George Orwell Why I Write
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Orwell George
The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell Volume II: My Country Right or Left 1940-1943 by George Orwell Edited by Sonia Orwell and Ian Angus a.b.e-book v3.0 / Notes at EOF Back Cover: "He was a man, like Lawrence, whose personality shines out in everything he said or wrote." -- Cyril Connolly George Orwell requested in his will that no biography of him should be written. This collection of essays, reviews, articles, and letters which he wrote between the ages of seventeen and forty-six (when he died) is arranged in chronological order. The four volumes provide at once a wonderfully intimate impression of, and a "splendid monument" to, one of the most honest and individual writers of this century -- a man who forged a unique literary manner from the process of thinking aloud, who possessed an unerring gift for going straight to the point, and who elevated political writing to an art. The second volume principally covers the two years when George Orwell worked as a Talks Assistant (and later Producer) in the Indian section of the B.B.C. At the same time he was writing for Horizon, New Statesman and other periodicals. His war-time diaries are included here. Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia First published in England by Seeker & Warburg 1968 Published in Penguin Books 1970 Reprinted 1971 Copyright © Sonia Brownell Orwell, 1968 Made and printed in Great Britain by Hazell Watson & Viney Ltd, Aylesbury, Bucks Set in Linotype Times This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser Contents Acknowledgements A Note on the Editing 1940 1. -
WHY ORWELL MATTERS Coordinator: John Becker George
WHY ORWELL MATTERS Coordinator: John Becker George Orwell was one of the most consequential writers of the 20th Century. As a novelist, journalist, literary critic and essayist, he exhibited an extraordinary range of interests. More effectively than any of his contemporaries, he posed questions about English society and politics that are still relevant, while also addressing the controversial history of the Russian Revolution and the Spanish Civil War. In this one-semester study group, we read the most famous works (Animal Farm, 1984) a 1930's novel (Keep The Aspidistra Flying), essays (some dealing with his role in the British colonial system), and excerpts from lesser-known works. Readings and other Required Materials: Animal Farm (Signet Classics, ISBN 978-0-451-52634-2, $9.99) 1984 (Signet Classics, ISBN 978-451-52493-5, $9.99) Keep The Aspidistra Flying (A Harvest Book - Harcourt, Inc., ISBN 978-0-15-646899-2, $14.95) Coursepack (under $10.00) John Becker has coordinated study groups in history (American Civil War, World War I), cinema (French and Italian, Film Noir) and literature (Marcel Proust, William Faulkner). * * * * * * * * Syllabus * * * * * * * * Week 1 Biography; Shooting An Elephant, A Hanging Week 2 Down and Out in Paris and London, England Your England Week 3 Keep The Aspidistra Flying - the story of a failed poet who must resolve the conflict between the dangers of a commercial civilization and the pull of family responsibilities and middle class values Week 4 Keep the Aspidistra Flying Week 5 Keep the Aspidistra Flying Week 6 Homage to Catalonia (excerpts), Inside the Whale Week 7 Animal Farm Week 8 1984 Week 9 1984 Week 10 1984 Week 11 1984 Week 12 1984 Week 13 Politics and the English Language, Such, Such Were The Joys.. -
Exploring the Dilemma and Dynamics of Modernity in George Orwell's
Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies 40.1 March 2014: 79-95 DOI: 10.6240/concentric.lit.2014.40.1.05 Against the “Uprush of Modern Progress”: Exploring the Dilemma and Dynamics of Modernity in George Orwell’s Burmese Days Angelia Poon National Institute of Education Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Abstract Published in 1934, George Orwell’s first novel Burmese Days was the result of his five years in Burma doing “the dirty work of empire” and oiling the “actual machinery of despotism” (Wigan Pier 147). This article considers the specific relationship in the novel between anti-imperialist politics and what it means to be modern in the early part of the twentieth century. How, for example, does modernity as a structure of feeling about breaking away from the past and tradition play out within the framework of a political dispensation of the imperial coupled with colonial governmentality? And what particular conception of culture and humanity might such a modernity be premised on? In Burmese Days, I argue that Orwell expresses the dilemma and dynamics of modernity through his use of a self-conscious narrative voice, and the story of his main character Flory, specifically the latter’s failure as a colonial, masculine subject. Orwell attempts to propose an alternative to the hegemonic version of European modernity that is based on the presence of an Other and the equation between colonialism and modernization. He explores a humanism written on and expressed through the body as part of the struggle with prejudice and bias that underlies Flory’s yearning for an alternative modernity. -
