The unexamined Orwell / John Rodden.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rodden, John.

Series:

Literary modernism series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Orwell, George, 1903-1950--Criticism and interpretation.

Orwell, George.

Orwell, George, 1903-1950.

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

x, 403 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, 2011.

Summary:

The year 1984 is just a memory, but the catchwords of George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four-from "Big brother Is Watching You" to "War Is Peace" - still routinely pepper public discussions of topics ranging from government surveillance and privacy invasion to language corruption and bureaucratese. More than six decades after his death in January 1950, Orwell's work pervades the cultural imagination; he remains strikingly contemporary, while others of his literary generation are long forgotten. Exploring this astonishing afterlife-the public reputation of the posthumous Orwell-has become the scholarly vocation of John Rodden, who is now the leading authority on the reception, impact, and reinvention of George Orwell-the man and writer-as well as of "Orwell" the cultural icon and historical talisman.

In The Unexamined Orwell, Rodden delves into dimensions of Orwell's life and legacy that have escaped the critical glare, the largely unattended (and even unimagined) Orwell. Rodden discusses how several leading American intellectuals have earned (and often cultivated) the title of Orwell's "successor," including Lionel Trilling, Dwight Macdonald, Irving Howe, Christopher Hitchens, and John Lukacs. The book then turns to Germany, where Orwell-and especially "Orwell" - is a notable presence, and focuses on the role and relevance of Nineteen Eighty-Four in the now-defunct communist nation of East Germany. Rodden also addresses myths that have grown up around Orwell's life, including his "more than half-legendary" encounter with Ernest Hemingway in liberated Paris in March 1945, and analyzes literary issues such as Orwell's utopian sensibility and his prose style, which are topics that have drawn scant critical attention. Finally, Rodden poses the wistful, endlessly debated question, "W.W.G.O.D.?"-What Would George Orwell Do? Moving through the decades since Orwell's death, Rodden speculates about how the prophet of Nineteen Eighty-Four would have reacted to world events. In so doing, Rodden shows how our responses to this question reveal much about our culture's ongoing need to reappropriate "Orwell"-and about our own drives and aspirations. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part 1 If the Mantle Fits ... 13

Chapter 1 Virtuous Men? or "The American Orwell" (I) 15

Chapter 2 "Dear Dwight," or "The American Orwell" (II) 29

Chapter 3 "St. Irving"? or "The American Orwell" (III) 55

Chapter 4 Fellow Contrarians? or "The (Anglo-)American Orwell" (IV) 77

Chapter 5 "True Patriot and Traditionalist," or "The (Hungarian-)American Orwell" (V) 97

Part 2 Politics and the German Language 119

Chapter 6 The (Un-rosy) State of Orwellian Unlearning 123

Chapter 7 Books That Led to Miniluv 135

Chapter 8 2+2=5? 143

Chapter 9 Behind the Wall, or How the Eurasian Reich Viewed Oceania 155

Chapter 10 Revenge of the Though Police 177

Part 3 The Un(der) examined Orwell 195

Chapter 11 Did Papa Rescue St. George? 197

Chapter 12 Big Rock (Sugar)candy Mountain? 225

Chapter 13 Literacy and the English Language 245

Chapter 14 George Orwell, Literary Theorist? 253

Chapter 15 The Architectonics of Room 101 273

Chapter 16 The Review Orwell Never Wrote? 289

Chapter 17 The Life Orwell Never Lived? 297

Chapter 18 The Centenarian, Our Contemporary 307.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780292725584

0292725582

OCLC:

679936759