The current issue of the Brno Studies in English carries an article by Prof Carlos Villar Flor entitled “Displacement and Exile in Evelyn Waugh’s Post-War Fiction”. The article is based on a paper Prof Villar Flor presented at the 2015 conference on Evelyn Waugh at the University of Leicester. It is available to read online in a PDF file at the above link. Here is the abstract:
Evelyn Waugh’s later fiction, especially his acclaimed trilogy known as Sword of Honour, is an indispensable source for a first-hand depiction of Britain’s involvement in the Second World War. Waugh’s millitary service in Croatia from 1944 to 1945 strengthened his concern for the predicament of the displaced persons and exiles he met there. Perhaps the clearest evidence of this new awareness is the privileged space that such characters find in these stories and the degree to which their suffering permeates the narratives they inhabit. My paper discuses Waugh’s treatment of displacement and exile in the final stages of the war trilogy and provides a historical background to his presentation of displaced persons, using Papastergiadis’s concept of deterritorialization as analytical tool.
Prof Villar Flor is the co-author with Prof Donat Gallagher of the 2014 study of Waugh’s military career In the Picture: The Facts behind the Fiction in Evelyn Waugh’s Sword of Honour.
