Section 6 Summary and Analysis

"Fantasy" Forster begins this lecture with a discussion of criticism and analysis, developing an extended metaphor about a bird and its shadow. Criticism, he suggests, is like a bird flying from the ground. Both bird and shadow remain intact, but as the bird flies higher the distance between it and its shadow (criticism and its subject) becomes greater and greater, until eventually the shadow (the subject) disappears and the bird (criticism) continues on its own way—a way that has little or nothing to do with the shadow at all. Forster suggests that Gide, in the experimental novel referenced in the previous lecture, attempts to bring the bird and the shadow (criticism and its subject) back together. In the attempt, Forster suggests, Gide identifies for readers, critics and fellow novelists, a key element of the novel that cuts across the...