Peter Marks

George Orwell the Essayist (eBook, ePUB)

Literature, Politics and the Periodical Culture

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

George Orwell is acclaimed as one of English literature's great essayists. Yet, while many are considered classics, as a body of work his essays have been neglected. Peter Marks provides the first sustained study of Orwell the essayist, giving these compelling pieces the critical attention they merit.

Orwell employed the essay as a tool to entertain, illuminate and provoke readers across an array of topics. Marks situates the essays in their original contexts, exploring how journals influenced the type of essay Orwell wrote. Acknowledging this periodical culture helps explain the tactics Orwell employed, the topics he chose and the audiences he addressed. Orwell's first and last published works were essays, providing evidence of the development of his cultural and political views over two decades. Essays helped him fashion his distinctive literary 'voice' and Mark traces how their afterlife contributes to Orwell's posthumous reputation. Arguing the essays are central to Orwell's enduring literary, political and cultural value, Marks shows how we understand the complexities, subtleties, and contradictions of Orwell better when we understand his essays.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury eBooks UK
• Seitenzahl: 232
• Erscheinungstermin: 6. April 2015
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781441128232
• Artikelnr.: 42522516

Autorenporträt

Peter Marks is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Sydney, Australia. He wrote British Filmmakers: Terry Gilliam (Manchester University Press, 2009), co-edited Literature and the Contemporary (Longmans, 1999) and has written articles and chapters on such topics as George Orwell, the essay, 1930s British and American literature, periodicals, surveillance, and film adaptation.

Inhaltsangabe

Acknowledgments \ Introduction: Orwell, the Essay and the Periodical
Culture \ 1. From Blair to Orwell: Finding a Voice (1931-6) \ 2. The
Radicalised Orwell: From Spanish to Global Conflict (1937-9) \ 3. Orwell in
Wartime: Socialism, Patriotism and Cultural Threat (1940-5) \ 4. Orwell and
the Uncertain Future (1946-50) \ 5. The Posthumous Orwell and the Afterlife
of the Essays \ Bibliography \ Index \