LARTS 473 1984 & Protest Against Totalitarianism
In “1984”, George Orwell created for us a dystopian vision of the future: deeply impoverished, politically repressive, anti-intellectual, committed to the techniques – and the horrors - of totalitarianism. In doing so, Orwell presents not only a powerful protest against massive, intrusive, media-driven political oppression in the Cold War era, but also an insight into our own fears about the loss of individuality, culture, and language. And while these themes crystallized in the wake of Hitler's destruction and Stalin's rise to world power, they remain critical issues in our 21st century world. Our one-credit class will undertake a close reading of Orwell’s novel, supplemented by critical exploration of such seminal works on this subject as Yevgeny Zamyatin’s “We,” Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World,” and Arthur Koestler's “Darkness at Noon.”