Speaking Anew Language Politics Of Totalitarianism Essay

Speaking Anew: Language Politics of Totalitarianism In the bleak new world of Orwell’s 1984, English as we know it has been replaced with â€Å"Newspeak,† a language stripped of all subtlety, ambiguity, and meaning beyond that proscribed by the ruling Ingsoc (English Socialist) party. All thought has been broken into two categories: â€Å"goodthink† (the reiteration of official party principles) and â€Å"crimethink,† and the range of thought is limited to that which is permitted by Ingsoc orthodoxy. Newspeak reads as a strange perversion of English, of all recognized rational thought. It’s bizarre and terrifying, but believably possible – as history has shown it to be. Authoritarian societies have used similar techniques for â€Å"linguistic engineering† (qtd. Sellner), many of which were laid out in Orwell’s blueprint for Newspeak. Language policy in totalitarian regimes works in conjunction with the destruction of free speech and press to attempt to control thought. Elements found in most linguistic engineering programs include extensive use of slogans, keywords, and quotations, creation of new political vocabulary, an emphasis on linguistic simplicity, vocabulary stressing communality of the group and the dehumanization of the ‘other,’ and the destruction of minority languages. Once these regimes fall, societies struggle to rebuild free thought into their language. Language control and the inherent politics of speech and words is a fascinating case study into the relationship betweenShow MoreRelatedRhetorical Analysis Of Harold Pinter s The Room 9709 Words   |  39 PagesDumbwaiter, the electric shock treatment given to Aston in the play The Caretaker, the torture meted out to Victor, his wife and his son in the play One for the Road, and the act of prohibiting the mountain people from speaking their own language in the play The Mountain Language are some of the manifold instances of ab use of power and the use of violence to tame the individuals who are termed as ‘abject’1 by the state owing to their very nature of threatening and opposing the authority and superiorityRead MoreOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 PagesHistory and Public Memories Tiffany Ruby Patterson, Zora Neale Hurston and a History of Southern Life Lisa M. Fine, The Story of Reo Joe: Work, Kin, and Community in Autotown, U.S.A. Van Gosse and Richard Moser, eds., The World the Sixties Made: Politics and Culture in Recent America Joanne Meyerowitz, ed., History and September 11th John McMillian and Paul Buhle, eds., The New Left Revisited David M. Scobey, Empire City: The Making and Meaning of the New York City Landscape Gerda Lerner, Fireweed: