从新话制造解析乔治·奥威尔的《一九八四》中的极权主义_英语论文

An Analysis of the Totalitarian Society in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four from the Evolution of New Words

摘要

《一九八四》作为英国左翼作家乔治·奥威尔于1949年出版的长篇政治讽刺小说，是20世纪影响力最大的英语小说之一。本论文将从新话制造的角度出发，探讨小说中的极权主义。

本论文介绍了乔治·奥威尔的《一九八四》，极权主义下为达到思想控制的目的，利用话语控制，一方面控制舆论媒体，随意更改信息，另一方面根据需要篡改历史以巩固统治阶级地位，本论文更为主要的是利用索绪尔语言学中能指与所指的相关理论，分析小说中的“新话”在思想控制中的独特作用。《一九八四》中体现出的话语控制和思想控制的联系具有普遍性，本论文将会联系中国文化大革命分析话语控制和极权社会的联系。

关键词: 乔治·奥威尔  一九八四  新话制造  极权主义  文化大革命

Abstract

As a famous political satirical novel, Nineteen Eighty-four, written by a left-wing writer- George   Orwell, was published in 1949. It can be regarded as one of the most influential works in the 20th century. This thesis will analyze the totalitarian society in Nineteen Eighty-Four from the evolution of new words.

Taking the English edition of Nineteen Eighty-Four as a case study, this thesis will expose the darkness of totalitarian society that the ruling class take advantage of words control to achieve thought control. On the one hand, they control the media to change information arbitrarily. On the other hand, they distort history to consolidate the status of the ruling class. The most important work of this thesis is analyzing the special connection between “new words” and thought control on the basis of Ferdinand de Saussure’s theories about signified and signifier . In fact , the connection between words control and thought control is universally found in totalitarian society, this thesis will also discuss it from the aspect of the China’s Great Proletarian Culture Revolution. 

Keywords:  George Orwell  Nineteen Eighty-Four  the evolution of new words totalitarianism  the Great Proletarian Culture Revolution  

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 George Orwell and Nineteen Eighty-Four 1

1.2 Literature Review 1

1.3 Theoritical Framework 3

1.4 Thesis Structure 4

2 The Totalitarian Society in Nineteen Eighty-Four 6

2.1 Panopticon 6

2.2 The Control of Media 7

2.3 The Alteration of History 8

2.4 The Inhibition of Sex 9

3 The Evolution of New Words 11

3.1 The Formation of New Words 11

3.2 The Destruction of Words 12

Conclusion 14

Acknowledgements 15

References 16