Orwell and Marxism: The Political and Cultural Thinking of George Orwell

ISBN-13: 9781784537043 / Angielski / Miękka / 2016 / 272 str.

Philip Bounds

Opis

Whether as a fighter in the Spanish Civil War, an advocate of patriotic Socialism or a left-wing opponent of the Soviet Union, George Orwell was the ultimate outsider in politics-insecure, scornful of orthodoxies, and cussedly independent. Best known today as the author of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, Orwell also wrote seven other full-length books and a vast number of essays, articles, and reviews. A pioneering cultural critic, he addressed a range of important issues including art, literature, "Englishness," mass communication, and the spectre of totalitarianism. Famously describing his own background as "lower-upper-middle class," Orwell had a complex relationship with Marxism and all his work reflects the influence of British communism. Through close analysis of Orwell's writings, as well as his historical and literary context, Philip Bounds has produced an important study of an iconic writer of the 20th century. Orwell and Marxism offers a thorough introduction to Orwell the intellectual, reviving his reputation as a serious cultural thinker and documenting his most important influences, as well as a convincing portrait of British Marxism and society in the 1930s and 40s.

Spis treści

CONTENTSIntroduction The Common People The Politics of Mass Communication Literature and Commitment Reforming English CultureThe Totalitarian Future Appendix One: Orwell as his Own CriticAppendix Two Biographical Details

O autorze

Philip Bounds holds a PhD. in Politics from the University of Wales. He is the author of British Communism and Literary Theory and Cultural Studies .