David Campion






Poster of the POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista), Barcelona, 1936
MAIN PAGE COURSE REQUIREMENTS ORWELL ARCHIVE ORWELL FOUNDATION

SCHEDULE OF CLASSES

FALL 2022

Week I Aug 29-Sep 2 Introduction
Week II Sep 5-9 Childhood and Schooling
Week III Sep 12-16 Prison of Empire
Week IV Sep 19-23 Burmese Days
Week V Sep 26-30 How the Poor Live
Week VI Oct 3-7 Battlefield Spain
Week VII Oct 10-14 Betrayal in Barcelona
Week VIII Oct 17-21 Northern Exposure
Week IX Oct 24-28 Orwell and Socialism
Week X Oct 31-Nov 4 England and War
Week XI Nov 7-11 Some More Equal Than Others
Week XII Nov 14-18 2+2=5
Week XIII Nov 21-25 Orwell and Big Brother
Week XIV Nov 28-Dec 2 Presentations
Week XV Dec 5-7 Conclusion: Orwell in Our Time



Week I: Introduction

Aug 29: Introduction to the course and participants


Aug 31: Lecture: Orwell on writing and language


Sep 2: Discussion

"Politics and the English Language" (1945)
"Why I Write" (1946)
"Some Thoughts on the Common Toad" (1946)



Week II: Childhood and Schooling

Sep 5: No class (Labor Day)


Sep 7: Lecture: St. Cyprian's and Eton: education and Britain's class system

Christopher Hitchens, "The Eton Empire" Vanity Fair (2008)
Jeffrey Meyers, "Orwell the Old Etonian" The Article (2021)

Sep 9: Discussion

"Such, Such Were the Joys" (1948)



Week III: Prison of Empire

Sep 12: Lecture: The British in India


Sep 14: Discussion

"A Hanging" (1931)
David Campion, "The Dilemmas of the Colonial Policeman in British India," Historical Research (76:2) May 2003

Sep 16: Discussion

"Shooting an Elephant" (1936)
"Reflections on Gandhi" (1949)



Week IV: Burmese Days

Sep 19: Discussion

Burmese Days (chaps. I-VII), first edition (1934)

Sep 21: Discussion

Burmese Days (chaps. VIII-XVI)

Sep 23: Discussion

Burmese Days (chaps. XVII-XXV)



Week V: How the Poor Live

Sep 26: Lecture: Eric Blair becomes George Orwell

ESSAY #1 DUE SEP 26

Sep 28: Discussion

Down and Out in Paris and London (chaps. I-XXIII), first edition (1933)

Sep 30: Discussion

Down and Out in Paris and London (chaps. XXIV-XXXVIII)
"How the Poor Die" (1946)



Week VI: Battlefield Spain

Oct 3: Lecture: The Spanish Civil War


Oct 5: Discussion

Homage to Catalonia (chaps. I-V), first edition (1938)

Oct 7: No class (Fall Break)




Week VII: Betrayal in Barcelona

Oct 10: Discussion

Homage to Catalonia (chaps. VI-X)

Oct 12: Discussion

Homage to Catalonia (chaps. XI-XIV)
Harriet Sherwood, "How Soviet Spies targeted George Orwell during the Spanish Civil War" The Guardian (Oct 2020)

Oct 14: MIDTERM EXAMINATION




Week VIII: Introduction

Oct 17: Lecture: The Great Depression and England's industrial North


Oct 19: Discussion

The Road to Wigan Pier (Publisher’s Note, Foreward, chaps. I-III), first edition (1937)

Oct 21: Discussion

The Road to Wigan Pier (chaps. IV-VII)
"The Wigan of George Orwell in Pictures, 1939" The Guardian (Feb 2011)



Week IX: Orwell and Socialism

Oct 24: Discussion

The Road to Wigan Pier (chaps. VIII-X), Orwell's map from RWP (1936)

Oct 26: Discussion

The Road to Wigan Pier (chaps. XI-XIII)

Oct 28: Lecture: Orwell, the BBC, and the Second World War




Week X: England and War

Oct 31: Discussion

"The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius" (Part I), first edition (1941)
"Political Diary, 1940-41" University College London, Special Collections
Thomas Ricks, "Churchill, Orwell, and the Class War in Britain: 1941" in Churchill & Orwell: The Fight for Freedom (2017)

ESSAY #2 DUE OCT 31

Nov 2: Discussion

"The Lion and the Unicorn" (Parts II-III)
"Notes on Nationalism" (1945)
Vincent Dowd, "Why George Orwell is Returning to the BBC" BBC News (Nov 2017)
Will Lloyd, "England's other Saint George," UnHerd (Apr 2021)

Nov 4: Lecture: Stalin’s Russia and Orwell’s satire: the fight for Animal Farm




Week XI: Some More Equal than Others

Nov 7: Discussion

Animal Farm (vii-xiv, chaps. 1-6), first editions: UK (1945), USA (1946)

Nov 9: Discussion

Animal Farm (chaps. 7-10)

Nov 11: Lecture: Orwell at Jura, the Cold War begins, and the genesis of Nineteen Eighty-Four

Susan Steinway, From the Archives: Orwell & HMH
Dorian Lynskey "How Orwell Wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four" The Guardian (May 2019)



Week XII: 2+2=5

Nov 14: Discussion

Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part I, first editions: UK & USA (1949)

Nov 16: Discussion

Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part II

Nov 18: Discussion

Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part III, Appendix



Week XIII: Orwell and Big Brother

Nov 21: Discussion: The legacy of Nineteen Eighty-Four

Ridley Scott/Apple Inc., "Why 1984 Won't be like 1984" Super Bowl television ad (Jan 1984)
Greg Diglin, "Living the Orwellian Nightmare: New Media and Digital Dystopia." E-Learning and Digital Media (Dec 2014)
Samantha Senn, "All Propaganda is Dangerous, but Some are More Dangerous than Others: George Orwell and the Use of Literature as Propaganda." Journal of Strategic Security 8 (Fall 2015)
Jeffrey Williams, "Orwell isn't Quite the Way You Think he is" Inside Higher Ed (June 2017)
Journeyman.TV, Social Credit: China’s Digital Dystopia in the Making (Oct 2018)
George Packer, "Doublethink is Stronger Than Orwell imagined" The Atlantic (July 2019)

Nov 23: Discussion: The legacy of Nineteen Eighty-Four, continued

Suggested films:
Nineteen Eighty-Four (Director: Rudolph Cartier, BBC TV, 1954)
Nineteen Eighty-Four (Director: Michael Radford, Virgin Films, 1984)

Nov 25: No class (Thanksgiving)




Week XIV: Presentations

Nov 28: Presentations


Nov 30: Presentations


Dec 2: Presentations




Week XV: Conclusion: Orwell in Our Time

Dec 5: Presentations

ESSAY #3 DUE DEC 5

Dec 7: Discussion

Timothy Garton Ash, "Orwell for Our Time" The Guardian (May 2001)
Thomas Ricks, "Orwell’s Extraordinary Ascension" in Churchill & Orwell (2017)
Channel Four, George Orwell: A Life in Pictures (2003)

FINAL EXAMINATION: SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1:00-4:00 pm



Created by campion@lclark.edu | Updated December 2022