Book contents
- The British Novel of Ideas
- The British Novel of Ideas
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Dedication
- Introduction The British Novel of Ideas
- Part I 1850–1900
- Part II 1900–1945
- Part III 1945–1975
- Chapter 13 The Psycho-political Novel of Ideas and the Second World War
- Chapter 14 Naomi Mitchison
- Chapter 15 George Orwell
- Chapter 16 Rebecca West
- Chapter 17 George Lamming
- Chapter 18 Doris Lessing
- Chapter 19 Iris Murdoch
- Part IV 1975–Present
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 15 - George Orwell
Politics and Power
from Part III - 1945–1975
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2024
- The British Novel of Ideas
- The British Novel of Ideas
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Dedication
- Introduction The British Novel of Ideas
- Part I 1850–1900
- Part II 1900–1945
- Part III 1945–1975
- Chapter 13 The Psycho-political Novel of Ideas and the Second World War
- Chapter 14 Naomi Mitchison
- Chapter 15 George Orwell
- Chapter 16 Rebecca West
- Chapter 17 George Lamming
- Chapter 18 Doris Lessing
- Chapter 19 Iris Murdoch
- Part IV 1975–Present
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This essay considers how Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) assesses the function and limits of ‘ideas’ in two ways: by focusing on how ideas (plural) can be reduced, through the operations of power, to an idea (singular); and by investigating how people can be turned into abstractions through the work of ideology. Attending throughout to the form of Orwell’s most famous novel, the essay positions Nineteen Eighty-Four in relation to Wyndham Lewis’s critique of Orwell in The Writer and the Absolute (1952); traces the origins of Orwell’s account of power and truth to his experiences in the Spanish Civil War; and compares Orwell’s writing with the work of H. G. Wells, a key precursor. The essay concludes with some reflections on Nineteen Eighty-Four’s ambiguous ending and on the ingenious yet problematic critical strategies through which a tincture of hope is discovered in this bleakest of bleak satires.
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- Information
- The British Novel of IdeasGeorge Eliot to Zadie Smith, pp. 259 - 273Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024