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George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, published in 1949, gave English terms still used for surveillance and propaganda: Big Brother, the Thought Police, Newspeak and doublethink, the habit of believing two contradictory things at once. The adjective “Orwellian” came later.

London, 1949

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The story behind the card

Orwell wrote most of the novel on Jura, a remote Scottish island, while seriously ill with tuberculosis. It was published on 8 June 1949, and he died seven months later, aged 46. Its hero, Winston Smith, works at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting old newspapers so that the past always agrees with the Party. Newspeak is the Party's shrunken language, designed to make rebellious thoughts impossible to express, and Big Brother is the leader whose face watches from every poster. The earliest known use of “Orwellian” is by the American writer Mary McCarthy in 1950; the word now describes any system built on surveillance, propaganda and the denial of plain facts. Big Brother also gave its name to a reality television show, first broadcast in the Netherlands in 1999.

Türkçe oku
George Orwell'ın 1949'da yayımlanan 1984 romanı, gözetim ve propaganda denince bugün hâlâ akla gelen kavramları dile kazandırdı: Büyük Birader, Düşünce Polisi, Yenisöylem ve birbiriyle çelişen iki şeye aynı anda inanmak demek olan çiftdüşün. İngilizcedeki “Orwellian” sıfatı ise sonradan doğdu.
Londra, 1949

Orwell romanın büyük bölümünü İskoçya'nın ücra adası Jura'da, veremle boğuşurken yazdı. Kitap 8 Haziran 1949'da yayımlandı; Orwell yedi ay sonra, 46 yaşında öldü. Romanın kahramanı Winston Smith, Hakikat Bakanlığı'nda eski gazeteleri yeniden yazar; böylece geçmiş her zaman Parti'nin söyledikleriyle uyuşur. Yenisöylem, isyankâr düşünceleri dile getirmeyi imkânsız kılmak için daraltılmış Parti dilidir; Büyük Birader ise yüzü her afişten bakan liderdir. “Orwellian” sözcüğünün bilinen ilk kullanımı, Amerikalı yazar Mary McCarthy'nin 1950'de yazdığı bir denemededir. Sözcük bugün gözetime, propagandaya ve apaçık gerçeklerin inkârına dayanan her düzeni anlatır. Büyük Birader adı, ilk kez 1999'da Hollanda'da yayınlanan Big Brother adlı televizyon programına da verildi.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Nineteen Eighty-Four
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