University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository English Language and Literature ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 6-9-2016 "I Heard the Same Thing Once Before": Intertextuality in Selected Works of Evelyn Waugh Janelle Lynn Ortega Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/engl_etds Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Ortega, Janelle Lynn. ""I Heard the Same Thing Once Before": Intertextuality in Selected Works of Evelyn Waugh." (2016). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/engl_etds/23 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Language and Literature ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. i Janelle Lynn Ortega Candidate Department of English Language and Literature Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: Dr. Steve Benz, Chairperson Dr. Lynn Beene Dr. Anita Obermeier Dr. Mara Reisman ii “I Heard the Same Thing Once Before”: Intertextuality in Selected Works of Evelyn Waugh by Janelle Ortega B.A. in English, 2001 M.A. in English, 2005 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy In English The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico May 2016 Copyright © Janelle Ortega, 2016 iii Dedication For My Husband, “If ever two were one, then surely we.” and For Dr. John Howard Wilson, May Eternal Rest be Granted unto You. iv Acknowledgements I owe many people ten years of “thank you”s. Some I remember. First, to the professors: Dr. Obermeier, for faith, dedication and patience, Dr. Lynn Beene for exuding positivity, dedication and help, Dr. Steve Benz for insights and edits I could never have come up with on my own and to Dr. Reisman, who helped without even meeting me! Also I extend my gratitude, to those professors who helped in the beginning stages of this journey: Dr. David Jones, Dr. Gail Houston, Dr. Mary Power and Dr. Feroza Jussawalla. Thank you to Family and Friends: Dr. Patrick Query for agreeing to help, Javier, por el consejo, Lizeth, por vigilar y cuidar mis hijos. Andrea, for loving and caring for my littles. Thank you to Angelita, Kim, Colleen, Genesea, Annarose and Melissa whose friendship empowers. Thank you to Jennifer, Philip and Gaspar for the Greek. My Spanish Cousins: Angel and Sergio for “wak[ing] me up.” Jill Carmichael for helping me see the manuscript. Thank you to my Mom for her encouragement and love, to my Dad for taking me to book stores and for “a room of [my] own.” Thank you to Sarah for Handful and support. Thank you to my siblings Tanya for liking my writing, Katharine for listening and commiserating and to Shane who was the first to study literature. My sincerest thank you a mi marido, Jose Manuel for moving to the U.S.A., for working faithfully, honestly and harder than anyone I know to support me financially and emotionally and for never begrudging the money and time we sacrificed. Thank you most for honoring me as a scholar and recognizing my existence as permanently and inextricably entangled in my vocation as wife and mother. I am eternally thankful for my Children, who willingly sacrificed so mom could finish her “book” and for teaching me how to love. Thank you, Dr. John Wilson, who selflessly, kindly and gently motivated me even as he suffered. Thank you to Evelyn Waugh, for giving me literature I’m never bored with and who I often called on for help. Thank you to Saint John Paul II, who seems to have whispered some ideas to me when none would come of my own efforts. St. Teresa of Avila who will never leave me alone. Thank You, Mary, my Eternal Mother, who with supernatural patience helped me honor both vocations. Lastly, thank you and praise to God, all inspiration from him, all Glory to Him. JMJ v “I Heard the Same Thing Once Before”: Intertextuality in Selected Works of Evelyn Waugh by Janelle Lynn Ortega B.A. in English Literature, Franciscan University of Steubenville, 2001 M.A. in English, University of New Mexico, 2005 Ph.D. in English, University of New Mexico, 2016 Abstract Through the lens of structural intertextuality, this dissertation reveals the significance of literary allusion in some of Evelyn Waugh’s works. It investigates intertextual significance and intent that has, heretofore, been largely bypassed. This study tracks Waugh’s intertextual instances from his earliest novels through his short stories to one of his final works. Waugh’s intertextuality unearths a hope for not only literary culture but also the world at large. A study of Waugh’s intertextuality uncovers an overarching theme of hope rooted in literary culture. This dissertation begins with an explanation of intertextual theory and the words and phrases pivotal to a cohesive understanding of these findings. It then proceeds through the works chronologically. Chapter One explores the use of Dante and Carroll in the novel Vile Bodies by explaining a deterioration of both culture and vi humanity while providing a remedy that is literature. Then Chapter Two’s discussion of Malory’s text within Handful of Dust rejects the initial critical reaction of associating pessimism and fatalism with the text. Chapter Three’s analysis of “Out of Depth” and Love Among the Ruins uncovers an intertextual analysis concerning Huxley, Shakespeare and earlier works of Waugh himself that purports the importance of reviving literary culture and reclaiming freewill. Chapter Four recognizes that Waugh’s use of T.S. Eliot in Brideshead Revisited begins to confirm the essentiality of literature for the well-being or the individual as well as the world. The dissertation culminates in Chapter Five with The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold and its emphasis on the personal application of intertext. Ultimately this dissertation reveals that by way of intertext Evelyn Waugh subtly challenges his readers to improve themselves by looking beyond their own experiences. The deeper he explores the art of intertext the more his texts reveal the troubles of the current age. At the same time, however, as this dissertation demonstrates, his use of intertext not only diagnoses the tribulations facing the modern world but also provides a cure in the form of a reviving literary culture. vii Table of Contents Intertextuality in Selected Works by Evelyn Waugh .......................................................... ii Dedication .......................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iv Abstract ............................................................................................................................... v Table of Contents .............................................................................................................. vii Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Intertextuality: The Shaping of Texts’ Meaning to Other Texts..................................... 7 Intertextuality: Points of Contention ............................................................................. 10 Intertextuality: Gérard Genette ..................................................................................... 16 Chapter One: Vile Bodies as Alice’s “Nice Dream” or Dante’s “Nightmare” ................. 26 Chapter Two: Lying in the Bed We Make: Le Morte Darthur in Handful of Dust .......... 65 Chapter Three: “Out of Depth” Revisited ......................................................................... 89 “Out of Depth” and “Rip Van Winkle” ........................................................................ 89 “Out of Depth” as Love Among the Ruins ................................................................. 101 Chapter Five: “Quomodo Sedet Sola Civitas:” Response to Eliot’s Perilous Chapel .... 128 Chapter Five: Pinfold as Bloom: A Reconsidering of Joyce .......................................... 151 Conclusion: Evelyn Waugh and a Literary Humility ..................................................... 182 Works Cited .................................................................................................................... 196 1 Introduction In the summer of 2012, scholars from around the world flooded Internet blogs with criticism over the intertextual incongruity of Kenneth Branagh’s interpretation of the “Be not afeard” speech from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Branagh, dressed as renowned 19th-century British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, recited Caliban’s speech at the opening ceremonies of the summer Olympics in London despite the macabre fact that in Shakespeare’s play Caliban proclaims these words when he’s about to kill a colonialist ruler who usurped the Isles. Notable Shakespearian scholar James Shapiro from Colombia University asks the question many of us did: “Why give him the lines Shakespeare wrote for a half-man, half-beast about to try to kill off an imperial innovator who took away his island?” (Florek). It seems that the director of the opening ceremony, Danny Boyle, was guilty of one of two things: either he cared little for the context of the speech and much for the poetic beauty of Caliban’s