Abstrakt
This contribution connects two separate areas of discussion about totalitarianism. The first area is cultural - modern dystopias can be perceived as a tool of raised awareness about totalitarian practice (whether in a non-democratic or in a democratic society).
The second one is scientific - theories of totalitarianism are widely discussed concept (with many aspects and approaches). The analysis is based on the concept of Giovanni Sartori.
He understands the phenomenon of totalitarianism as ideal ending of the axis totalitarianism-democracy. Extreme points of this axis fulfill the role of unrealizable ideal regimes.
In reality we can only move closer to them. Modern dystopias may represent these ideal regimes.
This contribution analyzes five classical approaches to totalitarian systems (the work of Sigmund Neumann, Hannah Arendt, Carl J. Friedrich and Zbigniew K.
Brzeziński, Giovanni Sartori, Juan J. Linz).
And then it compares them with aspects of totalitarianism in five modern dystopias. This selection includes We by J.
Zamjatin, Nineteen Eighty-four by G. Orwell (books which were often banned in the communist part of Europe); Brave New World by A.
Huxley (often misused by communist government as propagandistic instrument); and two books mostly inspired by Nazi practice (M. Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale, A.
Moore, D. Lloyd - V for Vendetta).
The comparison between modern dystopias and theories of totalitarianism is based on elaborated truth tables. The goal of this analysis is to create the set of aspects of totalitarian system which can be found in modern dystopias and theories of totalitarianism. * These aspects don't affect the scientific audience only. * These aspects also aim to the general public, the part of society most at risk of threat of totalitarianism.