The Cambridge Companion to Nineteen Eighty-Four

This Companion shows in new ways how Orwell's most famous work continues to be a novel for our times.

Nathan Waddell (Edited by)

9781108841092, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 1 October 2020

280 pages
16 x 23 x 2 cm, 0.62 kg

George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) remains a book of the moment. This Companion builds on successive waves of generational inheritance and debate in the novel's reception by asking new questions about how and why Nineteen Eighty-Four was written, what it means, and why it matters. Chapters on a selection of the novel's interpretative contexts, the literary histories from which it is inseparable, the urgent questions it raises, and the impact it has had on other kinds of media, ranging from radio to video games, open up the conversation in an expansive way. Established concerns (e.g. Orwell's attitude to the working class, his anxieties about the socio-political compartmentalization of the post-war world) are presented alongside newer ones (e.g. his views on evil, and the influence of Nineteen Eighty-Four on comics). Individual essays help us see in new ways how Orwell's most famous work continues to be a novel for our times.

Chronology
Introduction: Orwell's book Nathan Waddell
Part I. Contexts: 1. Teaching and learning in and beyond Nineteen Eighty-Four Natasha Periyan
2. The virtual geographies of Nineteen Eighty-Four Douglas Kerr
3. The politics of the archive in Nineteen Eighty-Four Diletta De Cristofaro
4. Orwell and humanism David Dwan
Part II. Histories: 5. Nineteen Eighty-Four and the tradition of satire Jonathan Greenberg
6. Orwell's literary context Lisa Mullen
7. Wells, Orwell, and the dictator Sarah Cole
8. Orwell's literary inheritors, 1950 to 2000 and beyond Hollie D. Johnson
Part III. Questions: 9. Europe, refugees, and Nineteen Eighty-Four Janice Ho
10. The problem of hope: Orwell's workers Elinor Taylor
11. Oceania's dirt: filth, nausea, and disgust in Airstrip One Nathan Waddell
12. Room 101: Orwell and the question of evil Peter Brian Barry
Part IV. Media: 13. Nineteen Eighty-Four on radio, stage, and screen Daniel Buckingham
14. Making Nineteen Eighty-Four musical: pop, rock, and opera Jamie Wood
15. Nineteen Eighty-Four and comics Isabelle Licari-Guillaume
16. 'In this game that we're playing': Nineteen Eighty-Four and video games Soraya Murray
17. Coda: the imaginaries of Nineteen Eighty-Four Adam Roberts
Further Reading.

Subject Areas: Literary companions, book reviews & guides [DSRC], Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH], Literary theory [DSA], Literary essays [DNF]