George Orwell's 1949 novel, "1984," is receiving a feminist retelling.
According to The Guardian, the Orwell estate has approved of Sandra Newman's novel "Julia," which focuses on the world of 1984 but told through the eyes of Winston Smith's lover in the original story, Julia.
Newman's publisher, Granta, says of Newman's Julia that "she has known no other world and, until she meets Winston, never imagined one. She's opportunistic, believing in nothing and caring not at all about politics. She routinely breaks the rules but also collaborates with the regime whenever necessary. She's an ideal citizen of Oceania. But when one day, finding herself walking toward Winston Smith in a long corridor, she impulsively hands him a note – a potentially suicidal gesture – she comes to realise that she's losing her grip and can no longer safely navigate her world."
But as Jesse James, a writer for Not the Bee, asks, "for whom is [the feminist version of '1984'] intended?"
The idea behind 1984 depicts an authoritarian government changing the language of Oldspeak to Newspeak to serve the ideological ends of Big Brother.
In allusion to the central themes surrounding 1984, Orwell writes in his critical essay "Politics and the English Language," that "you can shirk [the responsibility of writing clearly and effectivly] by simply throwing your mind open and letting the ready-made phrases come crowding in."
These phrases, which can be offered up by propaganda or an ideology, "will construct your sentences for you – even think your thoughts for you, to a certain extent – and at need they will perform the important service of partially concealing your meaning even from yourself. It is at this point that the special connection between politics and the debasement of language becomes clear."
"Julia," will be published after Granta releases the author's new novel "The Men," in June. The Men depicts a world where "every single person with a Y chromosome vanishes."
However, at this time, it is not clear to what extent Orwell's ideas will play in Newman's new novel.
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