Department of English

The writing of George Orwell, a London resident for most of his life, continues to influence literary thinking on history, politics, popular culture, and social class.  But Orwell was poor for most of his life and died before he could enjoy the money earned by his best-sellers, 1984 and Animal Farm.  Orwell was a policeman in British India, a dishwasher in Paris, a tramp in London, a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War, a reporter in World War II, and a political critic of totalitarianism.  This course will trace his development as a writer and relate his life and work to the social, political, religious, and cultural controversies of the 20th century.  We'll read Down and Out in Paris and London, Burmese Days, Homage to Catalonia, Animal Farm, and 1984, as well as selected fiction and non-fiction on such British topics as pubs, English tea, the torments of public school, the royal family, and cartoons. We'll visit Eton College, where he was a student, as well as various sites in London where he lived and worked.  We'll also take a look at the movie versions of his novels.