Professor David Peimer
E M Forster’s Novel: A Passage To India: Exotic India Or Entangled Colonizer/colonized Relationship?
How to watch
Summary
Set against the backdrop of British rule in India in 1924, E.M. Forster’s novel A Passage to India was included in Time magazine’s “All Time 100 Great Novels.” The 1984 film by David Lean won two Oscars with Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Judy Davis, and Alec Guinness starring. We will delve into both the novel and film, and ask: Does it show India as exotic, savage, and mysteriously alluring, or does it portray the complex entanglements between colonizer and colonized? What really happened between an Englishwoman and an Indian man in a cave? Who is the Outsider, who is not?
Professor David Peimer
David Peimer is a Professor of Literature, Film and Theatre in the UK. He has worked for the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, New York University (Global Division) and was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University. Born in South Africa, David has won numerous awards for playwriting and directing in New York, UK, Berlin, EU Parliament (Brussels), Athens, Budapest, Zululand and more. He has most recently directed Dame Janet Suzman in his own play, Joanna’s Story, at London Jewish Book Week. He has published widely with books including: Armed Response: Plays from South Africa, the digital book, Theatre in the Camps. He is on the board of the Pinter Centre (London), and has been involved with the Mandela Foundation, Vaclav Havel Foundation and directed a range of plays at Mr Havel’s Prague theatre.