EVELYN WAUGH NEWSLETTER AND STUDIES Volume 34 EVELYN WAUGH NEWSLETTER AND STUDIES Volume 34, Number 1 Spring 2003 Evelyn Waugh Centenary Conference Schedule Monday, 22 September 2003 9:30 a.m. Arrival at Castle Howard, Yorkshire 10:00-11:15 a.m. Private tour of Castle Howard 11:15-12:30 p.m. Free time 12:30-1:30 p.m. Luncheon 2:00-3:15 p.m. Brideshead Revisited tour of the Grounds 3:15-4:15 p.m. Lecture on Castle Howard 4:15-5:15 p.m. Afternoon Tea Tuesday, 23 September 2003 Travel to Hertford College, Oxford Wednesday, 24 September 2003 9:00 a.m. Arrival and Registration 9:30 a.m. Panel: Waugh and Modernism Eulàlia Carceller Guillamet, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Chair The Persistence of Waste Lands in Waugh’s Fiction K. J. Gilchrist, Iowa State University "I Must Have a Lot of That": Modernity, Hybridity, and Knowledge in Black Mischief Lewis MacLeod, Memorial University of Newfoundland Eliot and Waugh: A Handful of Dust Sally C. Hoople, Maine Maritime Academy "The Age of Hooper": Brideshead Revisited, Modernism, and the Welfare State Peter Kalliney, University of South Florida-St. Petersburg Against Emotion: Evelyn Waugh's Modernistic Stance Alain Blayac, University of Montpellier 12:00 noon Luncheon 2:00 p.m. Walking tour of Waugh’s Oxford (weather permitting) John Howard Wilson, Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania Patrick Denman Flanery, St Cross College, Oxford Sebastian Perry, Merton College, Oxford 4:00 p.m. Afternoon Tea 5:00 p.m. Visit to Campion Hall (half of group) 6:30 p.m. Dinner 8:00 p.m. Panel: Waugh on Film (NTSC VCR) Sebastian Perry, Merton College, Oxford, Chair “Litera Scripta Manet”: Film and the Novel of the Thirties Robert Murray Davis, University of Oklahoma Waugh, Powell, and Hollywood Lisa Colletta, Babson College Framing Chaos: Evelyn Waugh's Cinematic Imagination George McCartney, St. John's University file:////uol.le.ac.uk/...c144/My%20Documents/Evelyn%20Waugh/Evelyn%20Waugh%20Studies/Newsletters/Newsletters/Newsletter_34.1.htm[04/12/2013 14:45:03] EVELYN WAUGH NEWSLETTER AND STUDIES Volume 34 Englishness or Merely Nostalgia? The Uses of History in Brideshead Revisited and The Remains of the Day Monika Fludernik, University of Freiburg Thursday, 25 September 2003 8:00 a.m. Breakfast 9:00 a.m. Waugh's Scoop--Waffle Scramble Ann Pasternak Slater, St Anne's College, Oxford 10:00 a.m. Panel: Brideshead Revisited Mark S. Dittman, University of St. Thomas, Chair Homosexuality in Brideshead Revisited Peter G. Christensen, Cardinal Stritch University Saint Sebastian at Brideshead: Spirituality and Sexuality in Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited Susanna Itäkare, University of Helsinki Anthony Blanche meets Boy Mulcaster–et in pansy ball ego: Male Representations in Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited Livia Hekanaho, University of Helsinki The BBC Brideshead, 1956 Patrick Denman Flanery, St Cross College, Oxford 12:00 noon Luncheon 1:00 p.m. Panel: Waugh and Religion Peter G. Christensen, Cardinal Stritch University, Chair La Fontana di Futilità: Fountain of Futility Mark S. Dittman, University of St Thomas Brideshead Revisited and the Liturgy of Exile Chip Long, Portland State University Power in Waugh's Edmund Campion and Helena Irina Kabanova, Saratov State University Waugh’s History of Anachronism: The Timelessness of the Secular in Helena Marcel Decoste, University of Regina "A Later Development": Evelyn Waugh and Conversion John Mahon, Iona College 4:00 p.m. Afternoon Tea 5:00 p.m. Visit to Campion Hall (half of group) 6:30 p.m. Dinner 8:00 p.m. Panel: Waugh and the Second World War Marcel Decoste, University of Regina, Chair Guy Crouchback’s Disillusion: The Crete Diaries, Justice and the Russian Alliance Donat Gallagher, James Cook University Pulped Fiction: Waugh and the Wartime Novel Sebastian Perry, Merton College, Oxford Apthorpe Manipulatus: Perspective and Doubles in Men at Arms Carlos Villar Flor, University of La Rioja "The Supernatural is Real": Fiction, Myth, and Truth in Sword of Honour Lewis MacLeod, Memorial University of Newfoundland Friday, 26 September 2003 file:////uol.le.ac.uk/...c144/My%20Documents/Evelyn%20Waugh/Evelyn%20Waugh%20Studies/Newsletters/Newsletters/Newsletter_34.1.htm[04/12/2013 14:45:03] EVELYN WAUGH NEWSLETTER AND STUDIES Volume 34 8:00 a.m. Breakfast 9:00 a.m. Depart Hertford College for Madresfield Court, Malvern, Worcs. 