Lies, damned lies and literature: George Orwell and 'The Truth'

Citation

Ingle S (2007) Lies, damned lies and literature: George Orwell and 'The Truth'. British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 9 (4), pp. 730-746. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-856X.2007.00298.x

Abstract
This article sets out to illustrate the value of imaginative literature as a tool of political analysis. It investigates the nature of truth and lies principally through a discussion of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. Hannah Arendt's concerns about new forms of political lying provide a platform for a detailed analysis of Orwell's depiction of the struggle between the individual and the state over the nature of reality and truth. We consider the plausibility of the Party's attempt to recreate the truth in its own image, especially through the control of language. Orwell's novel, we shall conclude, stands as a stark warning against allowing civil society to atrophy and the state to subvert ordinary language, thereby destroying the basis of representative government, trustReprinted by permission of Blackwell Publishers

Keywords
Orwell; totalitarianism; literature; truth

Journal
British Journal of Politics and International Relations: Volume 9, Issue 4