Anthony Burgess

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Anthony Burgess Clockwork Orange
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What was Burgess Looking At? Contextual
Influences
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The Ludovico Method, Behaviorism B.F. Skinner

• Beethovens Name
• B.F.s Behavior Mod From Animals to Humans
• Pavlov Beyond
• Contingencies of Reinforcement
• Nazi Mind Control

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How Autobiographical is Clockwork Orange?

• F. Alexander- Who is He?
• -Title
• -Wife
• -Is He Alex?
• -Connection to the Narrator
• -Travels in Russia (USSR)
• -Teenage Gang

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Burgess and Nadsat
-First Draft of the Novel -Burgess Fascination
with Slang -Leningrad, Russia -Glossary
Published -Like -Mixture of Cockney, Russian
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The Clockwork Aesthetic
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-Light Darktime Of Day Classes -Alex -C
leanliness -Surreality, Blurring Of
Realities -Identification -Color
Significance, E.g. Red
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Domestic Stability

• Alexs Identity
• -Failed Family Structure
• -Betrayal by Family
• -Empty Dinner
• -Inner and Outer Worlds
• -An Invented Persona

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Culture and Music

• -Classical Music
• -Complexity Linked With
• Alexs Mental State
• -Alexs Progression
• -Timeless Nature of
• Classical Music
• -Modern Youth Subculture

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Violence
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Societal Critique of Violence -Moral Ambiguity
of Violence -Youth/Gang Culture -The
State -Tenticles of the State -Critical
Reception of Book Film And the Types of
Violence Depicted -Language Divisions of
Violence -Cyclical Nature of Violence -Narrator,
Reliability, Point of View
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Whats It Going To Be Then, Eh?
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Rehabilitation, Violence and Religion

• Bog, God
• Prison, Chaplain
• Conditioning Program
• -Release From
• Confinement
• -Unanswered
• Questions

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The Last Chapter
-W.W. Norton Eric Swenson Merely a
suggestion Made for conceptual
Reasons. (Eric Swenson) -Stanley Kubrick -The
Numerology of Burgess -Shakespeare
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Is This Book Still Relevant?
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So..What Did You Guys Think? 1.) Does the
nadsat help or inhibit your reading
or Understanding of the book? 2.) Can we trust
our narrator? Can you sympathize with Him? 3.) Do
you think that Alex will actually reform his
violent Ways at the end of the novel? Why or why
not? 4.) If you had the choice, would you have
included the Final chapter in the book? In the
film? 5.)Is Alex the victim of the modern age or
is he just a Teenage thug? 6.) Do you believe
that criminals can be rehabilitated? How did this
impact your reading?
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Bibliography
Beehler, Rodger. Containing Violence. Ethics
92.4 (1982) 647-660. Evans, Robert O. Nadsat
The Argot and Its Implications in Anthony
Burgess A Clockwork Orange. Journal of Modern
Literature 1.3 (1971) 406-410. Farber, Stephen.
The Old Ultra-Violence. The Hudson Review
25.2 (1972) 287-294. Fraser, John. Violence in
the Arts. London Cambridge University Press,
1974. Gleber, Anke. The Art of Taking a Walk.
Princeton Princeton University Press,
1999. Howlett Mengham, eds. The Violent Muse
Violence and the Artistic Imagination.
Manchester Manchester University Press, 1994.