On nineteen eighty-four : Orwell and our future / edited by Abbott Gleason, Jack Goldsmith, and Martha C. Nussbaum.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Gleason, Abbott.

Goldsmith, Jack.

Nussbaum, Martha C. (Martha Craven), 1947-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Science fiction, English--History and criticism.

Science fiction, English.

Dystopias in literature.

Orwell, George, 1903-1950. Nineteen eighty-four.

Orwell, George.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (329 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Other Title:

On 1984

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four is among the most widely read books in the world. For more than 50 years, it has been regarded as a morality tale for the possible future of modern society, a future involving nothing less than extinction of humanity itself. Does Nineteen Eighty-Four remain relevant in our new century? The editors of this book assembled a distinguished group of philosophers, literary specialists, political commentators, historians, and lawyers and asked them to take a wide-ranging and uninhibited look at that question. The editors deliberately avoided Orwell scholars in an effort to call forth a fresh and diverse range of responses to the major work of one of the most durable literary figures among twentieth-century English writers. As Nineteen Eighty-Four protagonist Winston Smith has admirers on the right, in the center, and on the left, the contributors similarly represent a wide range of political, literary, and moral viewpoints. The Cold War that has so often been linked to Orwell's novel ended with more of a whimper than a bang, but most of the issues of concern to him remain alive in some form today: censorship, scientific surveillance, power worship, the autonomy of art, the meaning of democracy, relations between men and women, and many others. The contributors bring a variety of insightful and contemporary perspectives to bear on these questions.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Dedicatory Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction. Abbott Gleason And Martha C . Nussbaum

Part I. Politics and the Literary Imagination

A Defense of Poesy (The Treatise of Julia) / Scarry, Elaine

Doublespeak and the Minority of One / Bhabha, Homi K.

Of Beasts and Men: Orwell on Beastliness / Drabble, Margaret

Does Literature Work as Social Science? The Case of George Orwell / Epstein, Richard A.

Part II. TRUTH , OBJECTIVITY, AND PROPAGANDA

Puritanism and Power Politics during the Cold War: George Orwell and Historical Objectivity / Gleason, Abbott

Rorty and Orwell on Truth / Conant, James

From Ingsoc and Newspeak to Amcap, Amerigood, and Marketspeak / Herman, Edward S.

Part III. POLITICAL COERCION

Mind Control in Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four: Fictional Concepts Become Operational Realities in Jim Jones's Jungle Experiment / Zimbardo, Philip G.

Whom Do You Trust? What Do You Count On? / Rejali, Darius

Part IV. TECHNOLOGY AND PRIVACY

Orwell versus Huxley: Economics, Technology, Privacy, and Satire / Posner, Richard A.

On the Internet and the Benign Invasions of Nineteen Eighty-Four / Lessig, Lawrence

The Self-Preventing Prophecy; or, How a Dose of Nightmare Can Help Tame Tomorrow's Perils / Brin, David

Part V. SEX AND POLITICS

Sexual Freedom and Political Freedom / Sunstein, Cass R.

Sex, Law, Power, and Community / West, Robin

Nineteen Eighty-Four, Catholicism, and the Meaning of Human Sexuality / Haldane, John

CONCLUSION

The Death of Pity: Orwell and American Political Life / Nussbaum, Martha C.

Contributors

Index

Notes:

Based on papers from a conference held in 1999.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612665745

9781282665743

128266574X

9781400826643

1400826640

OCLC:

650305538