Analytical Essay (review of Orwell or analysis of work of art)

H 114, sections 22872 and 23764                                                               Dr. Thomas A. Mason

Fall 2015

Analytical Essay:

            review of Orwell, Homage to Catalonia, or analysis of a work of art

Date due: Section 22872: November 23; Section 23764: December 2

Assignment: Write an analytical essay of 750–1,000 words (3–4 typewritten pages), on white paper, 8 ½ x 11 inches, double spaced, in 12-point type, with a one-inch margin on all sides. An analytical essay separates a subject or argument into its component parts and assesses how well or how logically those parts and the evidence upon which they rest support or substantiate the whole subject or argument.

Please note:

• Please turn in book reviews / essays electronically through the “Assignments” link on Canvas, and bring a hard copy / printout with you to class on the due date, when we will have a class discussion of the book.
• You are welcome to turn in book reviews / essays early (before the due date) through the “Assignments” link on Canvas.
• If a book review / essay is transmitted electronically through the “Assignments” link on Canvas on the due date, and the student is absent from class, it will be considered late.
• The “Assignments” link on Canvas will automatically check your book review / essay for originality through Turnitin. The Turnitin Originality Report will be accessible to you and me.
• No more than one late assignment (book review / essay) or makeup quiz / examination will be allowed to any student.
• After the due date, you may turn in a book review / essay for full credit but subject to the abovementioned limit of one late assignment (book review / essay) or makeup quiz / examination per student.

Style: Brevity and conciseness are harder to achieve than verbosity and vagueness. Do not just turn in a first draft. Proofread your writing; do not just rely on spell check, which will not alert you when you are using a real word that is the wrong word in the context. Write in complete sentences. A complete sentence has a subject and a verb. Style and accuracy are important and integral parts of content and will count heavily in or against your favor in the determination of your grade on this essay.

Academic honesty: We all know that there are reviews and summaries of books and works of art, in the library, on the Web, and elsewhere. I want to know your ideas about the book or work of art, not somebody else’s. When you use someone else’s ideas, they must be acknowledged in a footnote (see hypothetical example below).¹ When you use someone else’s words, those words must be enclosed within quotation marks, and acknowledged in a footnote. If from a website, it is insufficient just to cite the “Web”; rather, you should cite the full URL (uniform resource locator) and the date that you accessed it: “accessed mm/dd/yyyy.” When you are quoting from the book you are reviewing, you may simply enclose the quote within quotation marks and cite the page number in parentheses, immediately after the quotation. Example: (p. 202). The “Assignments” link on Canvas will automatically check your book review / essay for originality through Turnitin, which will create an originality report that will be accessible to you and me. Using someone else’s words or ideas without giving credit is called plagiarism, which is an offense under the university-wide Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct at Indiana University (www.iu.edu/~code/code/index.shtml). Plagiarism is a big word for stealing, passing off another’s work as your own, or cheating. When plagiarism is detected in this class, the student will receive an automatic F (zero points) on the assignment.

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1. John H. Smith, A History of the Ancient World, 4th ed. (New York: Jones Publishing Company, 2004), p. 202.

Option 1: Book review of Orwell, Homage to Catalonia.

Structure: At the head of the review, give the review your own original title, and your name, followed by the bibliographical information on the book as follows:

George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia. Introduction by Lionel Trilling. New York: Harvest Books, 1969.

Purpose: The essential purpose of writing a book review is to enable the reviewer to summarize, evaluate, and communicate, to the reader of the review, the book that the reviewer has read. You should not only summarize the contents of the book, but also critically evaluate the book. For general guidelines, from Writing Tutorial Services at Indiana University–Bloomington, on how to write a book review, see: www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/book_reviews.shtml. A review of any book (or any historical document) should address / answer the following questions:

• What was the author’s (Orwell’s) purpose in writing the book? To put it another way: Where is the author coming from? Where is he going with this book?
• How well did he achieve that purpose?
• What are the book’s strengths and weaknesses?
• Within the general reading audience that any author of a commercially published book intends to reach, what specific core audience did the author hope to reach with this book?
• To what extent did the author set standards for accuracy in writing history? Please do not refer to this book as a “novel.” A novel is fiction; this is supposed to be nonfiction. You may if you wish address the issue of the extent to which the author blurs the distinction between fiction and nonfiction. (Note Orwell’s interest in propaganda and spin—in his Nineteen Eighty-Four [1949], Orwell coined the term Newspeak, a language “designed to diminish the range of thought.”)
• To what extent are the author’s expectations and standards of accuracy similar to or different from our own? (In this case, you can compare and contrast Orwell with Equiano.)
• To what extent have our expectations and standards of accuracy changed since the author’s time? (In this case, you can compare and contrast Orwell with Equiano.)
• How did the author deal with the challenges and dilemmas that he encountered?

The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) pitted the Popular Front (Republicans, Socialists, Communists, and anarcho-syndicalists) against the Falange española (Spanish Phalanx) led by General Francisco Franco. The war in many respects was a trial run leading to the Second World War. It was also a proxy war. Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy provided direct military aid to the Falange, and the Soviet Union nominally supported the Popular Front. In England, George Orwell (1903–1950) had contacts and sympathies with (but apparently was not a member of) the Independent Labour Party (I.L.P.). A socialist political party founded in 1893, the I.L.P. affiliated with the mainstream Labour Party in 1906 but split away in 1932. Four years later Orwell went to Spain as part of an I.L.P. contingent of about twenty-five volunteers to assist the Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista (P.O.U.M.: Spanish: Workers’ Party of Marxist Unity), which the I.L.P. regarded as a fellow social-democratic party. The Spanish political parties and labor unions had their own militias, and in December 1936 Orwell joined and fought as a member of the P.O.U.M. militia. His Homage to Catalonia was first published two years later. Though better known for his fictional Animal Farm (1946) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), Orwell recounted his political coming of age in Homage to Catalonia. Lionel Trilling’s introduction provides the political and historical background. As you read the book be alert to, and in your analytical essay address / answer, the following questions specific to this book (your essay does not have to address all of them):

• What were Orwell’s views on the social and political conditions of his time?
• What were Orwell’s views on human freedom?
• What led to Orwell’s disillusionment with Communism?
• As described by Orwell, what characteristics of the Spanish Republican army contributed to its defeat?

Orwell’s six rules for writers:

Since you are reviewing a book by Orwell, it is worth noting the six rules for writers that he set forth in his "Politics and the English Language," first published in the journal Horizon (1946):

• Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
• Never use a long word where a short one will do.
• If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
• Never use the passive voice where you can use the active.
• Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
• Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Orwell observed, “As for the kaleidoscope of political parties and trade unions, with their tiresome names—P.S.U.C., P.O.U.M., F.A.I., C.N.T., U.G.T., J.C.I., J.S.U., A.I.T.—they merely exasperated me. It looked at first sight as though Spain were suffering from a plague of initials” (p. 47). Perhaps for that reason he provided only a partial explanation of those entities (p. 53). Here, for your information, is:

A glossary of persons, political parties, labor unions, and ideologies:

Definitions within quotation marks are from Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed. (Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 2003). A date following a word or term is the date of the earliest recorded use of that word or term in English.

A.I.T.: Asociación Internacional de los Trabajadores: International Workers’ Association; anarcho-syndicalist; founded 1922; still exists.

anarchism (1642) (from Greek: anarchos: having no ruler, from an- = not; without + archos = ruler): “a political theory holding all forms of government authority to be unnecessary and undesirable and advocating a society based on voluntary cooperation and free association of individuals and groups,” most prominent in less industrialized European countries.

anarcho-syndicalism (ca. 1928): combination of local trade unionism with anarchist principles, mostly in Latin countries, particularly in France and Spain.

C.N.T.: Confederación Nacional de Trabajo: National Confederation of Labor; anarcho-syndicalist; founded 1910; still exists.

communism (1840): “a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production” (capital); in Marxist theory, a final stage of society “in which the state has withered away and economic goods are distributed equitably.”

F.A.I.: Federación Anarquista Ibérica: Iberian Anarchist Federation; founded 1927; still exists.

Franco, Francisco, 1892–1975, caudillo (leader) of Spain (1937–1975).

I.L.P.: Independent Labour Party; British socialist political party; Orwell had contacts and sympathies with (but apparently was not a member of) the I.L.P. Founded in 1893, it affiliated with the mainstream Labour Party in 1906 but split away in 1932. Four years later Orwell went to Spain as part of an I.L.P. contingent of about twenty-five volunteers to assist the P.O.U.M., which the I.L.P. regarded as a fellow social-democratic party. The I.L.P. disbanded in 1975.

Largo Caballero, Francisco, 1869–1946, Socialist prime minister of Spain (1936–1937); the crisis following the Barcelona May Days brought about his fall from power.

J.C.I.: Juventud Comunista Ibérica: Iberian Communist Youth: the P.O.U.M.’s youth organization.

J.S.U.: Juventudes Socialistas Unificadas: Unified Socialist Youth: youth organization of the P.S.U.C.; formed by the merger of Socialist and Communist youth groups in 1936; controlled by the Spanish Communist Party (P.C.E.); still exists.

Negrín, Juan, 1892–1956, Socialist prime minister of Spain (1937–1939).

P.C.E.: Partido Comunista de España: Spanish Communist Party; founded 1920; still exists.

P.O.U.M.: Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista: Workers’ Party of Marxist Unity; communist; founded 1935 on anti-Stalinist principles, but Leon Trotsky opposed its formation; Orwell joined its militia. In Homage to Catalonia Orwell described the 1937 Barcelona May Days, during which the Spanish Communist Party (P.C.E.) and its Catalan wing (P.S.U.C.) purged the P.O.U.M. (drove it underground or into exile).

P.S.U.C.: Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya: Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia; an alliance of socialist parties, controlled by the Spanish Communist Party (P.C.E.); founded 1936; still exists.

socialism (1837): “any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production [capital] and distribution of goods”; in Marxist theory, a transitional stage of society “between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done.”

social democracy (1850): “a political movement advocating a gradual and peaceful transition to socialism by democratic means; a democratic welfare state that incorporates both capitalist and socialist practices.”

Stalinism (1927): “the theory and practice of communism developed by [Joseph] Stalin from Marxism-Leninism and marked especially by rigid authoritarianism, widespread use of terror, and often emphasis on Russian nationalism.”

syndicalism (1907) (French: syndicalisme, from chambre syndicale: trade union): a revolutionary doctrine that flourished mostly in Latin countries, particularly in France and Spain (in the United States: Industrial Workers of the World) “by which workers seize control of the economy and the government by direct means (as a general strike); a system of economic organization in which industries are owned and managed by the workers.”

Trotskyism (1925): “the theory and practice of communism developed by . . . [Leon] Trotsky . . . including adherence to the concept of worldwide revolution as opposed to socialism in one country.”

U.G.T.: Syndicato Unión General de Trabajadores: General Union of Workers; the socialist trade union; founded 1888; still exists.

Option 2: An analysis of a work of art in the collections of the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

The Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) has strong collections in early modern and modern European art (Renaissance and Reformation to the present). Notable works include Erasmus Quellinus’s The Vision of St. Francis Xavier; Giovanni Panini’s two Roman Capriccios--The Pantheon and Other Monuments, and The Colosseum and Other Monuments; and Allan Ramsay’s portraits, King George III and Queen Charlotte (of the United Kingdom). This class will visit the IMA for a tour beginning at 12:00 NOON, Saturday, November 14. Choose any work of art that you see at the IMA, not a reproduction, created since 1500. You will need to do some basic research in information available from the IMA, your textbook, the World Wide Web, libraries (consider the IUPUI University Library, the Herron Art Library, the IMA’s Art Reference Library, and the Indianapolis–Marion County Public Library), and the observation of your own eyes. This is not a major research paper but an analytical essay of 3–4 typewritten pages, so plan your time accordingly.

Structure: At the head of your essay, give the essay your own original title, and your name, followed by the basic information on the work of art as follows:

[Artist name], [title of work of art], [date of work of art], [medium].

While you are to choose any work of art that you see at the IMA, not a reproduction, please include a reproduction (black-and-white or color photocopy is acceptable) if possible with your essay so I can have some idea of the work of art about which you are writing.

In your essay, address / answer the questions:

• Who created the work of art? Who was the artist (if known)?
• Where and when (date, as exact as possible, approximate if necessary) was the work created?
• In what medium was the work created? Painting (oil, watercolor, fresco)? Sculpture (bronze, marble, terracotta)? Drawing (graphite, etching, engraving, pastel)? Mosaic? Tapestry? Photograph?
• What was the intended audience for the work? Public? Private?
• Was the work commissioned? If so, who commissioned it? Private or public patron? Governmental entity? Religious organization? It is important to know the context of a commissioned work since the commission might reveal some bias, influence, deference to the patron, or other limitation, whether deliberate or unintentional.
• What is the subject of the work? Portrait (individual, group, self-portrait)? A religious subject (representation of a scriptural or devotional subject)? Historical (a major subject area from the sixteenth century was history painting)? Domestic (northern European artists from fifteenth century specialized in domestic scenes)? Landscape? Townscape? Seascape?
• What does the work tell us about the society in which it was created?
• Is the work realistic or idealized? Is it characteristic of an identifiable style?