Totalitarian

1. Totalitarian • adj. Of or pertaining to a system of government which tolerates only one political party, to which all other institutions are subordinated, and which usually demands the complete subservience of the individual to the State. (OED)

2. Totalitarian continued… • Self-legitimated by nationalist, utopian, and other ideologies • Power held by a single party (with centralized economic and political power) • Usually under the control of a charismatic dictator and enforced by a comprehensive apparatus of surveillance and coercion • The state controls mass media and all forms of artistic expression • Civil duties (not civil rights) are paramount

3. Allegory • A narrative in which the actions, agents, and often the setting make sense on the “literal” or primary level of signification, and at the same time signify a second, correlated order of meaning. [A continuous parallel is created between two (or more) levels of signification in a story.]

4. Satire “consists of an attack by means of a manifest fiction upon discernible historic particulars.” (Rosenheim)

5. “The enemy is the gramophone mind, whether or not one agrees with the record being played at the moment.” (Orwell 106)

6. Dramatic Irony • The audience or reader shares with the author a knowledge of present or future circumstances of which a character is ignorant. Typically, the character’s interests are involved in a way that he or she cannot comprehend. The irony resides in the contrast between the meaning intended by the speaker and the different significance apprehended by the reader.

7. Propaganda • The systematic dissemination of information, especially in a biased or misleading way, in order to promote a political cause or point of view. (OED)

8. Stories to read from Peter Carey’s The Fat Man in History • "The Fat Man in History" • "Peeling" • "Do you Love Me?" • "The Chance" • "American Dreams" • "War Crimes"