Though 1984 is often praised for its prescience, critics in Orwell’s time and ours have also condemned its pessimism. Orwell’s despair, the argument goes, undermines the power of his warning, ...representing a retreat from politics, a betrayal of socialism, and a repudiation of utopianism. This article draws on the text of 1984 and Orwell’s contemporaneous writings to reassess his thinking on power, socialism, and utopia and to reconsider 1984’s appeal to the political imagination. Characterizing Orwell’s late political sensibility as one of desperate radicalism, the article demonstrates that Orwell remained both a socialist and a steward of the utopian imagination and that he feared totalitarianism because it threatened to expunge utopian ideals from historical consciousness. 1984 depicts a world in which this effort has nearly succeeded, rendering Orwell’s present as a moment of choice between an egalitarian future and a future of permanent hierarchy.
This article deals with the documents of the counter-intelligence of the International Brigades (IB) relating to Eric (George Orwell) and Eileen Blair. The documents are divided into six groups: I - ...scheme of connections between different political groups from counterintelligence of IB point of view; II - a report on the structure of the ILP contingent; III - Eileen and Eric Blair tracking reports; IV - the search protocol of Eileen Blair's room at the Continental Hotel; V - Observation's Reports; VI - protocol of the search of the room David Crook. The article does not include documents from the interrogations of Georges Kopp and David Crook. We present results of a graphological analysis of handwritten marks in the margins of some documents. The IB counter-intelligence officers were identified who monitored and analyzed intelligence data for the ILP contingent and authorized the search in Blair's room. These officers were Alfredo Hertz and Tebarth Wilhelm. Commander of counterintelligence of IB was Gustav Szinda.
Drawing from literary history, social theory, and political critique, this far-reaching study explores the utopian narrative as a medium for understanding the social space of the modern nation-state. ...Considering the narrative utopia from its earliest manifestation in Thomas More's sixteenth-century workUtopiato some of the most influential utopias of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this book is an astute study of a literary genre as well as a nuanced dialectical meditation on the history of utopian thinking as a quintessential history of modernity. As he unravels the dialectics at work in the utopian narrative, Wegner gives an ambitious synthetic discussion of theories of modernity, considering and evaluating the ideas of writers such as Ernst Bloch, Louis Marin, Gilles Deleuze, Walter Benjamin, Martin Heidegger, Henri Lefebvre, Paul de Man, Karl Mannheim, Mikhail Bakhtin, Jürgen Habermas, Slavoj Zizek, and Homi Bhabha.
Abstract
Dutch book and accuracy arguments are used to justify certain rationality constraints on credence functions. Underlying these Dutch book and accuracy arguments are associated theorems, and I ...show that the interpretation of these theorems can vary along a range of dimensions. Given that the theorems can be interpreted in a variety of different ways, what is the status of the associated arguments? I consider three possibilities: we could aggregate the results of the differently interpreted theorems in some way, and motivate rationality constraints based on this aggregation; we could be permissive, and accept the conclusions of the Dutch book and accuracy arguments under all interpretations of the associated theorems; or we could select one uniquely correct interpretation of the Dutch book or accuracy theorem, and use that to justify certain rationality constraints. I show that each possibility faces problems, and conclude that Dutch book and accuracy theorems cannot be used to justify any principle of rationality.
Davidson's study of the hotel space in art and actuality examines the hotel through the lens of "occupancy," which, he maintains, "in addition to describing a basic physical position or the act of ...residing temporarily … extends to the assertion of a more militant or resistant presence" (4). In other words, while the book opens with peaceful scenes by Claude Monet and John Singer Sargent, before taking the reader to the familiar territory of Edward Hopper, "the artist of what might be considered 'traditional' hotel occupancy by travellers," Davidson makes it clear that the hotel is never without its worst (or its best) possibilities (26). The Hotel: Occupied Space offers an important perspective on the hotel and on its representation in art as well as its significance to modern and contemporary life.
This research focused on the discussion of symbolic violence in George Orwell’s Animal Farm with respect to Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic violence. Animal Farm is a satirical novel written by George ...Orwell and first published in England in 1945. The underlying theme is a criticism of communism, or at least of the way communism was implemented in the Soviet Union. This study discusses symbolic violence in Bourdieu’s theory, and aims to uncover the instruments of symbolic violence in George Orwell’s Animal Farm. By using Ricoeur’s hermeneutic method, the researchers analyze the instruments of symbolic violence as practiced in this novel. The results show that two instruments of symbolic violence are used in this novel, namely oral discourse and written discourse. This article also aims to present the reader with a novel perspective that they can adopt when analyzing literary work.
George Orwell is acclaimed as one of Englishliterature's great essayists. Yet, while many are considered classics, as abody of work his essays have been neglected. Peter Marks provides the ...firstsustained study of Orwell the essayist, giving these compelling pieces thecritical attention they merit. Orwell employed the essay as a tool to entertain, illuminate andprovoke readers across an array of topics. Marks situates the essays in theiroriginal contexts, exploring how journals influenced the type of essay Orwellwrote. Acknowledging this periodical culture helps explain the tactics Orwellemployed, the topics he chose and the audiences he addressed. Orwell's firstand last published works were essays, providing evidence of the development ofhis cultural and political views over two decades. Essays helped him fashion his distinctiveliterary 'voice' and Mark traces how their afterlife contributes to Orwell'sposthumous reputation. Arguing the essays are central to Orwell's enduringliterary, political and cultural value, Marks shows how we understand thecomplexities, subtleties, and contradictions of Orwell better when weunderstand his essays.
George Orwell (1903-1950) occupies a significant place in the English literary imagination. A political and cultural commentator, as well as an accomplished novelist, Orwell is one of the most ...widely-admired English- language essayists of the 20th century. He is best remembered for two novels written towards the end of his life: Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty- Four (1949). Here, Sahoo intends to suggest that Orwell was very much alive to the vital issues of his time and he showed an extensive range of interests stretching from politics, war, sports to such issues of language , literature, popular culture, even to suggest the eleven golden rules of how to prepare a nice cup of tea, and he is also very much relevant to our time, very much like our contemporary, very much alive to the vital issues of twenty-first century.
The chaos of our current times raises both concern and interest in tribalism. We look at three types of tribalism. Reflecting the thoughts of George Orwell, we discuss nationalism and patriotism. We ...then introduce globalism. We offer ideas about how affiliation with one type or another of these types can reflect the existential–relational position that we occupy. To illustrate the complexities of these affiliations we consider the passionate support of and resistance to Black Lives Matter.
