Shooting elephants, pigs and other animals:Orwell’s struggle for political emancipation

Shooting elephants, pigs and other animals:
Orwell’s struggle for political emancipation
António Lopes, Universidade do Algarve
Abstract
One might say that Orwell has almost become a persona non grata amongst left-wing intellectuals: Williams
refers to him as an ‘exiled?and a ‘vagrant? Jameson deems him a ‘counterrevolutionary? As a matter of
fact, despite Orwell’s claims to being a leftist, he remained refractory within the left-wing discourse, in some
degree thanks to his bitter criticism of all forms of institutionalized repression and to his disillusionment with
the outcome of revolutions, which led him to relentless attacks on the British intelligentsia and to his evergrowing
suspicion of the intentions of the Soviet regime. In this paper we will analyze one of Orwell’s
narrative and figurative devices to expose the beastlike cruelty fostered by certain political systems, without
relapsing into an orthodox stand, which was typical of many of his contemporar...