Context Flashcards
George Orwell
real name- Eric Blair
exposed and critiqued the human tendency to oppress others politically, economically and physically
best known works
Animal Farm (1945) and 1984 (1949)
both books are considered to be indictments of communism under Stalin, but Orwell insisted they were critiques of totalitarian ideas in general and warned that the conditions he depicted could happen anywhere
socialist
a direct result of his military service on the Republican side against Fascist General Franco in the Spanish Civil war
influenced by
anarchist critiques of Soviet communism and by Marxist writings of Leon Trotsky, model for Goldstein
1946
Orwell wrote:
“every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly, or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it”
when written
1945-9
outline written in 1943
Published
June 1949
Literary period
Late Modernism
genre
novel/ satire/ parable
setting
london 1984
narrator
3rd person omniscient
working title
the last man in europe because his ability to think for himself has distinguished him from the world around him
the themes
like the threat of totalitarianism, censorship and manipulative language continue to reverberate, with prophetic menace, into the present
1984
- possibly inspired by the creation of the fabian society, a socialist org, in 1884
- or perhaps by Jack London’s ‘The Iron Heel’, in which a political movement comes into power in 1984
the title
is a political statement, not a prophetic statement
a warning to mankind
his warning
3 warring states and BB don’t exist, however, there are two major superpowers, with another on the rise, which seem to divide the world into three zones
correction prediction
management of the news, censorship of written and spoken word and governments with the ability to invade individuals privacy
1984 and THT
although the two novels are very different in detail and emphasis, they both propagate two dehumanising and unbearably pessimistic dystopian visions. The two novels are cautionary tales, containing warnings for the future.
the THT
has been called “a female 1984”
links to BNW
both novels were written by authors who’d experienced war on a huge scale in the 20th century
both disillusioned and alarmed by what they saw in society
explores 20th cent technology
closed circuit television and information retrieval systems
uses english setting
a folk culture - “oranges and lemons” to suggest that it could happen here
Stalinist Show-trials and Purges
Jones, Rutherford and Aaronson - He realises that Big Brother and the Party can arrest and break anyone, can falsely accuse anyone and no-one will care
even the inner party is seen as a threat to Big Brother’s supreme Power
