(DOWNLOAD) "Time and Totalitarianism (Critical Essay)" by Maria Nikolajeva * eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Time and Totalitarianism (Critical Essay)
- Author : Maria Nikolajeva
- Release Date : January 22, 2010
- Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines,Books,Professional & Technical,Education,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 73 KB
Description
It has been said that though god cannot alter the past, historians can--it is perhaps because they can be useful to Him in this respect that He tolerates their existence" (Butler). In this quotation, God can be effortlessly replaced by and interpreted as any authority. By denying their subjects access to history or modifying it to suit their own purposes, the ruling classes achieve full control over society. This demonstrates the enormous potential of time as an implement of power and oppression, both concerning actual totalitarian regimes and their representation in art and literature. In George Orwell's 1984, rewriting history is the authorities' way of manipulating the masses. Predicting the future or even analyzing the present is meaningless since it is crucially dependent on the interpretation of the past. The changeability and reversibility of time is a hot topic today as various theories of fictionality have emerged and been developed, and as counterfactual historical approaches become widely spread. The concept of Possible Worlds of fiction (e.g., Dolezel) is a way of exploring linguistically mediated constructions in which time is a pivotal point. In a short fantasy story for children, by the Russian writer Yevgeny Schwartz, "The Tale of the Lost Time" (1926), evil magicians collect the time that lazy boys and girls have wasted. The children grow old without noticing, while the old magicians are rejuvenated. The story ends happily, with the villains punished and the heroes rewarded, although having learned their lesson. This fairly unsophisticated story, typical of its time and culture with its overt didacticism, can nevertheless be interpreted on an allegorical level, and the many interpretations of Schwartz's other work, for children as well as for adults, support such palimpsestic reading. As representatives of a totalitarian regime, the magicians steal ordinary people's time for their own purposes. Manipulation of time, allowing its reversibility, demonstrates the mechanism of repression. While a child's natural resilience as a convention of children's literature allows subversion of power and restoration of order, the issue as such is deeply provocative.
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