Churchill through foreign eyes

It’s hoped that many foreign students will attend the lecture, which will also show the organizers that the TU’s international community deserves more English-language cultural events.

The upcoming Studium Generale lecture on Winston Churchill was originally scheduled to be in Dutch. But increasingly aware of the TU’s culturally starved English-speaking foreign legion, Studium Generale – the organization that spices up TU technological life with cultural events % decided to switch to English. Fortunately, Tony Foster, who’ll give the lecture, is equally at home in both languages. Foster, 37, was born in Australia to a Dutch mother and Australian father and currently teaches English and scientific writing, argumentation and rhetoric courses at Leiden University.

It could be said that your opinion of Churchill largely depends on where you’re from and your skin color. Churchill, perhaps like all those who engage life fully in turbulent times, was deeply flawed, and, when judging him based on his entire career in public life, much mythologizing and whitewashing are needed to render him a ‘great man’.

In the UK and most Western countries, Churchill’s principally remembered as a war hero. He was recently voted ’the greatest Briton of all time’ and in the U.S. Churchill is revered, especially by Republican politicians. Bush, Rumsfeld and NYC Mayor Guiliani all repeatedly referenced Churchill following the Sept. 11th attacks. Guilliani was later dubbed the ‘American Churchill’. And likewise the view of Churchill in the Netherlands.

,,For the Dutch, he was the great wartime inspirer and liberator,” Foster says. “Anne Frank”, for instance, mentions Churchill’s ,,This is not the end” speech in her diary.” Which is perhaps ironic, since Churchill held anti-semitic views and was an unashamed white supremacist who pursued a ruthless anti-independence Indian policy. Moreover, Churchill’s WWII strategic bombing campaign targeting undefended German cities, like Dresden, ultimately resulted in the deaths of one million German civilians.

The foreign faces in the audience will remind Foster of Churchill’s ‘dark side’, and Foster says he’ll ,,deal with Churchill’s racism and anti-Semitism in my lecture.” Foster, a linguist, will also discuss Churchill’s famous rhetorical skills. ,,Sooner or later, anyone who teaches rhetoric courses will meet the maestro himself,” he says. ,,Churchill applied every rhetorical trick in the book, apparently effortlessly. He was a linguistic virtuoso.”

A sample of Churchill’s famous WWII rhetoric: ,,We shall go on to the end; We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans; We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air; We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be; We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds; We shall fight in the fields, and in the streets; We shall fight in the hills; We shall never surrender.”

Stirring stuff, justly praised, but again, all isn’t what it seems with Churchill. This, and two other crucial broadcasts to his nation during the fateful spring/summer of 1940 were made not by Churchill but by an actor hired to impersonate him. Norman Shelley, who played Winnie-the-Pooh for the BBC’s Children’s Hour, impersonated Churchill for history, fooling millions of listeners. Some historians suggest Churchill, an alcoholic, was too drunk to deliver the speeches himself.

Churchill, a controversial figure, is rendered all the more interesting when viewed thorough questioning, non-Western eyes and he’s an ideal historical personage to kick off Studium Generale’s English-language lecture program. By switching to English and opening up the lecture to foreigners, it becomes impossible to present a hagiographical, Westernized, ‘sanitized’ rendering of Churchill. And, in a larger sense, this opening up of the lecture reflects both the challenges and richness of opening up the TU to foreign students.

‘Churchill’ by Tony Foster. Monday, February 2, 20:15. Speakers, Burgwal 45-49, Delft. Lecture is in English. Admission is free.

Next Monday at 20:15 will be Studium Generale%s finest hour: Its first English-language lecture. The subject is the controversial Winston Churchill. It’s hoped that many foreign students will attend the lecture, which will also show the organizers that the TU’s international community deserves more English-language cultural events.

The upcoming Studium Generale lecture on Winston Churchill was originally scheduled to be in Dutch. But increasingly aware of the TU’s culturally starved English-speaking foreign legion, Studium Generale – the organization that spices up TU technological life with cultural events % decided to switch to English. Fortunately, Tony Foster, who’ll give the lecture, is equally at home in both languages. Foster, 37, was born in Australia to a Dutch mother and Australian father and currently teaches English and scientific writing, argumentation and rhetoric courses at Leiden University.

It could be said that your opinion of Churchill largely depends on where you’re from and your skin color. Churchill, perhaps like all those who engage life fully in turbulent times, was deeply flawed, and, when judging him based on his entire career in public life, much mythologizing and whitewashing are needed to render him a ‘great man’.

In the UK and most Western countries, Churchill’s principally remembered as a war hero. He was recently voted ’the greatest Briton of all time’ and in the U.S. Churchill is revered, especially by Republican politicians. Bush, Rumsfeld and NYC Mayor Guiliani all repeatedly referenced Churchill following the Sept. 11th attacks. Guilliani was later dubbed the ‘American Churchill’. And likewise the view of Churchill in the Netherlands.

,,For the Dutch, he was the great wartime inspirer and liberator,” Foster says. “Anne Frank”, for instance, mentions Churchill’s ,,This is not the end” speech in her diary.” Which is perhaps ironic, since Churchill held anti-semitic views and was an unashamed white supremacist who pursued a ruthless anti-independence Indian policy. Moreover, Churchill’s WWII strategic bombing campaign targeting undefended German cities, like Dresden, ultimately resulted in the deaths of one million German civilians.

The foreign faces in the audience will remind Foster of Churchill’s ‘dark side’, and Foster says he’ll ,,deal with Churchill’s racism and anti-Semitism in my lecture.” Foster, a linguist, will also discuss Churchill’s famous rhetorical skills. ,,Sooner or later, anyone who teaches rhetoric courses will meet the maestro himself,” he says. ,,Churchill applied every rhetorical trick in the book, apparently effortlessly. He was a linguistic virtuoso.”

A sample of Churchill’s famous WWII rhetoric: ,,We shall go on to the end; We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans; We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air; We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be; We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds; We shall fight in the fields, and in the streets; We shall fight in the hills; We shall never surrender.”

Stirring stuff, justly praised, but again, all isn’t what it seems with Churchill. This, and two other crucial broadcasts to his nation during the fateful spring/summer of 1940 were made not by Churchill but by an actor hired to impersonate him. Norman Shelley, who played Winnie-the-Pooh for the BBC’s Children’s Hour, impersonated Churchill for history, fooling millions of listeners. Some historians suggest Churchill, an alcoholic, was too drunk to deliver the speeches himself.

Churchill, a controversial figure, is rendered all the more interesting when viewed thorough questioning, non-Western eyes and he’s an ideal historical personage to kick off Studium Generale’s English-language lecture program. By switching to English and opening up the lecture to foreigners, it becomes impossible to present a hagiographical, Westernized, ‘sanitized’ rendering of Churchill. And, in a larger sense, this opening up of the lecture reflects both the challenges and richness of opening up the TU to foreign students.

‘Churchill’ by Tony Foster. Monday, February 2, 20:15. Speakers, Burgwal 45-49, Delft. Lecture is in English. Admission is free.