Reading Orwell
By Nathan Waddell
Reading OrwellNov 14, 2023
24. Thoughts on Nineteen Eighty-Four: Part III
The third and final instalment of a 3-part mini-series looking at Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four in hour-long episodes, focusing on Part III of the book.
23. Thoughts on Nineteen Eighty-Four: Part II
The second instalment of a 3-part mini-series looking at Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four in hour-long episodes, focusing on Part II of the book.
22. Thoughts on Nineteen Eighty-Four: Part I
The first instalment of a 3-part mini-series looking at Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four in hour-long episodes, starting with Part I of the book.
21. A conversation with Liam Knight, University of Birmingham
Today I talk to Liam Knight, a PhD student at the University of Birmingham working on a thesis addressing the question of 'endotextuality' in dystopian fiction. We talk about books within books and texts within texts, focusing on Orwell but with an eye on some other dystopian writers, including Margaret Atwood. In addition to his PhD research, Liam runs a brilliant GCSE revision resource, 'Dystopia Junkie', which you can find on YouTube.
20. A conversation with Professor John Bowen, University of York
A conversation with Professor John Bowen, about his recent experience of editing Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) for the Oxford World's Classics series.
19. A conversation with Dr Lisa Mullen, University of Cambridge
A conversation with Dr Lisa Mullen about Homage to Catalonia (1938) and the annotated edition of it she recently produced for the Oxford World's Classics series.
18. Love in Nineteen Eighty-Four
Is Nineteen Eighty-Four a love story? In this episode, we consider how love survives, to a degree, while also being twisted into new, disturbing forms in Orwell's imagined future of pain and terror.
17. Nostalgia, Misogyny, and the Future in Coming Up for Air
George Orwell's 1939 novel, Coming Up for Air, combines a sceptical view of the nostalgic with dread about a looming future of pain and suffering. This episode looks at how these emphases are bound up with the first-person narration of George Bowling, whose disreputability and misogyny makes him a compromised 'voice' for the modern world.
16. War, Confusion, and Mud in Homage to Catalonia
Orwell's mud. Homage to Catalonia shows how Orwell could turn the muddying of troops and the muddied waters of civil war into impressionistic form. This episode reconstructs these emphases, connecting them to Orwell's reasons for participating in the Spanish Civil War in 1937.
15. Beastly Men and Humanlike Beasts in Animal Farm
An episode considering how Orwell's most famous satire, Animal Farm, traces the equivalences between men and animals as part of its fairy-tale response to the Russian Revolution and the emergence of Stalin's Russia.
14. The Question of Poverty Tourism in The Road to Wigan Pier
Is The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) socio-economically voyeuristic? This episode discusses some of the issues surrounding this and related questions, giving an overview of why and how Orwell wrote this enduringly relevant account of poverty and hardship in the industrial north of England.
13. Normality and Stickiness in A Clergyman’s Daughter
12. Emptiness, Racism, and Fat Shaming in Burmese Days
Orwell's novel Burmese Days (1934) takes a dim view of empire, but is itself deeply prejudiced. This episode considers prejudice at two levels: the racist mentalities of the Orwell's characters, and the novel's own narrative expressions of lookism and fat-shaming.
11. Civilization, Death, and Money in Keep the Aspidistra Flying
Gordon Comstock--the great enemy of money, in Orwell. This episode looks at his rage, the deathliness of the world around him, and the poor choices to which his anger leads.
10. Poverty and Genre in Down and Out in Paris and London
Orwell, down and out. In this episode, we track the various formal tensions in Orwell's first major work, his study of poverty and precarity in Paris and London.
9. Orwell’s Voice: A Brief Introduction to the Man and his Work
8. Resurrected from the Ashes: Nineteen Eighty-Four Part I, Chapter 7
7. Dirtying the Sex Instinct: Nineteen Eighty-Four Part I, Chapter 6
6. A Sort of Saving Stupidity: Nineteen Eighty-Four Part I, Chapter 5
5. One Piece of Nonsense for Another: Nineteen Eighty-Four Part I, Chapter 4
4. Water Imagery in Nineteen Eighty-Four
3. Melting into Mist: Nineteen Eighty-Four Part I, Chapter 3
2. Not Death but Annihilation: Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part I, Chapter 2