Publisher's Synopsis
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 people's lives - and, not surprisingly, it became a constant reference point after Edward Snowden's 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 Orwell's life and writings - globally - continues unabated.
Beginning with a preface by Richard Blair, Orwell's 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 Orwell's collecting project; and Adam Stock on 'Big Brother's 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 &«Orwell's 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 Orwell's Burma»; and Shu-chu Wei on Orwell's Animal Farm alongside Chen Jo-his's Mayor Yin
Tim Crook on &«Orwell and the Radio Imagination»; and editor Richard Lance Keeble on &«Orwell and the War Reporter's Imagination»
Peter Stansky, in an afterword, argues that Orwell is now more relevant than ever before.
