Rebel? Prophet? Relic? With the Support of: Perspectives on George Orwell in UCL Department 2019 of English Language & Literature In Association with: UCL Special Collections Orwell Archive University College London (UCL) 24-25 May 2019 University College Organizer: Sarah Gibbs London Email: [email protected] Pearson Building G22 Twitter: @UCL_Orwell_2019 @UCL_Orwell_2019 Gower Street #UCLOrwell2019 #UCLOrwell2019 London WC1E 6BT Conference Programme 12:15—1:30 pm Lunch* Day 1: 24 May 2019 *Small Group Visits to the Archive 8:00—9:00 am 1:30—2:30 PM Registration Archives Presentation (Sarah Aitchison & D. J. Taylor) Featuring Orwell Archives records from 1949 9:00—9:10 am Opening Statement (Sarah Gibbs) 2:30—3:20 pm Session 3—Orwell & Biography (Q&A) 9:15—9:25 am (Chair: Jean Seaton) Welcome from the Orwell Foundation (Jean Seaton) John Rodden, D.J. Taylor & Masha Karp 9:30—10:45 am Session 1—Nineteen Eighty-Four: 70 Years On 3:30—4:00 pm (Chair: Jackson Ayres) Interview with Richard Lance Keeble Topic: Orwell’s Journalism (Interviewer: Sarah Gibbs) Douglas Kerr (Birkbeck, University of London) Nineteen Eighty-Four and the Death of Private Life 4:10—5:00 pm Session 4—Challenges & Opportunities in Orwell Studies (Q&A) Xiaozhou Li (University of Edinburgh) (Chair: Sarah Gibbs) Surveillance from Orwell to Orwell: The Power of Vision in Popular Culture Anna Vaninskaya, John Rodden, Roger Howe, Norman Bissell Tim Crook (Goldsmiths, University of London) The Ethics of Nineteen Eighty-Four: Did Orwell Produce an inverse Mein Kampf for the Cold War? Day 2: 25 May 2019 11:00—12:15 pm 9:00—10:30 am Session 2—Orwell & the Iron Curtain Session 5—Orwell & Adaptation (Chair: John Rodden) (Chair: John Rodden) Masha Karp (Orwell Society) James Jarrett (Colchester Institute) To Understand Modern Russia, Read Orwell Nineteen Eighty-Four on Film Krystyna Wieszczek (University of Southampton) Dennis Glover (Author of The Last Man in Europe) The Polish Orwell: New Perspectives on Orwell’s Life & Legacy Writing the biography of Nineteen Eighty-Four Matt Dreher (US Special Forces) & Alex Del Castillo Jimmy Walters (Proud Haddock Productions) (Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc.) Staging Tony Cox’s Mrs. Orwell Orwell, Active Measures, and the Future of Objective Truth 3:45—5:00 pm Imre Jele (Bossa Studios) Session 8—Orwell’s Fellows & Disciples Animal Farm as Video Game (Chair: Dana Wight) 10:45—12:00 pm Jackson Ayres (Texas A&M University-San Antonio) Session 6—Orwell & the Empire “For Democratic Socialism”: George Orwell & Jonathan Coe (Chair: Douglas Kerr) Yumiko Fukunishi (Chuo University, Japan) Chandrika Kaul (University of St. Andrews) Looking Up the High-Rise: Representation of Architecture in George Orwell, India and the BBC Orwell & J.G. Ballard’s Novels Sarah Gibbs (University College London) Bushra Juhi Jani (Mustansiriyah University, Iraq) Reading the Raj: Textual Allusion in Burmese Days The Impact of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four on Abdul-Sattar Nasir’s Eggplant Peels Darcy Moore Orwell & Opium 5:05—5:15 pm Closing Statement (Sarah Gibbs) 12:00—1:00 pm Speaker Profiles Lunch Jackson Ayres 1:00—2:00 pm Jackson Ayres is assistant professor of English at Texas A&M University- Keynote Address: John Rodden San Antonio, where he teaches courses in modern and contemporary “Orwell & ‘Orwell’: The Life & Afterlife” British literature. His articles and essays can be found in Contemporary Literature, Modern Fiction Studies, Twentieth-Century Literature, The Los 2:15—3:30 pm Angeles Review of Books, and Public Books, among other venues. He is Session 7—Orwell, Politics & Nation currently completing a book manuscript, Alan Moore: A Critical Guide, and (Chair: Norman Bissell) is preparing a second book-length project on Orwell and contemporary British novelists’ representations of the welfare state. Robert Colls (De Montfort University) Orwell & Nation Norman Bissell Norman Bissell is a writer, teacher and lecturer whose poems, essays and Dana Wight (NorQuest College, Canada) reviews have been widely published in journals, newspapers and books. Red Flags, Black Ties: Orwell’s Anarchist Sympathies & the ‘Conquest of His poetry collection Slate, Sea and Sky is published by Luath Press. He is Bread’ in Spain the Director of the Scottish Centre for Geopoetics and the lead editor of its journal Stravaig. In 2012 he won a Creative Scotland commission to write Peter Marks (University of Sydney) a screenplay about Orwell’s last years. His novel Barnhill is to be Orwell Downunder: Claims and Counterclaims of Australian Radicals published by Luath Press, Edinburgh in May 2019. and Conservatives Robert Colls Sarah Gibbs Robert Colls is author of George Orwell. English Rebel (Oxford University Sarah Gibbs is a professional librarian (MLIS ’12) and PhD candidate in the Press 2013) and Professor of Cultural History at De Montfort University. Department of English Language & Literature at University College London. Her research considers Orwell’s oeuvre through the lens of book history, Tim Crook and investigates the political significance of his dense network of allusions Tim Crook is a Professor in the Department of Media, Communications and and textual citations. She is the organizer of Rebel? Prophet? Relic? Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London, joint editor of the Perspectives on George Orwell in 2019. George Orwell Studies Journal, Vice President of the Chartered Institute of Journalists, and Visiting Professor in Broadcast Journalism to Birmingham Dennis Glover City University. Dennis Glover is an Australian political speechwriter, journalist and novelist. He is a graduate of Monash University and King’s College Alex Del Castillo Cambridge. His books include An Economy is not a Society, The Art of Great Alex Del Castillo is a communication strategist and American expatriate. Speeches and Orwell’s Australia. His debut novel The Last Man in Europe Though currently employed as a consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc., his tells the dramatic story of how George Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four. professional background includes prior service as a prosecuting attorney in Chicago, a United States Marine trained in psychological operations and civil Roger Howe affairs, and an intelligence officer in the United States Navy. He graduated Roger Howe attended Manchester University and the London School of from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and earned a Juris Economics. He studied international history. He has written freelance for Doctor from the DePaul University College of Law in Chicago, Illinois. publications such as The Independent, Tribune and the Oxford Times. He has a longstanding interest in George Orwell and has interviewed his adopted Matt Dreher son, Richard Blair. He joined the Orwell Society in 2016 and has Matt Dreher is a U.S. Army Special Forces officer and amateur pundit. After contributed several articles to the Society’s Journal. multiple combat tours in the Middle East and Central Asia, he has devoted the past decade to supporting NATO Allies in Eastern Europe. Educated at UCLA James Jarrett and Duke University, he plans to complete his PhD after retirement from James Jarrett was educated at De Montfort University, Cardiff University active duty. Matt is a lifelong admirer of Orwell’s works, which have inspired and Essex University. He was awarded a PhD for research in contemporary his enduring belief in objective truth. theatre and psychoanalysis. He worked as a performer, before returning to education to lecture in theatre and the performing arts. He has taught at Yumiko Fukunishi Essex University, and at University Centre Colchester, where, as course Yumiko Fukunishi is an associate professor in the Faculty of Commerce at leader, he authored the innovative BA Honours programme in acting. Chuo University, Tokyo, Japan. She was a Visiting Research Fellow at Queen Mary, University of London, School of History. Fukunishi’s research foci Bushra Juhi Jani include George Orwell, Photojournalism, Mass-Observation and Brutalism. Bushra Juhi Jani is a lecturer in the contemporary English novel at Among her published works are: British Middlebrow Cultural Studies (2018), Mustansiriyah University in Baghdad, Iraq. She has published research English Literature and Film (2019) (both co-authors), and ‘Gordon Comstock papers on Margaret Drabble and contemporary Iraqi novels. Her research and Money: The Criticism of Mormonism in George Orwell's Keep the interests lie in the area of English and Iraqi novels as well as Film Studies. Aspidistra Flying’, Japan D.H. Lawrence Studies (no.27, 2017). She is involved in translating into English Iraqi fiction. She co-authored the translation of the first collection of short stories of the novelist, Hadiya Hussein, as well as an anthology of Iraqi short stories. Imre Jele Imre Jele is a lifetime gamer and game-maker. Throughout his colorful career, Xiaozhou Li he has covered a wide range of genres and platforms and is best known for his Xiaozhou (Ariel) Li is currently a postgraduate research student in the work on RuneScape and at Blitz Games Studios. He is co-founder of Bossa School of Literatures, Languages, and Cultures at the University of Studios, winner of Best New Studio Develop Award, creator of Surgeon Edinburgh. Her academic interests include British Romantic literature, Simulator 2013, BAFTA winner for MonsterMind and BAFTA nominee for the Wollstonecraft-Godwin-Shelley family, and material and visual Merlin. He is currently at work on a videogame adaptation of Animal Farm. culture. Masha Karp Peter Marks Masha Karp is a London-based journalist with a special interest in relations Peter Marks is Professor of English at the University of Sydney. He is the between Russia and the West. She is a Trustee of the Rights in Russia NGO and author of articles and book chapters on different aspects of Orwell’s work, of The Orwell Society, as well as editor (since 2016) of the Orwell Society and of George Orwell the Essayist: Literature, Politics and the Periodical Journal.