Totalitarian Society Research Articles

Dystopic vision of margaret atwood in the Handmaid's Tale

The dystopic society is a place where undesirable, miserable and uninvited things happen. Many prominent authors in the field of literature has taken up dystopia as a form of writing so that they could bring into limelight the mis-happenings of the society; Margaret Atwood is one of them. Among her works The Handmaid's Tale is one novel which portrays the life of people of a totalitarian society where the rulers have taken up the story of Rachel and Bilhah from the Bible to accomplish what they want and also to justify their actions. It is set in a futuristic world making it all the more alarming and imaginable. Dystopian novels are very important in the field of literature as they bring with them harsh notes that come as warnings to people. This paper, as the title suggests, tries to highlight the dystopic elements in the novel.

Kafka After Kafka: Dialogical Engagement with His Works from the Holocaust to Postmodernism ed. by Iris Bruce and Mark H. Gelber

Reviewed by: Kafka After Kafka: Dialogical Engagement with His Works from the Holocaust to Postmodernism ed. by Iris Bruce and Mark H. Gelber Abigail Gillman Iris Bruce and Mark H. Gelber, eds., Kafka After Kafka: Dialogical Engagement with His Works fr om the Holocaust to Postmodernism. Studies in German Literature, Linguistics, and Culture. Rochester: Camden House, 2019. 231 pp. Kafka After Kafka contains eleven remarkably productive and thoughtful essays by a mix of well-known and younger Kafka scholars. The introduction opens by cataloguing the global artistic reception of Kafka, from the Japanese Kōbō Abe, to South Africa's Achmat Dangor, to dramatic works by Alan Bennett (Kafka's Dick) and Sally Clark (The Trial of Judith K.). The editors claim that much recent art inspired by Kafka is about "violence and humiliation" at the expense of the "modest, elegant, playful, ironic Kafka of real life" (3). Not so in these pages, where the "dialogical engagement" promised in the title prevails. The chapters open up fruitful new connections and perspectives, which yield original interpretations of works we thought we already knew. The volume began as a conference at Ben-Gurion University, and the section devoted to "Kafka in the Israeli Cultural Space"—an exciting new avenue of Kafka research—is a highlight. Like all the excellent volumes in this Camden House series, the book is carefully researched and well ommitted, with detailed footnotes and an index. A strength of the collection is the authors' recounting of postwar cultural and intellectual history. Caroline Jessen's essay on Werner Kraft's 1968 Franz Kafka: Durchdringung und Geheimnis recounts the career of this German Jewish man of letters. Like Scholem and Benjamin (whom he knew), Kraft viewed Kafka as a writer of parables, and so he sought to "wrest Kafka away from literature." Jessen calls the book "an itinerary of reading" (19) that takes the form of "interweaving of literary text and commentary" (20)—a style evocative of rabbinical writing but also of great works of retrieval motivated by loss, such as Benjamin's Passagenwerk. Amir Engel analyzes Hannah Arendt's lesser-known Kafka essay ("Franz Kafka: A Revaluation," in Essays in Understanding, 1930–1954)—one of the first she published in German after World War II. Arendt finds in Kafka a source of optimism: Even as The Trial and The Castle depict totalitarian societies, worlds of "made-up necessity," the two protagonists are "truth-tellers," who resist simply by asserting their humanity. [End Page 133] Two chapters make critical contributions to Kafka's contemporary reception in Israel. As an Israeli Arab writer, journalist, and television writer who writes in Hebrew (now living in the United States), Sayed Kashua is the quintessential insider/outsider. As Iris Bruce demonstrates, Kashua incorporates many of Kafka's themes, both in the novel Second Person Singular (the basis of the film A Borrowed Identity) and in "Herzl Disappears at Midnight," which features an Arab-Israeli, Gregor Samsa. Bruce proposes, "Kashua's postmodern metamorphoses are fluid, predictable, humorous, and ultimately have a didactic function" (126). Mark H. Gelber offers a new perspective on the trial to determine the fate of newly discovered Max Brod's Nachlass. Moving beyond the question of whether the Israeli Supreme Court's decision to award the collection to the Israeli National Library is just, Gelber wonders whether there is also "poetic justice" in retaining Kafka's manuscripts in the Jewish State rather than in Marbach. The question becomes an occasion to reassess Kafka's Zionism or, more exactly, the numerous aspects of Zionism with which Kafka did connect. Two chapters break new ground by opening up Kafka's influence on lyric poetry. Poet Tali Latowicki examines the Kafkan sensibilities of two challenging Hebrew poets, the modernist Ya'akov Steinberg and the postmodern Hezy Leskly, neither of whom is well known in translation. In this series of powerful close readings, Latowicki finds that the three writers "share the same suspicion toward 'natural' symbolic expression. They also share the same wish [ … ] to create an antilanguage, a language that is united with the concrete. As part of this utopian project, the writer himself must undergo a metamorphosis of some sort. He has to die in...

