The Construction of Male-Male Relationships in the Edwardian Age: E.M. Forster's Maurice, H.A. Vachell's the Hill, And Public School Ideology‪.‬

A central element in Forster's defence of fully sexual relations between men in his novel Maurice (1913-14) is his rejection of public school ideology, in particular as regards the model of male-male relationships it enforces. By reading Maurice together with The Hill (1907), a popular public-school novel for boys within the context of gay and feminist analyses of discourses about sexuality in the early twentieth century, as well as critical studies of Edwardian education, the essay discusses Forster's criticism of the instability of this construction of male-male relationships, and his parody and subversion of such discourse in his affirmation of an alternative model. **********