Nineteen Eighty-Four

In Our Time: Culture

BBC

History

4.6 • 978 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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0:44.0	our programs if you follow us on Twitter at BBC in our time I hope you enjoy the
0:48.8	programs hello double-think thought police 101, Big Brother is watching you.
0:55.0	Just some of the ideas George Orwell coined in his last novel 1984, and which we use still today.
1:02.0	It's a prophecy and a warning about totalitarianism,
1:05.7	what it looks like and through the character of Winston-Smith what it feels like
1:10.0	when there's no freedom to act or think and where the leader chooses what are facts, what is true.
1:16.0	Love here is impossible. In his place is a daily ritual, the two minutes of hate and ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness.
1:23.4	With me to discuss 1984, I David Duane, Professor of English Literature and
1:28.0	Intellectual History at the University of Oxford.
1:30.7	Lisa Mullen, Teaching Associate in Modern contemporary literature at the University of Cambridge, and
1:35.6	John Bowen, Professor of English Literature at the University of York.
	...

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