Особливості функціонування танцювальної художньої самодіяльності в Тернопільській області радянського періоду

The purpose of the article is to identify the peculiarities of the functioning and the political and ideological context of dance amateur performances in the Ternopil region of the Soviet period. Methodology. The objectivity of the study was ensured by the use of analytical (analysis of literature and sources, including archival documents, facts), historical (presentation of material in chronological sequence), culturological (consideration of events through the prism of the socio-cultural situation) approaches. Scientific novelty. For the first time, attention is focused on the political and ideological context of the amateur performances’ development in the Ternopil region; new archival materials were introduced into scientific circulation. Conclusions. In the 50-80s of the twentieth century in the Ternopil region, as well as throughout the USSR, an extensive network of amateur dance groups was created, which can be regarded not only as a manifestation of moral upsurge after liberation from the Nazis but as a latent form of struggle to preserve national and cultural identity. The absence of a professional folk dance ensemble in the region until 1961 made it possible to stabilize the repertoire of amateur groups in close connection with folklore, without focusing on the achievements of professional art. The historical and political specificity of the Ternopil region manifested itself in the increased attention during the organization of foreign tours to the participants of dance groups, whose relatives were associated with waves of emigration from Western Ukrainian lands, as well as with the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. The main factors that determined the activities of amateur art groups were not only creative but also political and ideological as a sign of the system of a totalitarian society with command and control.

Diversity of legal systems in a totalitarian and democratic society

The article presents an analysis of the diversity of democratic and totalitarian systems, proposes the following legal criteria fordelineation: different interpretation and realization of human rights, the presence of negative freedom, revisionist attitude to the institutionof citizenship, the predominance of criminal law over civil and administrative, as well as the low functional specification of thejustice system in totalitarian states.The diversity of legal systems in totalitarian and democratic societies is manifested through the fundamental difference betweenthese types of regimes.While, in general terms, democracy is a form of political organization of society based on the recognition of ci -tizens as the main source of power with the ability to influence political decision-making, at least through participation in periodic elections,the fate of the scientific concept of totalitarianism in the humanities is shorter.It is important to draw a certain distinction not only between democracy and totalitarianism, but also to emphasize the latter’snon-identity to authoritarian rule. In authoritarianism, there is also a usurpation of power, which may have the character of sole tyranny,the fusion and control of its branches, the restriction of human rights and the like. Despotism and tyranny provide for equal conditionsfor subjects, but for totalitarian rule such equalization was not sufficient since it did not affect non-political public relations betweensubjects. At the same time, totalitarian regimes lead to the destruction of such ties, atomizing society and leveling any formal or informalassociations other than those authorized and merged with the total state.Totalitarianism and democracy are systems based on values and ideologies (at least at the time of their formation and legitimization)and also require individual activity from members of society to support the political system for the sake of their sustainable existence.For political regimes, the nature of the relationship of law to State can be described as a partial – authoritarian regime, or a continuous– democratic regime, one of the conditions of which is the rule of law over the State and the determination of the orientationof the State and its methods of implementation by law. Under a totalitarian regime, law becomes only an instrument of the State toimpose its will on society and man.

Trotsky was not Stalin

The 1990s were particularly harsh when they decreed – almost without intellectual opponents – that what had ended in 1989 was not the Stalinist dictatorship but, above all, socialism itself. Capitalism would be the (a) historical and universal, permanent and inevitable destiny of humankind. Outside this ‘destiny’ there would be no alternative. An unhistorical nature, an assured destiny, the future would then be inescapable. In order to bring this ideology to life, a memory of the European past has been built that does not pass through the laboratory of history. History is not memory. In these article we will debate 3 dominant thesis: is that of Nazism as the work of a madman, concealing that the Nazi regime was the corollary of the explosion of an entire economic and social system, capitalism, in the crisis of 1929. The other recurring theme, which calls for social resignation, insists that all emancipatory attempts in the twentieth century would result in totalitarian societies, starting with the October 1917 social and political revolution itself. The idea that the European Union is the constructor of the European Social State is another myth disseminated amidst the illustrated common sense. Finally, the hypothesis that European social rights ended, with neoliberalism, because of the fall of the USSR in 1989–1991, is another widely disseminated myth.

Антропология досуга женщин в ГДР

The article discusses the anthropology of women's leisure activities in the German Democratic Republic. Women's free time in a totalitarian society is defined as quasi-leisure, conventionally divided into public leisure, associated with state mass events, and personal leisure, the content of which was mainly determined by women. Factors that determine the amount of time free from labor and social activities were identified. An analysis of high informative sources, such as women's periodicals and family documentaries of the GDR, allowed to identify aspects of rationing leisure practices by the state and the nature of public response to propaganda methods. The female press is considered as a mechanism for transmitting the normative image of a woman; the content and specifics of publications on free time in various magazines are revealed. The study of family documentaries published on the Internet within the «Open Memory box» – a GDR-specific project, allowed to identify the most common and significant forms of women's leisure activities. Among them there is a unique German tradition of «Freikörperkultur», a free-body culture preserved under socialism. Such forms of leisure activities as external and internal tourism, as well as spending time in the countryside, is analyzed in the context of submission and willfulness strategies within restrictions on freedom of movement under the SED dictatorship. Particular attention is paid to the transformation of the traditional German festival culture, as well as the introduction of «new» socialist holidays, including alternative forms of life cycle rites (for example a widely-used rite of passage for youth). Components of the international image of GDR, such as the «reading country» or the «sports nation», are analyzed based on women's periodicals and family documentaries..

ANALYSIS OF INFORMATION GENRES IN NATIONAL JOURNALISM OF COLONIAL TURKESTAN (UZBEKISTAN)

The foundation of periodicals in Turkestan during the Tsarist Russia, the role of Jadid journalists in disseminating information, the tasks of the press in Uzbekistan during the rule of Bolsheviks, the essence of authoritarian, totalitarian views (theories) on information and their consequences have been analyzed in the article. The item entitled “Short Stories from the Life of Russian Tsars, Local and Other Types of Information” pointed out in the charter of newspaper “Turkiston Viloyatining Gazeti” (Newspaper of Turkestan Region) is considered to be the first official source on the theory of authoritarian publications in the current research, with particular emphasis on peculiarities of highlighting the information provided in it. The newspaper reports, particularly, the events related to Dukchi Eshon’s rebellion in Andijan in 1898, being an important milestone in history, have been utilized for several purposes. The information on availability of inevitable severe punishment for those who tried to rebel against the Tsarist colonists and rewarding those who knew, felt, and reported or resisted those milestones has been studied as a rule of authoritarian theory. It has been proven in the article that Jadid publications of the early twentieth century (“Taraqqiy”, “Khurshid”, “Shuhrat”, “Samarkand”, “Turon”, “Sadoi Turkiston”, “Sadoi Fergana”, “Tujjor”, “Hurriyat”, “Najot” newspapers) were aimed at achieving independence by informing the oppressed people of the colony about various events taking place not only in Turkestan, but also around the world, as well as spreading enlightenment and development among the nation. The article analyzes the views of the enlightened (Jadid) journalists and editors on the dissemination of trustworthy information to the public as promoting the idea of freedom, their attitude towards information and their practice to our today’s national democratic journalism. The concealment of information as of the one of the flaws of the Soviet totalitarian theory of the press, the historical roots of the process, Bolshevik’s policy, the decree on the press signed by V.I. Ulyanov (Lenin); the press, which became a weapon of repression during Stalin’s time, the removal of providing breaking news in 70 years of totalitarian society, the repression of all journalists who acted in this way as they wanted to hide the actual information from the people in order to keep them in a state of fear, and the collapse of such a society have been closely studied.

THE ONTOLOGICAL NATURE OF LAUGHTER IN THE DISCOURSE OF CRITICAL THEORY

The author of the article interprets laughter as a mechanism for legitimizing of power, the research is based on the critical theory of contemporary theoretical psychoanalysis and the phenomenology of culture. This thesis is an alternative to the general statement about laughter as an instrument for breaking with the repressive totality of being. The antithesis of the repressive nature of laughter in non-classical societies of the new totalitarianism contrasts with the thesis of the emancipatory nature of laughter in classical totalitarian societies. By the metod of comparative semiotic analysis the author differentiates the anthropological models of «Oedipus» and «Anti-Oedipus» as signs of the hegemony of patronism and liberal democracy, and distinguishes between the types of heroes («ironic» and «cynic») as indicators of carriers of creative and apropos «pro-power» laughter. The ironic personifies the positive symbolic incarnation of the trickster as the bearer of a taboo desire, the code of which is liberating (obscene) laughter, the power of which is effective in preserving the space of a false serious scene of classical (closed) censorship. The cynic embodies the image of a negative trickster, which responds to laughter of ironic by appropriating his laughter with the help of a system of power that reproduces itself through the stylization of counterculture (open censorship). Under such conditions, laughter, being neutralized, is either reduced to clowning or becomes an openly repressive strategy.

Interpretation of Human and Political Leader in a Totalitarian System: Conception and Essence

In this article, all the concepts related to political life in the conditions of the former Soviet totalitarian policy and their interaction, the social relations of the subjects, its criteria of social justice, its active influence in the context of human interests are analyzed. Furthermore, it analyzes the role of the leader of the Soviet republic in the protection of national interests in the context of political and economic dependence. The essence of the Center's secret policy towards Uzbekistan in the field of raw materials will be revealed. The oppression and violence in the activities of states and in the process of international political relations in the XXI century reveals the essence of totalitarian politics, the notion of the individual and the political leader in society, which creates contradictions in understanding the essence of the concept of man, political leader.The policy of the totalitarian regime always emphasizes the suppression of the people's spirit of freedom, the essence of the secret policy of trying to obscure the individual position in man, and then completely extinguish it.In a totalitarian society, personality traits tend to be more aggressive. Political leaders are characterized by the fear of the individual, distrust of people, sensitivity to hidden threats and motives, constant striving for power, control over others. His morals and actions are often vague. A paranoid-style politician does not accept anything else from his point of view, rejecting any information that does not support his theory.The prevailing policy in Uzbekistan deprives the people of the leading power through various pressures, such as the repression of national figures, their exclusion from socio-political life. The essence of the survivor being a servant of this system is revealed.

The Red Machine: The Dehumanization of the Communist Enemy in American Cold War Cinema

This article deals with the US Cold War cinematographic construction of the Soviet enemy. The researcher focuses on the means of dehumanising the communist enemy, external and internal, by equating it to a machine. The author applies Nick Haslam’s dual model of dehumanization (2006), according to which dehumanization is visible in two main forms: animalistic, by associating members of the out-group with animals, and mechanistic, by associating them with a soulless machine. The materials used consist of US films from the “Long Fifties”, in which Hollywood, equating the enemy to machines, developed three plots: the robotic existence of individuals in a totalitarian society; the transformation of Americans into zombies by communists by means of Soviet science; and the body snatching of Americans by an alien mind, an allegory of a future communist occupation of the USA. The article demonstrates that dehumanization was implemented by directly labeling the representatives of the communist world as robots and by attributing to them a lack of emotions, consciousness, will, individuality, initiative, warmth, love, friendship, creative abilities, and even the ability to smile. Such an image of the enemy implied a moral exclusion, treating them as an inanimate object unworthy of empathy, including in the event of their destruction. The author points out that the use of mechanistic dehumanization was very effective. Essentialization of the differences between “us” and “them” occurred: the symbolic border between them is presented as a boundary between living and nonliving. The image of mortal danger was created: the “Red Machine” is strong and merciless, it cannot be moved to pity, and so it is permissible to destroy it. This image contributed to the legitimation of power: the political opponents of the authorities are represented as internal enemies who are anxious to turn Americans into obedient executors of someone else’s will and to deprive them of humanity. At the same time, the machine also has weaknesses, and it is possible to defeat it: since it is devoid of human creativity, it is clearly inferior to the free human spirit embodied in America.

Postmodern Humanism in English Dystopian Novels: From Animal Farm to Fahrenheit 451

The “Dystopian” works in 20th century bear the subversion, questioning and criticism of the traditional utopian literature. Dystopian writers express their concerns and warnings about the living status of the human society through creating of dystopian works, and with one accord places the hope of human civilization on postmodern humanism which emphasizes the nature, mission, value, and individual development of mankind. Confronted with intricate social problems, postmodern humanism is the spiritual impetus to promote human progress, reflection, and self-improvement. This article focuses on two dystopian masterpieces—George Orwell’s Animal Farm and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 to explore the postmodern humanistic themes and connotations implied in the two novels, and to disclose the postmodern humanism presentations under oppression and exploitation concealed in the totalitarian society. This article is intended to provide a new dimension for interpreting dystopian novels, which is conducive to further explore and study the humanistic significances and values of dystopian works.

