Mendelian Inheritance, ‘Eternal Differences’ and Entropy in Howards End

Abstract

This chapter reads Howards End as a Bildungsroman whose developmental trajectory straddles two generations (those of parents and offspring) instead of being limited to the growth and acculturation of a single protagonist. This unusual take on the genre follows from Forster’s underappreciated interest in Mendel’s genetic theories, which enable him to re-imagine atavistic throwbacks as necessary deviations from the entropic path of linear progress. The chapter rehabilitates Forster’s interest in contemporary biology by harmonizing his recurrent use of procreation and genealogy with his queer poetics. Building on the significant revisionist interpretations of Forster by queer theorists such as Robert Martin, Scott Nelson, and James Miracky, the chapter redresses the intuitive conclusion that Forster’s fiction favors culture and elective affinities over biology and filiation; instead it suggests that it exploits new science in order to re-imagine how genealogy might participate in a queer, modernist vision of personal relations.