George Orwell: Into the Twenty-first Century

by Cushman,Thomas

• ISBN13: 9781594510021
• ISBN10: 1594510024
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2004-10-22
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The year 2003 was the 100th anniversary of the birth of George Orwell, one of the most influential authors of the twentieth century. Orwell's books are assigned today in over 60,000 classrooms annually. In this book, essays by prominent writers and scholars explain why his impact continues in a world much changed from his own. The essays explore new aspects of Orwell's life and work and his continuing relevance for the interpretation of modern social, political, and cultural affairs. Thematic topics include: the use and abuse of 1984; ideas, ideologues, and intellectuals; biography and autobiography; literary and stylistic analyses; and the reception of Orwell's work abroad. The volume is an ideal secondary source for those who continue to be influenced by Orwell's insights and for teachers of Orwell's work.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction: George Orwell into the Twenty-first Century	1	(22)
Thomas Cushman
I. The Use and Abuse of Nineteen Eighty-Four
Abolishing the Orgasm: Orwell and the Politics of Sexual Persecution	23	(22)
Jonathan Rose
In Defense of Comrade Psmith: The Orwellian Treatment of Orwell	45	(18)
Ian Williams
Hope against Hope: Orwell's Posthumous Novel	63	(14)
Morris Dickstein
II. Ideas, Ideologies, and Intellectuals
George Orwell and the Liberal Experience of Totalitarianism	77	(9)
Christopher Hitchens
On the Ethics of Admiration---and Detraction	86	(10)
John Rodden
The Public Intellectual as Connected Critic: George Orwell and Religion	96	(15)
Ronald F. Thiemann
Orwell, Pacifism, Pacifists	111	(15)
Lawrence Rosenwald
Varieties of Patriotic Experience	126	(19)
Todd Gitlin
Vulgar Nationalism and Insulting Nicknames: George Orwell's Progressive Reflections on Race	145	(15)
Anthony Stewart
Orwell's ``Smelly Little Orthodoxies''---and Ours	160	(18)
Jim Sleeper
Orwell in an Age of Celebrity	178	(9)
Jonathan B. Imber
III. Of Biography and Autobiography
Writing about Orwell: A Personal Account	187	(7)
Peter Stansky
Orwell: Unmasker of Underlying Realities	194	(6)
Dennis Wrong
Third Thoughts about Orwell?	200	(15)
Daphne Patai
IV. Literary and Stylistic Issues
Orwell's Perversity: An Approach to the Collected Essays	215	(14)
William E. Cain
Prescience and Resilience in George Orwell's Political Aesthetics	229	(14)
Lynette Hunter
Outside/Inside: Searching for Wigan Pier	243	(9)
Margery Sabin
Orwell's Satirical Vision on the Screen: The Film Versions of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four	252	(15)
Erika Gottlieb
V. Orwell Abroad
George Orwell: Russia's Tocqueville	267	(19)
Vladimir Shlapentokh
May Days in Barcelona: Orwell, Langdon-Davies, and the Cultural Memory of War	286	(9)
Miquel Berga
From Ingsoc to Capsoc: Perceptions of Orwell in France	295	(17)
Gilbert Bonifas
About the Contributors	312