Only Connecting?: E. M. Forster, Empire Broadcasting and the Ethics of Distance

Broadcasting for the BBC’s Eastern Service to Indian listeners during the 1940s, E. M. Forster attempted to shape the use of transnational broadcasting in the service of more equitable relationships of exchange rather than exploitation. Taking advantage of radio’s intimate address to explore the ethical possibilities opened by conversation over distance, Forster’s broadcasting career aids in rethinking his earlier fiction and challenging positions from the neo-Marxist Frankfurt School to the post-colonialism of Said and his followers, as well as centrifugal models of empire that continue to inform critical practice. What we learn is that the power of modern technology, in conjunction with Forster’s critical humanism as developed in his novels, can be made to bridge the gaps of alienation and colonialism in the right hands.