Fiction May Confront Theories. Locating Determinism of the Newspeak in G. Orwell’s 1984

IF 0.1 0 LITERATURE
C. Constantinescu
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Abstract

The paper focuses on the relationships between theory and practice and the consequences of dislocating theory from practice as they are illustrated through fiction. The case study carried out here concerns an exemplary novel, Ninety Eighty-Four by George Orwell, observing how the literary discourse can display a confrontation between two linguistic models, each resulted from a different theory: “instrumentalism” (Winston Smith) and “determinism” (O’ Brien). Also, the possibility of identifying an Orwellian model as opposed to the Sapir-Whorf and the linguistic models deserves examination. Newspeak is full of problematic aspects: ideology shapes the language by means of “wooden language” (la langue de bois, in Françoise Thom’s terms). Therefore, the historical “regime of relevance” (Galin Tihanov) makes possible a peculiar (use of) theory: an instrument that translates the ideology becomes the very essence of the determinist theory on the language in a totalitarian state. In discussing the practical consequences of literary theory, Stanley Fish points out that they are inexistent, because theory can never be united with practice, as it is actually impossible to separate theory from practice – a similar observation made by Steven Knapp and Walter B. Michaels. Whether consequences are real poses a challenge: following Edward Said’s argument, Steven Mailloux observes that theory can be consequential by rhetorical means: theory does what all discursive practices do and that is that it attempts to persuade its readers (or population in a totalitarian state) to adopt its point of view, its way of seeing texts and the world.
小说可能面对理论。奥威尔《1984》中新话决定论的定位
本文着重于理论与实践之间的关系,以及理论与实践脱节的后果,因为它们是通过小说来说明的。本文的案例研究涉及乔治·奥威尔的代表作《九八四》,观察文学话语如何表现出两种语言模式之间的对抗,每种语言模式都源于不同的理论:“工具主义”(温斯顿·史密斯)和“决定论”(奥布莱恩)。此外,识别与萨丕尔-沃尔夫模型和语言学模型相反的奥威尔模型的可能性值得研究。新话充满了问题:意识形态通过“木语言”(用弗朗索瓦兹·托姆的话来说就是“木语言”)塑造了语言。因此,历史上的“关联制度”(Galin Tihanov)使得一种特殊的(使用)理论成为可能:一种翻译意识形态的工具成为极权国家中语言决定论理论的本质。在讨论文学理论的实践结果时,斯坦利·费什指出,它们是不存在的,因为理论永远不可能与实践相结合,因为实际上不可能将理论与实践分开——史蒂文·纳普和沃尔特·b·迈克尔斯也有类似的观察。结果是否真实是一个挑战:遵循爱德华·赛义德的论点,史蒂文·梅卢观察到,理论可以通过修辞手段产生结果:理论做所有话语实践所做的事情,那就是它试图说服读者(或极权国家的人口)采用它的观点,它看待文本和世界的方式。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory
Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory Arts and Humanities-Arts and Humanities (all)
CiteScore
0.90
自引率
0.00%
发文量
15
审稿时长
7 weeks
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