Bittner, David Jonathan

The anti-Semitism of Evelyn Waugh went beyond mere literary characterization. A study of Waugh's attitudes toward Nazism, Zionism, and World War II provides evidence that the Jewish characterizations in Waugh's work were underlined by stable and settled negative convictions regarding the Jewish people. Waugh's anti-Semitism had surprisingly little to do with Christian religious teaching but may almost entirely be attributed to upper-class British snobbism and his view that Jews were agents of capitalism, democracy, and secularism. Before the Holocaust Waugh gave his anti-Semitism free and unrestrained rein in his novels. After the Holocaust Waugh tried to blunt anti-Semitism in his novels, but the anti-Semitic outlook was so ingrained in him that he was not entirely successful. There are ample signs of old prejudices at play in his post-war writings. Waugh also denied many of his Jewish characters an authentic Jewish voice.