Beyond Words: The Politics of Language Control in Nineteen Eighty-Four
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Anja Meyer
Anja Meyer holds a PhD in Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures from the University of Verona and the title of
Doctor Europaeus . She is currently a post-doc researcher at the University of Verona working on the Horizon EU project ELIT, which focusses on literature and empathy. She has lectured courses of English language and literature at the Universities of Verona, Mantova, Milan and Venice (Cà Foscari and IUAV University). Her research interests include literature and visual studies, intermediality, empirical studies, Victorian literature and culture, and trauma studies. She has spent research periods at the Freie Universität Berlin and the University of New South Wales in Sydney. She has recently published her first monograph, entitled “Images of Traumatic Memories. Intersecting Literature and Photography” with Vandenhöck & Ruprecht Verlag (Göttingen, Germany, 2021).
Abstract
The essay explores the themes of linguistic manipulation and power as portrayed in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), drawing connections with contemporary discourse on disinformation and political language. Through the lens of Teun A. Van Dijk’s critical discourse analysis and Michel Foucault’s concept of panopticism, the study examines Orwell’s depiction of a dystopian society where language serves as a central tool for consolidating totalitarian power. In particular, the fictional language of Newspeak is analyzed as an instrument designed to restrict critical thought, aligning with Orwell’s broader critique of language manipulation as a mechanism of cognitive and societal control. By exploring the intersections of language, power, and social structure, this essay highlights how Orwell’s warnings remain relevant in today’s world of pervasive digital disinformation and propaganda, underscoring the importance of safeguarding linguistic integrity as a defense of independent thought.
About the author
Anja Meyer holds a PhD in Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures from the University of Verona and the title of Doctor Europaeus. She is currently a post-doc researcher at the University of Verona working on the Horizon EU project ELIT, which focusses on literature and empathy. She has lectured courses of English language and literature at the Universities of Verona, Mantova, Milan and Venice (Cà Foscari and IUAV University). Her research interests include literature and visual studies, intermediality, empirical studies, Victorian literature and culture, and trauma studies. She has spent research periods at the Freie Universität Berlin and the University of New South Wales in Sydney. She has recently published her first monograph, entitled “Images of Traumatic Memories. Intersecting Literature and Photography” with Vandenhöck & Ruprecht Verlag (Göttingen, Germany, 2021).
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Focus: Law and Literature in the Era of the Digital Condition, an Introduction
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- The Legal Subject in the Society of Singularities: Prolegomena to the Legal Type of Personalized Law
- Online Violence as a Digital Condition: A New Cultural Habit?
- The Poetics of Digital Children and Designing Online Democratic Deliberations
- Video Conferencing Platforms (VCPs) and the Cohesive Distinctiveness of Legal Proceedings
- Rethinking Tech, Reclaiming Ourselves: Human Dignity and Human Rights in Technological Age
- Research
- Two Models of Faith and the Law in Paul and the Western Diaspora
- Beyond Words: The Politics of Language Control in Nineteen Eighty-Four
- Legitimate Possessions: History, Property and Literary Aesthetics in James F. Cooper’s The Pioneers (1823) and Catherine M. Sedgwick’s Hope Leslie (1827)
- Judging Jo’burg? Fictional Architecture and the Postcolonial Cityscape as Juridical Space
- Reproducing an Outside to Modernity at the Limit of the Law of Seriality: Reading Kawakami Mieko’s Breasts and Eggs
- Law and the Media in Luke Delaney’s The Jackdaw
- Book Reviews
- Ian Ward: The Reformation of the Constitution. Law, Culture and Conflict in Jacobean England
- Cathy Shrank and Phil Withington: The Oxford Handbook on Thomas More’s Utopia
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Focus: Law and Literature in the Era of the Digital Condition, an Introduction
- Focus
- The Legal Subject in the Society of Singularities: Prolegomena to the Legal Type of Personalized Law
- Online Violence as a Digital Condition: A New Cultural Habit?
- The Poetics of Digital Children and Designing Online Democratic Deliberations
- Video Conferencing Platforms (VCPs) and the Cohesive Distinctiveness of Legal Proceedings
- Rethinking Tech, Reclaiming Ourselves: Human Dignity and Human Rights in Technological Age
- Research
- Two Models of Faith and the Law in Paul and the Western Diaspora
- Beyond Words: The Politics of Language Control in Nineteen Eighty-Four
- Legitimate Possessions: History, Property and Literary Aesthetics in James F. Cooper’s The Pioneers (1823) and Catherine M. Sedgwick’s Hope Leslie (1827)
- Judging Jo’burg? Fictional Architecture and the Postcolonial Cityscape as Juridical Space
- Reproducing an Outside to Modernity at the Limit of the Law of Seriality: Reading Kawakami Mieko’s Breasts and Eggs
- Law and the Media in Luke Delaney’s The Jackdaw
- Book Reviews
- Ian Ward: The Reformation of the Constitution. Law, Culture and Conflict in Jacobean England
- Cathy Shrank and Phil Withington: The Oxford Handbook on Thomas More’s Utopia
