Frank-talking: A reading of of Orwell's 1984 with foucault's concept of Parrhesia

This study examines the political setting of 1984 through Winston's relationship with free speech in the context of parrhesia. George Orwell's novel follows Winston, a middle-aged, rank-and-file party member who outwardly appears loyal yet harbors doubts and resentment toward the regime. His political resistance emerges through hisuse of language to challenge the Party. Chapter One focuses on parrhesia, which provides the theoretical background chapter Two analyses the novel in two sections to explore how parrhesia operates within the universe of the novel.The first section examines the Party's dominance over language and its linguistic policies. The second section studies Winston's use of language against the Party, showing how parrhesia becomes a tool of political opposition. Winston's efforts to reclaim language represent an attempt to symbolically challenge the Party's hegemony. However, his failure underscores the regime's control over language. As a result, language becomes a site of crisis, marking the divide between the silenced periphery and the vocal center, each valuing abd utilizing free speech differently. This dynamic reveals how control over language serves as both a mechanism of repression and a measure of political power in the totalitarian state of 1984.