Down and out in Aragon: George Orwell's Near
Down and out in Aragon: George Orwell’s near-fatal wounding in the Spanish Civil War 8 /Winter 2020 Orwell in the Home Guard. UCL: © Orwell Archive, UCL Library Special Collections The Pharos Michael D. Shulman, MD, PhD Dr. Shulman (AΩA, The Perelman School of Medicine at the General Franco’s Falangists. He was assigned to a ragtag University of Pennsylvania, 1982) is a retired nephrologist. regiment made up of 80 poorly nourished soldiers and “several dogs.” 3 No bomb that ever burst Weeks passed during which Orwell’s regiment was hun- Shatters the crystal spirit kered down in the sticky clay of Aragon, exchanging occa- — George Orwell1 sional pot shots with the enemy. The mosquitos, as Orwell languidly notes, were “becoming a nuisance.” 3 The battle n a famous 1944 essay, George Orwell begins by re- losses took on an element of farce. The first five casualties marking on a German plane sketching vapor trails in in Orwell’s unit had been shot by their compatriots when the placid sky far above him, imagining the bombar- their weapons discharged accidentally. Soon ammunition Idier as a civilized fellow who bears no ill will.2 As Orwell grew scarce for both sides, and any vestigial political fervor knows, if the enemy is lucky, he will drop his bombs on was swallowed up by the unceasing misery and monotony the very place Orwell sits savoring his tea, but he cannot of trench warfare. be resented merely for that. The enemy is a functionary, Six months after his arrival in Spain, Orwell lay hid- and he arouses no emotion because he possesses no hu- den in a muddy trench awaiting the start of another day man features. -
A Study of Politics and Literature In
Murray Arnold Sperbfr • J -. I 'MARX: G. O.'S DOG': A STUDY OF POLITICS I AND LITERATURE IN GEORGE ORWELL'S I HOMAGE TO CATALONIA I That was about as far as my thoughts [about the Spanish Civil War} went. [ did not make any of the correct political reflections. I never do when things are happening. It seems to be always the case when I get mixed up in war or politics-I am conscious of nothing save physical discomfort and a deep desire for this damned nonsense to be over. Afterwards [ can see the significance of events, but while they are happening I merely want to be out of them-an ignoble trait, perhaps.1 After Orwetl returned from Spain, he struggled to write Homage to Catalonia. As he tells us in that work, the Barcelona police had raided his hotel room and seized his Spanish diary and notes. (From a literary point of view, this was probably fortunate: Homage has an organic quality that Orwell's previous work, The Road to Wigan Pier, lacks; the latter, mainly transcribed from notes, shows its patch.work composition.) Orwell spent the first six months back in England trying to write his Spanish experiences and at the same time study the historical background of the war. Being a part· time journalist and book reviewer, he was able to turn his study to profit and in so doing leave a complete record of his growing understanding of the Spanish Civil War. In An Age Like This we can follow Orwell's attempt to define his political position on the Spanish Civil War after he returned from Spain (Vol. -
Byron, Orwell, Politics, and the English Language Peter Graham As I
Byron, Orwell, Politics, and the English Language Peter Graham As I began thinking about this lecture for the Kings College IBS it hit home that my first such presentation was 31 years ago, way back in 1982 at Groeningen. Some of the people who were there then are now gone (I think for instance of Elma Dangerfield, so formidable a presence in so small a package, and of Andrew Nicolson, who was celebrating his contract to edit Byron’s prose). Many others who were young and promising then are now three decades less young and more accomplished. Whatever: I hope you’ll bear with a certain amount of nostalgia in the ensuing talk—nostalgia and informality. The goal will be to make some comparative comments on two literary figures familiar to you all—and to consider several texts by these writers, texts that powerfully changed how I thought about things political and poetical when a much younger reader and thinker. The two writers: Eric Blair, better known to the reading public as George Orwell, and Lord Byron. The principal texts: Orwell’s essays, particularly “Politics and the English Language,” and and Byron’s poetico-political masterpiece Don Juan. Let’s start with the men, both of them iconic examples of a certain kind of liberal ruling-class Englishman, the rebel who flouts the strictures of his class, place, and time but does so in a characteristically ruling-class English way. Both men and writers display an upmarket version of the “generous anger” that Orwell attributes to Charles Dickens in a description that perfectly fits Byron and, with the change of one word, fits Orwell himself: “a nineteenth-century liberal, a free intelligence, a type hated with equal hatred by all the smelly little orthodoxies which are now contending for our souls” 2 Byron’s and Orwell’s iconically rebellious lives and iconoclastic writing careers bookend the glory days of the British Empire. -
AP English Language and Composition
AP English Language and Composition Tanya Graham-Galatro ([email protected]) Melissa Mustard ([email protected] ) Leonora Reiley ([email protected] ) Valerie Smith ([email protected]) Dear Students and Families, Welcome to AP English Language and Composition. Current trends at most colleges and universities now require entering freshmen to take two courses in English. The first of these is devoted strictly to composition, especially to learning how to craft the various modes of writing— narration, exposition, analysis, and especially argument—required in later courses. Students generally read selections from non-fiction prose—including but not limited to autobiography, biography, essays, articles, letters, diaries, and historical documents—that provide models for their own writing. Selected authors and texts for each of these genre stem from instructional materials provided by the College Board. Students who successfully complete AP Language and Composition and meet the AP exam requirements set by each college will fulfill this first college English course requirement. Summer 2015 Assignments DUE Thursday, August 27, 2015 by 11:59PM: Assignment 1: “Why I Write” Electronic submission of essay to www.turnitin.com Class Code: 9850291; Password: happy1 Directions: Log into your TurnItIn account and add the class using the above code and password. If you do not have a TurnItIn account, create one. Please use your birth name and your ACTIVE personal email account. DUE first day of class (Tuesday, Sept. 8(A)/Wednesday, Sept. 9(B)): Assignment 2: Memoir Reading Journal Assignment 3: On Writing Well , Ch. 1-3 notes Bring your annotated “Why I Write” passage for submission. -
An Introduction to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)
An Introduction to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) Nineteen Eighty-Four (commonly abbreviated to 1984) is a dystopian novel by the English writer George Orwell, and first published by Secker and Warburg in 1949 (but written in ’48). The book tells the story of Winston Smith and his attempt to rebel against the totalitarian state in which he lives. Along with Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, Nineteen Eighty-Four is among the most famous and most cited works of dystopian fiction in literature. Translations of the book are available in 15 languages and the novel itself has left a profound impression upon the English language: Nineteen Eighty-Four, its terminology and even its author have become bywords in discussions concerning privacy or state-security issues. The term "Orwellian" has come to describe actions or organizations reminiscent of the totalitarian society depicted throughout the novel. Novel history Title Originally Orwell titled the book The Last Man in Europe, but his publisher, Frederic Warburg, suggested a change to assist in the book's marketing. Orwell did not object to this suggestion. The reasons for the current title of the novel are not absolutely known. In fact, Orwell may have only switched the last two digits of the year in which he wrote the book (1948). Alternatively, he may have been making an allusion to the centenary of the Fabian Society, a socialist organization founded in 1884. The allusion may have also been directed to Jack London's novel The Iron Heel (in which the power of a political movement reaches its height in 1984), to G. -
The Elephant As a Symbol of Colonialism's Failure
George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant”: The Elephant as a Symbol of Colonialism’s Failure author: Yvonne-Jacqueline Muss (now: Dyck) course of studies: Bachelor Education Primary email address: [email protected] university: University of Education Karlsruhe department: English Department class: Literary Reading Techniques: Modern Short Stories module: BAPEu-Eng-4W lecturer: Dr. Isabel Martin due date 30 September 2018 1 Table of Contents 1. Introduction 02 2. The British Empire 04 2.1. “The White Man’s Burden” 04 2.2. History of British Colonialism in India 06 2.3. The Author George Orwell: Biographical parallels 09 2.4. Setting of the Story 11 3. The Significance of Elephants 12 3.1. Biology and History 12 3.2. General Connotations 14 3.3. Idioms 15 3.4. Elephants in Tales and Fables 16 4. Analysis of the Story 19 4.1. Plot Summary 19 4.2. Discourse Analysis 20 4.2.1. Narratological Analysis 20 4.2.2. The Author-Narrator-Protagonist Triangle 23 4.3. Character Analysis 25 4.3.1. The Protagonist 25 4.3.2. The Burmese 26 4.3.3. The Elephant 29 4.4. Major Conflict 31 5. Interpretation of the Story 32 5.1. The Elephant as a Symbol of the Oppressed Burmese 32 5.2. The Elephant as a Symbol of the Degradation of the Protagonist 33 6. Conclusion: The Elephant as a Symbol of Colonialism’s Failure Altogether 35 Bibliography 37 Statement of Authorship 39 2 1. Introduction My starting point is always a feeling of partisanship, a sense of injustice. -
Elements of Satire and Irony in the Major Works of George Orwell
