Purging Orwell will not halt the rise of the political right

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All Articles, Featured, Political Theory<br>Purging George Orwell's books misses what drives the political right

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A British exam board has removed Orwell's books from its examinations in the name of inclusivity and diversity. But Sisa San Sebastián Hurtig argues such political correctness has the opposite effect. Preventing children from reading Orwell hinders their understanding of political dynamics, particularly the way that class insecurity is driving the rise of the political right

A culture war over the literary canon

From September this year, British exam board Cambridge OCR will be removing Down and Out in Paris and London, the debut novel from George Orwell (1903–1950), from its exam syllabus. The book explores poverty, inequality and social exclusion in the two capitals. Its removal reflects a broader educational trend shaped by identity politics and debates surrounding 'wokeness'. Its removal follows the dropping in 2024 of classic American novels Of Mice and Men and To Kill a Mockingbird from the GCSE curriculum in Wales, amid concerns about racism.

Replacing Down and Out on the syllabus is a controversial biography of Orwell's first wife Eileen O'Shaughnessy. Inclusion of Anna Funder's book, which focuses on Orwell's alleged misogyny and mistreatment of women, suggests that exam boards are increasingly prioritising works by women, even if they lack the quality of literary classics. Critics call this 'oppression Olympics', the phenonemon in which the author's personal history outweighs their literary significance.

Also this year, a school library in Manchester, UK, reportedly used Al to identify books considered 'inappropriate'. Among almost 200 books it removed was Orwell's dystopian classic 1984.

These developments are not isolated culture-war examples, but reflect an anachronistic reading of literature. Rather than interpreting Orwell within his historical context, librarians are applying contemporary moral and feminist standards to the standards society held almost a century ago.

According to Iain Manfield, head of education at think tank Policy Exchange, the growing emphasis on inclusivity and identity politics has distorted GCSE and A-level content. He argues that purging Orwell's work in pursuit of political correctness risks overlooking the contemporary relevance of his analysis.

Culture trends in critical theory

Recent trends in critical political theory and literary studies are shifting towards cultural explanations of political and social inequality.

Contemporary scholarship argues that preserving white dominance, rather than analysing interstate conflict, has been the foundational purpose of the international relations discipline.

Many argue that race is constitutive of capitalism itself, and therefore central to understanding contemporary inequalities. Feminist scholars have made comparable arguments about gender. Together, these perspectives reinforce a broader turn towards intersectionality.

Contemporary scholarly attention is focusing on dismantling imperialism and capitalism rather than understanding how they were constructed and sustained

This reflects two wider developments. First, explanations of systems such as imperialism and capitalism have shifted from material factors towards identity, race, and gender. Second, scholarly attention is focusing on dismantling these systems rather than understanding how they were constructed and sustained.

Critical approaches often prioritise identity and culture but, while valuable, this emphasis has often come at the expense of class-based explanations.

Orwell's colonial links

George Orwell offers precisely what these trends overlook. His work contributes not only to critical theory but also to our understanding of contemporary political dynamics and systems of oppression. And having served for several years in the Indian Imperial Police, Orwell has a unique perspective.

In Burmese Days and The Road to Wigan Pier, Orwell exposes how British imperialism functioned not only to dominate abroad, but to manage class tensions at home. The empire displaced class grievances and stabilised social order. Members of the lower classes sought status in the colonies by embodying the ideal of the white imperial man, a position unavailable at home:

Theoretically you knew how to shoot and ride, although in practice you had no horses to ride and not an inch of ground to shoot over

George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier, 1937

Systemic domination thus reconciled one's domestic social position through colonial privilege. Yet life in the colonies required participation in oppressive institutions, often driven by class insecurities. This produced moral corruption through awareness of contradictions between imperial ideals and practice.

Meanwhile, those remaining in Britain were insulated...