Dergiler / Eurasian Journal of English Language and Literature / 2026 / Volume: 8 Issue: 1

Censorship as Ideological Anxiety: A New Historicist and Deconstructive Reading of George Orwell’s Animal Farm

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Yayın Tarihi
2026-06-30
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⚡ TL;DR(1 Cümlede Hızlı Çıkarım)

Ultimately, the banning of Animal Farm reveals not the power of the censor but the anxiety of ideological systems confronted with their own fragility.

📌 3 Maddede Bu Makale

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Amaç & Hipotez:The Literary censorship of literature has long served as a political and ideological instrument of oppression, reducing opposition and consolidating dominant narratives.
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Temel Bulgular & Veri:Even though the phenomenon of banning a novel in the twentieth century is not new, this paper discusses George Orwell's Animal Farm (1945) to analyze why the novel was banned in certain political situations and why its banning is not only linked to the danger of literature but also to the insecurity of a certain ideology.
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Sonuç & Katkı:Ultimately, the banning of Animal Farm reveals not the power of the censor but the anxiety of ideological systems confronted with their own fragility.
🔬Tür:Research Article
📍Kapsam:Genişletilmiş Akademik Örneklem
⚙️Değişkenler:Animal Farm · Censorship · New Historicism

Abstract

The Literary censorship of literature has long served as a political and ideological instrument of oppression, reducing opposition and consolidating dominant narratives. Even though the phenomenon of banning a novel in the twentieth century is not new, this paper discusses George Orwell's Animal Farm (1945) to analyze why the novel was banned in certain political situations and why its banning is not only linked to the danger of literature but also to the insecurity of a certain ideology. This paper is based on New Historicism theory, using the writings of Stephen Greenblatt and Michel Foucault to show how literature constructs and is constructed by the structures of power, seen in the works of Animal Farm, as situated in the Cold War and totalitarianism context. The paper presents a deconstructive reading of the text based on the concepts of binary opposition and aporia as proposed by Jacques Derrida. The article shows that Orwell's text shows the authoritarian discourse unstable by revealing contradictions in the language of revolution itself. The paper suggests that censorship does not work due to the instability of meaning; it is historically contingent and linguistically volatile. Ultimately, the banning of Animal Farm reveals not the power of the censor but the anxiety of ideological systems confronted with their own fragility.

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Bu Makaleye Atıf Yap

Alhalb, A. D. N. S., Öztürk, A. S. (2026). Censorship as Ideological Anxiety: A New Historicist and Deconstructive Reading of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Eurasian Journal of English Language and Literature, Volume: 8 Issue: 1. https://ajindex.com/articles/1482025

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