An Intertextual Reading Of Coming Up For Air

Coming Up for Air, a transitional work in Orwell’s novel writing, combines thecharacteristic of realism in Orwell’s earlier writings and the vision of a totalitariansociety dominating in his later works. It reflects the changes and turmoil around theFirst World War and witnesses Orwell’s skilled techniques in novel writing. Sincethere is no research conducted from the aspect of intertextuality, this thesis, relying onthe framework of Genette’s transtextuality, attempts to explore the intertextual,paratextual, hypertextual and architextual relations between Coming Up for Air andother texts, such as the Holy Bible and Greek mythology, after the necessaryintroduction to Orwell and this book, as well as the intertextual theory, serving as atest for the reliability of intertextual theory and expanding the reading space andresearch area of this book. By depicting the life and experience of George Bowling,the “speaker” of George Orwell, Coming Up for Air suggests Orwell’s conservativeattitude that he longs for the past, rejects the present and worries about the future,conveying his deep humanistic concern.