Milestones on the road to dystopia
Subtitle: interpreting George Orwell's self-division in an era of 'force and fraud'
By: by Firas A J Al-Jubouri
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
Language: eng
Number of pages: 254
ISBN-13: 9781443854559
Subjects: Criticism and interpretation; Anti-Utopie; Dystopias
Other titles: George Orwell's self-division in an era of 'force and fraud'
Description: Author of the masterpieces Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell, the nom de plume of Eric Arthur Blair, experienced, explored and explained some of the defining political, economic and social traumas of his time - predicaments that have, and will always be, part of Man's infatuation with power and power politics. Orwell's experiences of colonial exploitation in Burma, extreme poverty in Paris, London and the industrial North, and the horrors of ideological deceit and betrayal during the Spanish Civil War fashioned his literary persona, his political canon and influenced his vision of a future dystopia. This book explores Orwell's journey to dystopia, using his major texts as milestones, and also examines the author as a divided self and as a chronicler of his age on a fateful journey to dystopia.^

Furthermore, it investigates his responses to the use of what he calls 'force and/or fraud' in the politics of his time, seeking a new understanding of the tensions and contradictions that characterise his writing. The analyses explain how authoritarian systems and totalitarian regimes manipulate power and employ pretence in order to divide the self and force individuals and society into obedience. The book argues that new insight into Orwell's political views is gained by investigating Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince, where Machiavelli uses the phrase 'force or fraud' to encourage totalitarian tactics in running a State. Milestones on the Road to Dystopia: Interpreting George Orwell's Self-Division in an Era of 'Force and Fraud' presents new insights that interpret the close relationship between self-division, paradox and the use of a pseudonym, demonstrating how they help in understanding Orwell's character, works and the nature of totalitarian politics.^

Analysing self-division, both as an Orwellian trait and as a totalitarian strategy, and finding a connection with Machiavelli, against the milieu of Orwell's development as a writer, is an intricate and interrelated topic that has not previously received critical attention, either in its individual parts or as an integrated study. This book establishes an essential template with which to analyse Orwell's self-division apropos his growing fears of totalitarian power politics, and offers distinct analytical acumens that allow for an updated understanding of Orwell and of his relevance to political thought and the question of 'common decency' in twenty-first century literature and politics.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Chapter 1; title: Orwell's Chronicles in an Age of Political Discourse -- 1 -- 1.1; title: Perspective -- -- 1.2; title: Aims and Objectives -- -- 1.3; title: The Rhetoric of Necessity: Genre, Style and Structure -- -- 1.4; title: Incongruities of Reputation: Orwell as a Political Can(n)on -- -- 1.5; title: The Thirties: An Orwellian Decade of Political Partisanship and the Literary Avant-Garde -- -- Chapter 2; title: Orwell's Self-Division and Machiavellian Politics -- 44 -- 2.1; title: Perspective -- -- 2.2; title: Orwell's Self-Division and Paradox: An Assessment of Selected Critical Opinions -- -- 2.3; title: Defining Orwell's Self-Division -- -- 2.4; title: Interpreting Orwell's Paradox: Contradiction and Discordance as Rhetoric of Self-Division -- -- 2.5; title: An Orwellian Persona through a Nom De Plume: A Manifestation of Self-Division -- -- 2.6; title: The Orwellian-Machiavellian Connection -- -- Chapter 3; title: 'The End was Contained in the Beginning'; St Cyprian's and St Clement's -- 89 -- 3.1; title: Perspective -- -- 3.2; title: Detachment or Attachment?: Self-Division, a Literary Tendency not a Psychological Necessity -- -- 3.3; title: Moulding Education, Manipulating Consciousness -- -- 3.4; title: Early Subjugation: 'Cruelty and Clemency' -- -- 3.5; title: The Money Code and Class Privilege: 'Force and Fraud' -- -- Chapter 4; title: Colonialism versus "The White Man's Burden' -- 122 -- 4.1; title: Perspective -- -- 4.2; title: The Mystique of the Raj: Revulsion and Attraction -- -- 4.3; title: Hybridity and Mimicry: Cloning the Colonial Self -- -- 4.4; title: The Rebellious 'Pukka Sahib', the Colonial Native and the Brutal Machiavellians: Dialogues of Self-interest, Self-Division and Political Radicalism -- -- 4.5; title: A Machiavellian Blueprint for the Future: Kyauktada, Forerunner of Oceania and U Po Kyin's Big Brother -- -- Chapter 5; title: The Politics of Betrayal: Unwriting the Fight Against Fascism -- 163 -- 5.1; title: Perspective -- -- 5.2; title: The Spanish Civil War: A Dress Rehearsal and an Orwellian Homage -- -- 5.3; title: Spain and Self-Division: Idealism versus Realism -- -- 5.4; title: Revolution and Counter-Revolution: Hammering Ideology and Allies into New Shapes -- -- 5.5; title: Force, Fraud and Political Fratricide: Stalinist Treachery and Orwell's Affinity with Machiavelli -- -- Chapter 6; title: The Past is Prologue -- 201 -- 6.1; title: Perspective -- -- 6.2; title: 'Book of Anticipations' or Journal of Present Perceptions and Backward Looking Introspections -- -- 6.3; title: The Politics of Paradox and Doublethink: Devices of Self-Division and Despotism -- -- 6.4; title: Machiavelli's Politics, Orwell's Prophecies.