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ELEN1003 Critical Thinking

Propaganda and Power
Assignment 2
Due Date: 26th October 2015 at 08:00 (please submit a printed copy to the EIE
reception and an electronic copy to SAKAI)

Length: +-1500-2000 words

Instructions:
1. Read through the assignment topics carefully. Choose ONE and write an essay in response
to the topic you have chosen.
2. Structure your answer into a coherent argument that follows the configuration of
introduction, body (dividing ideas into separate thematic paragraphs), and conclusion. Do
not use headings or sub-headings in your essay.
3. Assignments must be typed (employing 1 spacing and 12 point font size, preferably in
Times New Roman font). It is crucial that you paginate your assignment. Please attach a
cover sheet to your assignment stating your name, your student number, your tutors name
and the topic number you have chosen. Students failing to adhere to these requirements
will have marks deducted from their papers.
4. Attach a reference list listing the primary text and all secondary sources cited in your
essay. Ensure that you reference accordingly throughout your work. Students failing to
reference properly will be severely penalised. If you have consulted additional sources that
do not appear in your reference list, include these texts in a separate bibliography.
5. Late submissions will suffer deductions.
6. These topics exercise your skills at critical thinking and critical argumentation. This means
that your work has to be balanced and thoughtful. It would be helpful to consult a few of the
secondary sources listed below as you prepare your essay. Remember to draw upon textual
quotation from the novel to substantiate and enrich your argument. Furthermore, closely
analyse extracts provided in the essay topics.

Five essay topic options based on:

1984/Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) by George Orwell

Choose ONE of the following topics:

1.

Its real, undeclared purpose was to remove all pleasure from the sexual act. Not love
so much as eroticism was the enemy. (Orwell 1949: 68)
[S]he had torn her clothes off, and when she flung them aside it was with that same
magnificent gesture by which a whole civilisation seemed to be annihilated. (Orwell
1949: 131)

The totalitarian state attempts to co-opt and control the individual body in its most
intimate setting. With close reference to the above quotes, consider the role of the body
within Nineteen Eighty-Four. How is the individual body controlled by the state (and coopted by the state) and what avenues (if any) are available to subvert this control? In
order to answer this question you must, among other things, consider the role of torture
and eroticism in the text.

OR

2.
The perfect disciplinary apparatus would make it possible for a single gaze to see
everything constantly . . . a perfect eye that nothing would escape and a centre
toward which all gazes would be turned . . . it is everywhere and always alert . . . it
functions permanently and largely in silence. (Rabinow, The Foucault Reader, 1984)
It was one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about
when you move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption read. (Orwell
1949:1)

Orwell explores the ideal conception of the totalitarian state by illustrating the ultimate
means of control. Through a detailed analysis of the novel, write an essay in which you
examine surveillance as a mechanism of control exerted upon the citizens of Oceania in
Nineteen Eighty-Four. Your essay should include a discussion of the panopticon.

OR
3.
When one watches some tired hack on the platform mechanically repeating the
familiar phrases [of political language] one often has a curious feeling that one is not
watching a live human being but some kind of dummy... A speaker who uses that
kind of phraseology has gone some distance toward turning himself into a machine.
The appropriate noises are coming out of his larynx, but his brain is not involved as
it would be if he were choosing his words for himself... And this reduced state of
consciousness... is...favourable to political conformity. (Orwell Politics and the
English Language 1946)
It was not the mans brain that was speaking, it was his larynx. The stuff that was
coming out of him consisted of words, but it was not speech in the true sense: it was
noise uttered in unconsciousness, like the quacking of a duck. (Orwell 1949: 63)

In Nineteen Eighty-Four Orwell explores the ways in which language can be used to
manipulate and diminish personal thought to serve a political agenda. With close
reference to the above extracts, critically analyse the Partys use of Newspeak as a
mechanism of control. Your essay should consider the concept of linguistic relativity1 in
relation to important Newspeak terms such as doublethink, thoughtcrime, and duckspeak.

OR
4.
In 1937, the Institute for Propaganda Analysis identified seven common propaganda
techniques in an effort to promote critical thought and reflection. These techniques
include:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
1

Name-calling
Glittering Generality
Transfer
Testimonial
Plain Folks
Bandwagon
Card Stacking

Your answer should show an awareness of what the concept of linguistic relativity means and how it
relates to Newspeak in Nineteen Eighty-Four. You are not required to conduct exhaustive research
regarding linguistic relativity.

Additional propaganda techniques include:

Fear
Euphemism
Slogans and Repetition
Dehumanisation and Scapegoating
Oversimplification and Stereotyping
Logical Fallacy
Disinformation
Lesser of Two Evils

Consider how these techniques have been used by propagandists in Orwell's Nineteen
Eighty-Four, as well as in the films Goodbye Lenin and Equilibrium, as a means to maintain
total power and control. Your essay must provide a discussion of propaganda in Nineteen
Eighty-Four and at least one of the films. In addition to this, your discussion should
consider at least five different propaganda techniques. All definitions of propaganda
techniques must be appropriately referenced.2

OR
5.
If there is hope, wrote Winston, it lies with the proles. (Orwell 1949: 80)
Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull.
(Orwell 1949: 32)
Is George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four essentially a pessimistic and dystopian novel?
Write an essay in which you consider the mechanisms of oppression as well as the
possibilities of freedom/self-liberation suggested by the novel. Your response should
critically consider Newspeak (the role of language), the power of Big Brother, the role of
propaganda, the effect of torture, the ending of the novel, as well as erotic sexuality and
diary-writing.

This includes definitions provided to students through handouts or on slides during the lectures.

Suggested Reading List for 1984 Assignment

College Literature. Vol. 11. No.1, 1984. [Issue devoted to studies of 1984.
(Available on JSTOR.)

Courtine, J.J. and Willett, L. A Brave New Language: Orwell's Invention of

Newspeak in 1984 in SubStance. Vol. 15, No. 2, Issue 50, 1986, pp. 69-74.
(Available on JSTOR.)

Orwell, G. 1903-1950: The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George

Orwell. Secker & Warburg: London, 1968.

Scarry, E. The Body in Pain. Oxford University Press: Oxford. 1985. (Look at the
chapter on torture. Note that this is a very challenging text.)

Slater, I. Orwell: The Road to Airstrip One. W.W. Norton: New York, 1985.

Tirol, B. We are the dead . . . you are the dead. An Examination of Sexuality as
a Weapon of Revolt in Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four in Journal of Gender
Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2000, pp. 55 61.

Williams, R. George Orwell: A Collection of Critical Essays. (Ed. R. Williams).

Prentice-Hall: Englewood Cliffs, 1974.

Williams, R. Orwell. Fontana: London, 1971.

Internet Sources:

Propaganda Critic: http://www.propagandacritic.com/

The Dictionary of Newspeak: http://www.newspeakdictionary.com/

Access: http://www.george-orwell.org/ for a selection of all Orwells essays (and

the full 1984 text for those who have been unable to find it).
The following essays should prove helpful:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Politics and the English Language

Politics versus Literature: An Examination of Gullivers Travels
The Prevention of Literature
Wells, Hitler and the World State
Notes on Nationalism