Q2 of 12 Page 187

Study the Note to Aspects of the Novel given at the end. Discuss the features that mark the piece as a talk as distinguished from a critical essay.

The piece can be distinguished as talk through the repetitive usage of words like ‘I’, ‘You, ‘so to speak’, ‘only to imagine’ etc. which displease a reader. But these words, although informal talkative, provide effective pauses and improves expression in the sentences.


More from this chapter

All 12 →
1

How does Forster use the analogy of Scheherazade to establish his point?

 2

Taking off from Forster’s references to Emily Bronte, Sterne and Proust, discuss the treatment of time in some of the novels you have read.

 1

‘Qua story’: what does the word mean? Find other expressions using the word qua.

 3

Try rewriting the lecture as a formal essay and examine Forster’s statement: ‘…since the novel is itself often colloquial, it may possibly withhold some of its secrets from the graver and grander streams of criticism’.