments between Indians and their overlords and overladies under
British rule. It is also said that the book probably did much to further
the conviction that India must be made independent since Forster's novel
had a considerable weight among British intellectuals. These factors had
not overshadowed Forster's image as a literary critic. He was hailed by
the Indian intellectuals as a sensitive creative writer as well as a
penetrative literary critic.
Forster's Aspects of the Novel too may have been instrumental in the
teaching process of narrative studies as at a formulating stage in the
modern period of English fiction. Forster engaged in in-depth studies of
Dickens, Hardy, Austen and Virginia Woolf. Some other critics who
followed him such as Stephan Spender, Frank Kermode and William Cowley
attempted to transcend him by selecting creative writers like Lawrence
and Joyce as creative trendsetters.
In this direction Forster is followed by a galaxy of other literary
critics who spring up from the English teachings and learning sphere.
Indian literary critics had mixed feelings about Forster. While some of
them disagreed with his creative vision in A Passage to India they seem
to agree with him as regards his oriental influence via the major
classical works of India.
The chapter denoted as 'prophecy' by Forster in his work, I reckon it
as an eternal creative force. It had been the responsibility of much
concerned creative writers of the calibre of Leo Tolstoy to lay down
rules on the concept of prophecy. For instance Tolstoy upheld the view
of immense humanism and spiritualism via creative works as the great
beneficial means of writing. Perhaps Forster would have inherited or at
least had been influenced by this stream of Tolstoyan thought. Forster,
for a modern reader, may not look as so attractive from the viewpoint of
his vision.
But it is quite necessary that Forster must be regarded a pioneer
visionaries in the creative force that linked the East and the West.
Perhaps as I see it this may be the first ever attempt to introduce a
work of Forster to the Sinhala reader.
I wish that the translation of Forster's work into Sinhala ought to
fill a void. It was recurring from time to time. Finally it is necessary
also to observe that critical works on narratology have changed over the
years. In a future edition a better Sinhala preface as regards these
developments is anticipated.
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