Religion and the nursery: Evelyn Waugh’s 'Brideshead Revisited'

Abstract

Brideshead Revisited is often seen as a culmination of Evelyn Waugh’s early literary endeavour. In spite of its satirical elements, the novel engages in a serious religious discussion and acquires features of a conversion narrative. The motif of childhood is vividly present in various aspects of the novel: it contributes to the creation of characters and depiction of relationships between them; places associated with childhood become central to the characters’ life experience; references to children’s literature help shape the fictional world of the novel; finally, the motif of childhood is also employed to present various, often contrasting, approaches towards religion (Catholicism in particular). The article seeks to explore all these elements and indicate how the motif of childhood contributes to the thematic and stylistic aspects of Waugh’s first overtly Catholic novel.