ELEMENTS OF SATIRE AND IRONY IN THE MAJOR WORKS OF GEORGE ORWELL ABSTRACT \ THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF JBottor of $I)iIo£(opt)p \ : IN ENGLISH V / BY JAWED S. AHMED DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH (INDIA) 2004 .-^•Tb NoT^43.i\?rf Chapter- I: Introduction This chapter explores the English writers' mindset especially during 1920's and 1930's and the background against which they were writing. In this chapter the history of satire has been explored right from the time of Persius, Horace and Juvenal - all considered to be classical masters of satire. Chaucer and Langland also find mention here as they too are renowned in this genre. The Age of Restoration in England was the age of political satire and both Dryden and Pope stand out as towering figures. Swift too holds a special position for his generalized satire. The sole objective of the satirists can rightly be said to correct the vices of society. George Orwell, too set out to highlight the discrepancies in the political system out of a sense of concern for diluting the power of evil in the world of politics. And at the end of the day, we find that he succeeds to a very great extent in expressing his socio-political views, and his commitment to bring about a radical change for the betterment of society. Chapter- II: Social and Political Baclcground In this chapter the causes of Orwell's all-round disillusionment are explored. His experiences are traced beginning with St. Cyprian's, then his bitter experiences as a police officer in Burma; after that his life in Paris and London and Spain. -
Some Reflections on Links and Contrasts Between Graham Greene
Sinyard: Links and Contrasts Between Graham Greene and George Orwell Graham Greene Studies Volume 1 122 totally untrue. Everyone has the material “All Writers Are in his memories for many books, but that is not the same thing at all.” Secondly, at Equal but Some the end of “Fielding and Sterne,” Greene Writers Are quotes T.S. Eliot: “At the moment when one writes . one is what one is, and the More Equal Than damage of a lifetime . cannot be repaired at the moment of composition.” Others:” Some In Speaking to Each Other, Volume Two (1970), Richard Hoggart said of Orwell that Reflections On “he was one of those writers who are what they write,” and I think Greene was the Links and same. He and Orwell did not just write for a Contrasts Between living; they lived to write. I think one of the reasons that both of them were resistant for Graham Greene a long time to the idea of a biography—and it is curious that they should share one biog- and George Orwell rapher, Michael Shelden—was that both felt that their books told more about them Neil Sinyard than an account of their lives would. And what made them “more equal” than most The 2011 Graham Greene other writers of the last century was their International Festival ability to cross the cultural divide: to write in a manner that commanded the attention The title of this paper is somewhat friv- and study of the academic community—for olous and of course indebted to, and a I would guess that collectively, the number variation on, one of Orwell’s immortal slo- of books written about Greene and Orwell gans in Animal Farm. -
國立台灣師範大學翻譯研究所 a Thesis Presented to the Graduate Institute
國立台灣師範大學翻譯研究所 A Thesis Presented to the Graduate Institute of Translation and Interpretation National Taiwan Normal University 指導教授:胡宗文 Advisor: Daniel Hu 從政治到美學:視喬治·歐威爾《動物農莊》為翻譯 From Politics to Aesthetics: George Orwell’s Animal Farm as Translation 研究生:羅振豪 Student: James Loo 中華民國 108 年 1 月 January 2019 Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction Page 1.1 Orwell Today ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 1.2 Methodology -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 Chapter 2: Representing Politics in a Literary Work 2.1 Why Orwell Wrote: Orwell’s Animal Farm Experiment --------------------- 13 2.2 Reading Animal Farm as a Work of Translation ----------------------------- 19 2.3 Historical and Political Context to Animal Farm ------------------------------ 24 Chapter 3: Narrative of Animal Farm 3.1 Structuralist Approach to Narratology ------------------------------------------- 36 3.2 Structuralist Approach to Narratology on a Work of Translation ---------- 46 3.3 On Horses and a Donkey ----------------------------------------------------------- 57 Chapter 4: Conclusion --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 69 Works Cited ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 73 Abstract The field of translation studies has expanded much in the last thirty years, since the late eighties when it first became recognised by the Western academic world as a legitimate discipline. In the thick of the age of interdisciplinary studies, translation has gone beyond a language-to-language duality, a phenomenon most notably traced back to what is considered the cultural turn in Translation Studies, opening up to fields that have once regarded translation as nothing more than a secondary activity. This dissertation is onboard with such a progress, as it examines George Orwell’s Animal Farm as an act of translation, culminating in a narrative both as a text and as an agenda.