Nineteen Eighty-Four

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 October 2022

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss George Orwell's (1903-1950) final novel, published in 1949, set in a dystopian London which is now found in Airstrip One, part of the totalitarian superstate of Oceania which is always at war and where the protagonist, Winston Smith, works at the Ministry of Truth as a rewriter of history: 'Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.' The influence of Orwell's novel is immeasurable, highlighting threats to personal freedom with concepts he named such as doublespeak, thoughtcrime, Room 101, Big Brother, memory hole and thought police. With David Dwan Professor of English Literature and Intellectual History at the University of Oxford Lisa Mullen Teaching Associate in Modern Contemporary Literature at the University of Cambridge And John Bowen Professor of English Literature at the University of York Producer: Simon Tillotson

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts
0:04.8	Thanks for downloading this episode of In Our Time.
0:07.5	There's a reading list to go with it on our website and you can get news about our programs
0:11.4	if you follow us on Twitter at BBC In Our Time.
0:14.8	I hope you enjoyed the programs.
0:16.6	Hello, double think, thought police, rule one or one, big brother is watching you.
0:21.9	Just some of the ideas George Orwell coined in his last novel, 1984 and which we use still
0:28.2	today.
0:29.2	It's a prophecy and a warning about totalitarianism, what it looks like and through the character
0:34.3	and wins and smith, what it feels like when there's no freedom to act or think and where
0:39.4	the leader chooses what our facts, what is true.
0:43.3	Love here is impossible.
0:44.8	In his place is a daily ritual, the two minutes of hate and ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness.
0:50.2	With me to discuss 1984, our David Dwan, professor of English literature and intellectual
0:55.2	history at the University of Oxford.
0:57.0	He's a mullon teaching associate in modern contemporary literature, the University of
1:01.4	Cambridge and John Bohn, professor of English literature at the University of York.
1:06.6	John, 1984 said in London, but not quite the London that we know, how would you describe
1:11.8	Orwell's city?
1:12.8	It's grotty, it's the grim, miserable place.
1:15.8	It's a bit like post-war London, but after the war has been going on for 40 years, the
1:20.6	food is disgusting, it looks like vomit.
	...

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