The Counter-Discourse of the Repressed: On E. M. Forster’s Maurice

• Main Authors: Ling-ying Hung, 洪綾霙
• Other Authors: Kuang-jung Cheng
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/82667574424764409597

碩士 === 國立中興大學 === 外國語文學系所 === 98 === In Maurice, E. M. Forster highlights homosexuality as an oppressed discourse in the context of the late Victorian and early modern English society. In contrast, heterosexuality was the prevalent and dominant discourse that ideologically positioned people in place. The society, therefore, endeavored to drive out the dissenter’s same-sex desire so as to constantly affirm the heterosexual’s position. However, the dispelling has never been successful in that the legitimate scoiety always unconsciously needs an abject, to borrow Julia Kristeva’s term, to remind itself of the position it is at. Analogically, homosexuality was the abjection in the awareness of the homosexual. And it is in this situation that Forster appealed to the writing of Maurice to both pinpoint the liminal position at which the homosexual occupied and use this novel as an intermediary to articulate his long-term repressed homoeroticism. The novel became an irritant to the contemporary society as it was published posthumously. In short, Maurice was an abject due to the forbidden topic, in which, Maurice, the mouthpiece of Forster, has finally found his psoition with his lover. Although this imaginary peacefulness was possible in the work of art, Maurice has remained Forster’s reminder of a time when homophobia had made him and the protagonist and many others suffer unspeakably from their private “illegitimate” desire. Apparently, Foucault’s idea of power is involved. In Maurice, Forster approaches homosexuality as a taboo, and defends it at the same time. Therefore, in this thesis, I will use Julia Kristeva’s well-known idea of abjection and Michael Foucault’s notion of power and discourse to shed light on the Victorian society’s internalization and naturalization of expelling the homosexual, and to argue that in Maurice, the protagonist Maurice, and Forster have made their abjection power visibly acceptable through invariable efforts.