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• 12692 - Nineteen Eighty-Four: Activity Pack for AS and A Level OCR

Weblinks and videos for use with 12692 – Nineteen Eighty-Four: Activity Pack for AS and A Level OCR

Before-reading Activities

Background: Personal Politics

• Husband and Wife Relationships in the 1940s
• Golden age, apathy or stealth? Democratic engagement in Britain, 1945–1950
• Antisemitism in Britain
• Why I Write by George Orwell

Considering Genre: Dystopian Fiction

• The Rise of Dystopian Fiction: From Soviet Dissidents to 70’s Paranoia to Murakami

During-reading Activities

Part I: Chapters 4 and 5

• A Beginner’s Guide to Fundamental Principles of Marxism
• Orwell’s “1984” from Theoretical Views (An Essay)

Part II: Chapters 1 and 2

• We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

Part III: Chapter 3

• The Sleeper Awakes by H G Wells

Part III: Chapters 4 and 5

• The Real Room 101

Part III: Chapter 6 and Appendix

• 1984 or 1998?
• What is the concept of doublethink and how does it relate to the themes in the novel?
• Doublethink: The Psychology of Fear, Trauma, and Denial in Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four

Whole-text Activities

Context

• How did the Nazi consolidate their power?
• Stalinism
• The inter-war years: 1918-1939
• The Machine Stops by E M Forster
• The Last Man by Mary Shelley

Characterisation

• ‘It was always the women’: Misogyny in Nineteen Eighty-Four

Themes

• Literary Criticism
• Literary Criticism Explained: 11 Critical Approaches to Literature

Attitudes and Values

• The Holocaust Explained: Resistance, responses and collaboration
• All Quiet on the Western Front: Discipline, Camaraderie and Morale in the First World War
• A Brotherhood of Soldiers? Concepts of Comradeship 1914–1938

Writer's Use of Language

• Language as the “Ultimate Weapon” in Nineteen Eighty-Four

Critical Reception

• Orwell on the Future
• ‘In 1984… there is not a smile or a jest that does not add bitterness to Orwell’s utterly depressing vision of what the world may be in 35 years’ time.’
• Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, book of a lifetime
• Book Analysis Review: Nineteen Eighty-Four