When George met Bill
Orwell, Empson, and the Language of Propaganda
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12740754 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Stefan Collini (0000-0002-3316-471X, University of Cambridge, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 607-628 |
| Publication date | 2020-04-28 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Modern Intellectual History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1479-2443 • E-ISSN: 1479-2451 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s1479244320000128 |
| OpenAlex | W3023857289 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 6 |
George Orwell and William Empson worked closely together at the BBC during the Second World War and they remained friends thereafter. In The Structure of Complex Words (1951) Empson paid surprisingly serious attention to the view of language expounded in Nineteen Eighty-Four , seeing in Orwell's presentation of the meaningless slogans of totalitarianism, such as “War Is Peace,” a challenge to his own more rationalistic analysis of how language works. This article first explores the development of Orwell's thinking about language, including his engagement with Basic English (which Empson helped to propagate); a particularly close, and critical, analysis is given of his celebrated essay “Politics and the English Language.” Orwell's views are then contrasted with Empson's unpacking of the interplay of multiple senses within individual words, demonstrating that even the most extreme propaganda statements need to draw upon and respect the mechanics of meaning as embodied in such words if they are to be persuasive. Intellectual historians have much to learn from these exchanges, as do contemporary analysts of “fake news” and authoritarian bombast more generally
Art · Art history · Authoritarianism · Embodied cognition · Epistemology · George (robot · Linguistics · Literature · Meaning (existential · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Unpacking · Comics and Graphic Narratives · Contemporary Literature and Criticism · History · Law · Philosophy · Themes in Literature Analysis
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |