Classic Conversations: George Orwell's

Emeritus Professor Peter Marks explores why the dark totalitarian future of George Orwell's “1984” has so much to tell us in 2025. 

More than 75 years after it was first published in 1949, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four is a global classic, one that speaks to our own age. Whether on topics such as surveillance, the manipulation of language and reality, or the abuse of history, Orwell’s novel continues to provide imaginative scenarios for thinking and action. In this talk, Professor Peter Marks will place the novel in its original context and will explore how its vision of a dark totalitarian future still has much to tell us in 2025.

The talk is free, but bookings are essential. Tea, coffee and light refreshments will be provided.

Please advise on 4732 7891 if you have any accessibility requirements for this event.

About Emeritus Professor Peter Marks

Peter Marks is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Sydney. He has published widely on Orwell (most notably his study George Orwell The Essayist) and sits on the advisory board of the academic journal George Orwell Studies. As one sign of Orwell’s continuing relevance, Professor Marks has chapters in three collections on Orwell set to be published in 2025: George Orwell in Context; The Routledge Companion to George Orwell, and The Oxford Handbook of George Orwell. He is currently working on a study of the international influences on Orwell’s life, thinking and writing.

About the Classic Conversations program

This program is held in partnership with The Joan. Attendees will receive a discount voucher for the stage adaptation of 1984 on Friday 13 June.