著者

斎 孝則

出版者

英米文化学会

雑誌

英米文化 (ISSN:09173536)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.28, pp.53-63, 1998-03-31 (Released:2017-06-20)

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Evelyn Waugh's novels have at least two impediments when Japanese readers try to read them. The one is the Englishness of his novels. As James Kirkup has said, his novels are written for English readers, using strong English idioms. Therefore, his foreign readers often find it hard to understand the scenes in his novels. The other impediment is the seeming frivolousness of his characters, which can lead careless readers to take his novels to be frivolous. In fact, the author's intentions are very serious. It is worth noticing that the Englishness is indispensable for Waugh's novels because they deal mainly with the decline of English culture which is closely connected with the Englishness. Also, in back of the seeming frivolousness lies a keen sense of cultural crisis. Waugh thinks that modern England is surrounded by non-cultural elements, which are the causes of crisis. He not only depicts those elements but also shows how he copes with them.