Journal of Literature, Culture and Media Studies

T. S. Varadharajan ¹, B. Krishnamurthy ²

Affiliations
1 Department of English, School of Humanities and Sciences, SASTRA University, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, IN
2 Department of English, SASTRA University, Sri Ramanujan Centre, Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu, IN

Abstract

John Galsworthy as a novelist has a distinct place in the canon of English novelistic literature. However, he remained praised or dispraised for his concentrated representation of upper middle class life. Though he belonged to the same class, he was not of it. This aspect of his artistic achievement will come to the fore only when we study him in the context of his milieu, which was a society in transition and his technical virtuosity in dealing with the material. The new historicist approach helps us to identify his great achievement as a narrator of high sophistication. This review article explains Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga with a new historicist perspective. First it has a brief detail about the author. Secondly the different aspects (principles) of New Historicism are given. Thirdly the justification of the study of The Forsyte Saga with New Historicist approach is explained. The close reading of the primary text has been taken into account by choosing select passages from the primary source and analyzing them with the principles of new historicism. Here three passages from three novels, The Man of Property, In Chancery and To Let have been chosen for study. Finally it has a conclusion gathering all the important points explained in the article.

Keywords

Equal Weighting, Interpellation, Textuality, Panoptic Surveillance, Possessiveness, Good Old Viccy, Socio Cultural Matrix, Multiple Voices, Patriarchal.

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T. S. Varadharajan ¹, B. Krishnamurthy ²

Affiliations
1 Department of English, School of Humanities and Sciences, SASTRA University, Thanjavur, IN
2 SASTRA University, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, IN

Abstract

The present paper aims at applying the New Historicist approach to the study of John Galsworthy’s The Forsyte Saga. John Galsoworthy is one of the three eminent Edwardian Novelists, the others being H.G. Wells and Arnold Bennet. They grew up when socialism was gaining ground among the elite and when the Russian writers with leftist orientation were the most dominant influence. Galsworthy’s sympathy for the underdog was transparent, in spite of his efforts to hold his sense and sensibility in balance in his dramas like The Strife (1909), Justice (1910) and The Skin Game (1920). However, better artistry in his novels and his subconscious sympathy with the Forsytes resulted in the obscurity of vision. It led to the virulent attacks by younger critics like Virginia Woolf and D. H. Lawrence. This set a trend, his great popularity during the time of writing declined after his death. He has never been accorded the depth of study he deserved as a novelist. Even critics who admired him, appreciated him for ‘his large scale pictures of the professional and aristocratic classes and for his graceful and suave literary style’. However, his gift to make a whole class in society come to life with photographic accuracy of detail and description is not the be all and end all of his achievement. He departed from his contemporaries like Trollope and attempted through his portraiture to assess the values of his age.

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