“A book on chivalry”: Questioning the Gentlemanly Code in Arctic Summer”

• Main Author: ANTINUCCI, Raffaella
• Other Authors: Antinucci, Raffaella
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: E.M. Forster; Arctic Summer; gentleman; masculinities; Arctic
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11367/53792

E.M. Forster's unfinished novel, Arctic Summer, testifies both to an unfaltering interest in the notion of gentlemanliness at the beginning of the twentieth century, and to Forster’s personal attempt at envisaging a further metamorphosis for this fleeting ideal by “connecting” old and new models. In all its various versions and phases of composition, the recurring motif underlying Arctic Summer can be articulated in the question “what does it mean to be a gentleman in the twentieth century?” The answer(s) given in the book entail the intersection of a number of aesthetic, cultural, and social discourses, which deserve critical investigation. In emphasizing their import and the literary value of the novel, the present study will take a closer look on how Forster dealt with (and surrendered to) the problems posed by the literary representation of the gentleman.