The Road from George Orwell: His Achievement and Legacy

Fifty years after his death, George Orwell is generally recognised as a leading exponent of twentieth-century English prose and one of the most influential satiric writers whose work has continually raised all kinds of political controversies. This volume assembles twelve papers delivered at the VIII Jornadas de Literatura Inglesa at the University of Alcala in May 2000. The conference set out to re-examine Orwell’s work and thought in the light of contemporary theoretical concerns, as well as to discuss the mark he has left in British literature in the second half of the twentieth century, particularly on political satire and the development of dystopian fiction. A first group of essays provides new insights and fresh ways of viewing familiar issues such as Orwell’s controversial political thought, the representation of race and gender in his early fiction, the narrative strategies of his documentary prose and the impact of Spanish censorship on his writing, particularly on Homage to Catalonia. Other essays explore the legacy of Orwell’s dystopian fiction in later novelists such as Zoe Fairbairns, Alasdair Gray, Robert Harris, Julian Barnes and Ben Elton, as well as issues of history and language that are raised in Orwell’s writings and dominate twentieth-century fiction.