11:00 a.m. Arrive at Madresfield Court 1:00 p.m. Depart Madresfield Court 3:00 p.m. Arrive at Piers Court, Glos. 5:00 p.m. Depart Piers Court 7:00 p.m. Arrive at Hertford College 8:00 p.m. Gala Dinner with Alexander Waugh Saturday, 27 September 2003 8:00 a.m. Breakfast 9:00 a.m. Panel: Waugh's Travels K. J. Gilchrist, Iowa State University, Chair More Goood Men than Bad: Waugh in Abyssinia Dan S. Kostopulos, Arkansas School for Mathematics and Sciences The Mediterranean in the Writings of Evelyn Waugh Eulàlia Carceller Guillamet, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Waugh in Russia Irina Kabanova, Saratov State University Eyes Reopened: Evelyn Waugh’s A Tourist in Africa Dan S. Kostopulos, Arkansas School for Mathematics and Sciences 11:15 a.m. Evelyn Waugh, Book Collector Richard W. Oram, University of Texas at Austin 12:00 noon Luncheon (outside the college) 2:00 p.m. Evelyn Waugh and Anthony Powell: A Literary Friendship Christine Berberich, University of Derby 2:30 p.m. Clubs of Waugh Hubert Picarda 3:00 p.m. How Dare He!? Michael Johnston 4:00 p.m. General Discussion: The Future of Evelyn Waugh 6:00 p.m. Depart for Spread Eagle Hotel, Thame 7:00 p.m. Dinner at Spread Eagle 9:00 p.m. Return to Hertford College Conference ends. Breakfast is available on Sunday morning. The Anglo-American Impasse: "Never the Twain Shall Meet" by N. N. Newaliya Evelyn Waugh’s first visit to the United States, in 1938, had been a very brief one. He had visited the country while going to Mexico and also before returning home. He did not maintain any diary during this period and, therefore, we know very little about his impressions of America or the Americans at that time. Waugh’s second visit to the States in early 1947, however, was his first sustained visit to that country and he had the opportunity to observe things from close quarters. This journey was purely in the nature of a business trip to discuss with MGM the details about filming Brideshead Revisited. This novel, published in 1945, had captured the imagination of the American public, had been named Book-of-the-Month "and sold 600,000 copies" (Philip Stratford, “Evelyn Waugh and ‘The Loved One,’” Encounter Sept. 1978: 46). The negotiations failed to yield any file:////uol.le.ac.uk/...c144/My%20Documents/Evelyn%20Waugh/Evelyn%20Waugh%20Studies/Newsletters/Newsletters/Newsletter_34.1.htm[04/12/2013 14:45:03] EVELYN WAUGH NEWSLETTER AND STUDIES Volume 34 result – Waugh had been offered $150,000 for the film rights – as the script-writers viewed the novel “purely as a love story” (Diaries of Evelyn Waugh, 673) and wanted some changes to be made. Waugh feared that they “would make a hideous vulgarization of his most ambitious work” (Christopher Sykes, Evelyn Waugh: A Biography, 404). He was well aware of the Hollywood producers’ “complete inability to follow a plain story” (Essays, Articles and Reviews of Evelyn Waugh, 328), and how many well-known books had been “sterilized” (Essays 329) by them. To his great shock and amazement, Waugh found that “none of the top studio brass had ever read the book” (“A Knife in the Jocular Vein,” review of The Loved One, Time 12 July 1948: 86). They had decided to film the book simply because they had heard a lot about it. (One is reminded of a famous joke which neatly illustrates the situation. There was this Hollywood producer who had heard a great deal about William Shakespeare. He asked his assistant to get hold of Shakespeare for their next film. When informed that Shakespeare was dead, the producer remarked, “Why, no one told me the poor fellow was so seriously ill!”) The trip, however, as is well-known, was not an utter failure as it resulted in the writing of The Loved One. Waugh has mentioned five ideas that were in his mind when he wrote the novel (Sykes, Evelyn Waugh, 417), one of them being “The Anglo-American impasse – ‘never the twain shall meet’”. While discussing this standpoint of Waugh, it may be interesting, first, to know about Waugh’s views on America and the Americans in general. Waugh, it appears, had some sort of a love-hate relationship with America and things American. He gleefully pocketed the American dollars that his books earned for him in the American market, and also felt immensely contented with the large readership that he had in the States. And yet, surprisingly, he never acknowledged his gratitude to the American public for these favours. On the contrary, he never hesitated in making disparaging remarks about the Americans, their low intellect and even lower morals. Interestingly, Waugh’s father, as managing director of the publishing firm of Chapman and Hall, was equally ill-disposed towards the Americans. Waugh has described how his father regarded one of his firm’s "most profitable connections," with an American publishing company, "as something almost shady … [Their visits] were strictly confined to an exchange of politeness … and a swift relegation to the hands of a young … subordinate… [He never invited them home though they] had come 3,000 miles to bring him business" (Evelyn Waugh, A Little Learning,75). Waugh, of course, went far ahead in his prejudices and “took savage pleasure in annoying the Americans – ‘Erle Stanley Gardner,’ he announced sweetly to one visitor, ‘is the finest living American author’” (“The Beauty of His Malice,” Time 22 April 1966: 55).