Homo Duplex

Duality has been an abiding paradigm in much of the criticism on Ford Madox Ford. It has been useful to account for the singularity and ambivalence of Ford’s place in time: poised between the nineteenth and the early twentieth century; in geography: between the city and the country, between England, France, and Germany; in aesthetics: between the influence of his grandfather and the Pre-Raphaelites, and the avant-garde movements of the early twentieth century. The aim of this collective volume is to investigate a specific aspect of duality, that is best expressed in the phrase favoured by Ford himself: homo duplex. This phrase encapsulates the productive tension between identity and difference, and foregrounds the question of alterity in Ford’s life and writing. This volume interrogates the role of alterity in Ford’s self-discovery as an author, and subsequently, in his writing. It is thus articulated along two main axes: one is biographical, and explores the major role that contact with others, or with alterity, played in Ford’s self-construction. The second axis is literary, and demonstrates that alterity is a central paradigm in Ford’s aesthetics.