CONFUSED ROARING: EVELYN WAUGH AND THE MODERNIST TRADITION.
Item
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Title
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CONFUSED ROARING: EVELYN WAUGH AND THE MODERNIST TRADITION.
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Identifier
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AAI8023674
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identifier
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8023674
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Creator
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MCCARTNEY, GEORGE P.
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Contributor
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David Gordon
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Date
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1980
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, English
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Abstract
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Evelyn Waugh's critics have not been able to agree on the aim of his satiric attack. One group, searching for coherence in his works, explains Waugh's purpose in terms of broad value judgements. Another group, finding no particular direction in the fiction, describes it as a miscellany of satiric attitudes assembled without regard for moral consistency.;This study takes the position that Waugh's work, at least his earlier work, is neither moral nor nihilistic. It does not set out to systematically attack and correct morals and manners by measuring them against clearly prescribed standards. But there is, nevertheless, the undeniable sense of an urgent and sustained commitment beneath the bright surface of his satire.;Approached descriptively, Waugh's novels reveal such an extraordinary balance between their wild energy and classic poise that they seem at first to require no excuse beyond their own audacity. They constitute a curious mixture of control and abandonment that is absolutely distinctive to Waugh yet seems perfectly suited to contemporary conditions. The question becomes: What led him to create this peculiar fictional world that is at once so fascinating and so alarming? Analyses of style, characterization, and imagery yield partial answers. But the principle that informs his fiction with its exceptional vitality and force cannot be adequately explained by formal analysis alone. Waugh's purpose becomes much clearer when attention is paid to the often unremarked depth of his interest in the philosophical movements of the early twentieth century and their influence on the expression of modernist art. This interest is discernible both in his occasional essays and the parodies of modernist art that recur in his novels. It explains why Waugh's satire runs deeper than most other literary thrusts at the twentieth century. His primary aim is not directed at the usual targets of vice and folly. Rather, his work calls into question the fundamental presuppositions of this period: relativism and the supreme importance that has been attached to releasing the self from social constraint.;Put simply, the thesis of this study grows out of this perception: Waugh's work does not satirize manners and morals so much as it does the epistemological assumptions that characterize much of the thought, art, and behavior of our time.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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English
