Cushman Thomas - George Orwell: into the twenty-first century

GEORGE ORWELL

GEORGE ORWELL

INTO THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

EDITED BY

THOMAS CUSHMAN AND JOHN RODDEN

First published 2004 by Paradigm Publishers

Published 2016 by Routledge

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Copyright 2004, Taylor & Francis.

Chapter 3, Hope against Hope: Orwells Posthumous Novel, copyright 2004 by
Morris Dickstein

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

George Orwell: into the twenty-first century / edited by Thomas Cushman and John Rodden.

p. cm.

ISBN 1-59451-002-4 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 1-59451-003-2 (pbk : alk. paper)

1. Orwell, George, 1903-1950Criticism and interpretation. I. Cushman, Thomas, 1959

II. Rodden, John.

PR6029.R8Z6397 2004

828.91209dc22

2004014919

Designed and Typeset by Straight Creek Bookmakers.

ISBN 13: 978-1-59451-002-1 (hbk)

ISBN 13: 978-1-59451-003-8 (pbk)

Contents

THOMAS CUSHMAN

Chapter 1
Abolishing the Orgasm: Orwell and the Politics of Sexual Persecution

JONATHAN ROSE

Chapter 2
In Defense of Comrade Psmith: The Orwellian Treatment of Orwell

IAN WILLIAMS

Chapter 3
Hope against Hope: Orwells Posthumous Novel

MORRIS DICKSTEIN

Chapter 4
George Orwell and the Liberal Experience of Totalitarianism

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

Chapter 5
On the Ethics of Admirationand Detraction

JOHN RODDEN

Chapter 6
The Public Intellectual as Connected Critic: George Orwell and Religion

RONALD F. THIEMANN

Chapter 7
Orwell, Pacifism, Pacifists

LAWRENCE ROSENWALD

Chapter 8
Varieties of Patriotic Experience

TODD GITLIN

Chapter 9
Vulgar Nationalism and Insulting Nicknames: George Orwells Progressive Reflections on Race

ANTHONY STEWART

Chapter 10
Orwells Smelly Little Orthodoxiesand Ours

JIM SLEEPER

Chapter 11
Orwell in an Age of Celebrity

JONATHAN B. IMBER

Chapter 12
Writing about Orwell: A Personal Account

PETER STANSKY

Chapter 13
Orwell: Unmasker of Underlying Realities

DENNIS WRONG

Chapter 14
Third Thoughts about Orwell?

DAPHNE PATAI

Chapter 15
Orwells Perversity: An Approach to the Collected Essays

WILLIAM E. CAIN

Chapter 16
Prescience and Resilience in George Orwells Political Aesthetics

LYNETTE HUNTER

Chapter 17
Outside/Inside: Searching for Wigan Pier

MARGERY SABIN

Chapter 18
Orwells Satirical Vision on the Screen: The Film Versions of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four

ERIKA GOTTLIEB

Chapter 19
George Orwell: Russias Tocqueville

VLADIMIR SHLAPENTOKH

Chapter 20
May Days in Barcelona: Orwell, Langdon-Davies, and the Cultural Memory of War

MIQUEL BERGA

Chapter 21
From Ingsoc to Capsoc: Perceptions of Orwell in France

GILBERT BONIFAS

Thomas Cushman wishes to thank Wellesley College, and several of its academic departments, for its enthusiastic financial and technical support for the George Orwell Centenary Conference, which was held May 13, 2003. A particular note of thanks is due to the Committee on Lectures and Cultural Events for providing most of the resources for the conference and to the director of special events, Mary Morris. Beyond that, a number of offices and individuals at Wellesley were instrumental in helping to make the conference, and therefore this volume, a success. The broad support of many departments and colleagues at Wellesley is testament to the colleges intellectual environment. Special mention and praise is due to Jennifer Redfearn, who helped to organize and execute all of the details of the conference. Also due special thanks is William Cain of the Department of English at Wellesley College who was a persistent and knowledgeable collaborator and supporter. Kevin Alexander assisted in assembling and editing the final drafts of all of the essays and communicating with authors. Finally, I would like to thank John Rodden, who is my intellectual guide on things related to Orwell and much else. As the co-organizer of the Orwell Centenary Conference and coeditor of the volume, John worked closely with all of the authors whose essays appear in this volume, and editorial improvements to the essays are due primarily to his efforts.

The editors enjoy a special and serendipitous intellectual and personal relationship that generated and incubated the idea for the George Orwell Centenary Conference, brought it to realization, and made it possible to produce the present volume. Both of us would concur with Horace: Quia natura mutari non potest idcirco verae amicitiae sempiternae suntSince nature cannot change, true friendships are eternal.

John Rodden expresses his gratitude first to Thomas Cushman, whose intellectual acumen has made our dialogues about Orwell always stimulatingand whose practical expertise in conference organizing made the Orwell symposium the academic highlight of the Orwell centennial year. I consider it my good fate and fortune both to have met Tom in the year 1984 and to count him today as my intellectual (big) brother. Mitch Baranowksi, a former student and longtime friend, also deserves my deep thanks for his brilliant work in directing Does Orwell Matter? (the documentary film that emerged from the conference). I am also grateful to Lynn Hayden, a special friend and an inspiring presence throughout the Orwell conference. Lynn helped make the interviews for the film run smoothly in countless small ways. Finally, I too would like to acknowledge William Cain, whose outstanding intellectual contributions and personal generosity played a significant role behind the scenes to assure the success of the Orwell conference.

George Orwell into the Twenty-first Century

THOMAS CUSHMAN

On May 1 through 3, 2003, Wellesley College hosted the George Orwell Centenary Conference, which was the single largest world event commemorating Orwells life and work on the hundredth anniversary of his birth. The event featured leading Orwell scholars, writers, and public intellectuals who have been influenced by Orwells thinking and who engaged Orwells work as a catalyst for their own thinking on a wide variety of issues. The essays assembled in this volume are a result of this conference and testify to the sustained interest in this most enigmatic of writers and to his enduring influence into the twenty-first century.

There is a curious irony in such a commemorative event. As is well known, Orwell willed that no biography of him should appear after his death, perhaps an entirely unreasonable expectation given his prominence in twentieth-century literary life. The event would probably have been disdained by Orwell himself. One imagines that his desire not to be the subject of a biography or centenary conference might be based on his suspicion of the possibilities of hagiography implicit in such enterprises. To be sure, as several authors in this volume point out, there has been much sanctification of Orwell since his death.