Beginning with a preface by Richard Blair, Orwells son, George Orwell Now! brings together thirteen chapters by leading international scholars in four thematic sections. Peter Stansky, in an Afterword, argues that Orwell is now more relevant than ever before.
George Orwell remains an iconic figure today even though he died in 1950. His dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four depicts a Big Brother society in which the state intrudes into the most intimate details of peoples lives and, not surprisingly, it became a constant reference point after Edward Snowdens revelations. The word «Orwellian» is constantly in the media used either as a pejorative adjective to evoke totalitarian terror or as a complimentary adjective to mean «displaying outspoken intellectual honesty». Interest in Orwells life and writings globally continues unabated.
Beginning with a preface by Richard Blair, Orwells son, George Orwell Now! brings together thirteen chapters by leading international scholars in four thematic sections:
Peter Marks on Orwell and the history of surveillance studies; Florian Zollmann on Nineteen Eighty-Four in 2014; Henk Vynckier on Orwells collecting project; and Adam Stock on Big Brothers Literary Offspring
Paul Anderson «In Defence of Bernard Crick»; Luke Seaber on the «London Section of Down and Out in Paris and London»; John Newsinger on «Orwells Socialism»; and Philip Bounds on «Orwell and the Anti-Austerity Left in Britain»
Marina Remy on the «Writing of Otherness in Burmese Days and Keep the Aspidistra Flying»; Sreya Mallika Datta and Utsa Mukherjee on «Reassessing Ambivalence in Orwells Burma»; and Shu-chu Wei on Orwells Animal Farm alongside Chen Jo-hiss Mayor Yin
Tim Crook on «Orwell and the Radio Imagination»; and editor Richard Lance Keeble on «Orwell and the War Reporters Imagination»
Peter Stansky, in an afterword, argues that Orwell is now more relevant than ever before.