Category: The Unknown Citizen

Nowadays when I ask my students about the meaning of the term irony, smarty pants students quip me that the word irony is an adjectival form of the noun iron! Clever is the wit, of course; however, even in that joke, one can also see how irony could mean something chewy as it means a…

Nowadays when I ask my students about the meaning of the term irony, smarty pants students quip me that the word irony is an adjectival form of the noun iron! Clever is the wit, of course; however, even in that joke, one can also see how irony could mean something chewy as it means a…

The Unknown Citizen begins with a prefatory dedication which identifies this unknown citizen only by a number (which roughly follows the structure of US social security numbers). Audens dedication suggests the poem was written to be inscribed on a marble monument to this unknown citizen, but of course, such a monument is fictional (as is…

The two related texts that I have chosen includes, W.H Auden’s, Unknown Citizen and James Mcteigues V for Vendetta. McTeigue’s representation of an oppressed society effectively resonates with George Orwells 1984, hence my decision to choose it as my prominent text. Through its exhibition of characterisation of protagonists, their appeals for self expression, and the…