Document Type
Article
Abstract
[First paragraph]
Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four is arguably the most influential political novel of the twentieth century, providing us with a set of concepts and a vocabulary to discuss the state’s totalitarian control of the individual. As such, Orwell can be seen as one of the founding fathers of literary representations of a threatening urban space which functions as the microcosm of a global, totalizing and dystopian reality. His seminal contribution to the discourse of (in)security and surveillance has been widely recognized. David Lyon is one among the many theorists who place Orwell at the top of the list of early studies of state control, both acknowledging that his “dystopian vision is valuable” and critically assessing it as “dated in some respects” (143). Although not the first and certainly not the most sophisticated of thinkers, Orwell played a major part in the dissemination and popularization of these issues. He may not rank with illustrious predecessors like Bentham, Marx or Durkheim in philosophical depth and theoretical innovation, but non-specialists will probably turn to him first and specialists cannot by-pass him in any discussion about the nature and mechanism of disciplinary power.
Repository Citation
Matos, Jacinta M.. "George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four: Is This Where It All Began?." Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture vol. 12, no. 3, 2012, pp. 1–13. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/reconstruction/vol12/iss3/3