Hannah Arendt on Political (Ex)Communication in the light of harold lasswell’s communication model

Introduction: political communication acts as a fundamental constituent of the democratic public sphere. However, today’s post-totalitarian world reveals manifold totalitarian manifestations like propaganda techniques expansion, ideological content circulation and fictitious reality formation applied by authorities. Without addressing the totalitarianism-related investigations, it wouldn’t be possible to understand how powerful relations influence the development of the public sphere of today.Aims: the article examines a political communication process in the totalitarian context. The purpose is to elicit the specifics of communication in a totalitarian society using Arendt’s communicative concept as a theoretical framework and to reconsider Arendt’s interpretation of communicative nature of power relations representing it as a model. Specifically, the research focuses on H. Arendt’s descriptions of the communication model units.Methods: the methodology is based on H. Lasswell’s communication model and J. Habermas’s theory of communicative action. The comparative analysis of three subfields of communication and political science (totalitarian, political and mass communication) has also contributed to the theoretical and methodological foundation of the research. The conceptual framework has been provided by an interpretive approach to Arendt’s works.Results: a concept of political excommunication has been introduced and critically examined. Political and communicative characteristics of the sender and the addressee of totalitarian communication have been identified. The specifics of totalitarian messages have been discovered. Political and communicative effects of the totalitarian communication process have been described.Conclusions: the findings allow constructing a totalitarian communication model promoting a more nuanced understanding of the contemporary political process. It is argued that totalitarian communication does not set stage for building trust and consensus, creating awareness about politics, educating people, exchanging political ideas or receiving any political response. In contrast, its only purpose is organizing masses. Therefore, the addressee of such communication is not a communicative actor influencing the political process.

<i>The Noise of Time</i>: Shostakovich in Biofiction

The life of Dmitri Shostakovich, a Soviet composer and Russian intellectual who was censored under the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin, features in many bio-works. Julian Barnes’s <i>The Noise of Time</i> is a reconstruction of the well-known composer’s life story, and it confronts the readers with the deconstruction of biographical conventions. In the novel, Barnes uses biographical and fictional techniques in portraying a person’s life to reflect on the relationship between art and history, artist and power, and shows that historical truth is t reconstituted, reordered, or reconstructed in a selective way. This article is focused on the narrative modes and re-presentation of the historical subject in <i>The Noise of Time</i>. By emphasizing formal features and their impact upon perception and interpretation of history, this analysis considers the genre of biofiction as a narrative for achieving a sense of “poetic truth” of Shostakovich’s time. By relating history with the theory of neo-historical biofiction, Barnes reminds us that history might have been concealed in totalitarian society but could also be restored among the many stories by and about the individual—to connect the histories with his stories. Thus, we should regard <i>The Noise of Time</i> as an amphibious art form, which ideally has both to obey the constraints of evidence and to respond creatively to the challenge of making literary form and meaning.

Critical reception of existential prose of the interwar decades in Ukrainian literary criticism

The article deals with peculiarities of critical expierence of existential problems in the interwar Ukrainian prose works. The topicality of the article is caused by the lack of special studies on this problem. Its purpose is to determine the evolution and stages of the scientific-critical reception of existential discourse in the Ukrainian writing of the named period. In the course of the analysis it has been revealed that the first positive reviews, which emphasize the intellectual and psychological dominant of the works, date back to the twentieth years marked by the relative freedom of self-expression. From the 1930s to the end of the 1980s the works of modernist writers almost completely disappear from the scientific and reading space. In this paper it is emphasized a situation in a totalitarian society where criticism, serving the dominant ideology, acquires the characteristics of a political structure. Ignoring the fact of the functioning of modernism in Ukrainian culture meant a simultaneous turning away from the manifestations of artistic representation of individual existence. Artificially interrupted process has been compensated by literary studies of the representatives of Ukrainian diaspora which underline a high level of prose works by M. Khvylovy, V. Pidmohylny, V. Domontovych etc., their congeniality with European writing. The third stage dates back to the nineties and continues to this day. It is marked by the study of Ukrainian literature from the point of view of the latest methodologies. One of the research areas is reading texts in the projection of the philosophy of existence. The analysis of critical works proves the notable progress of our scholars towards the comprehension of existentiality as a historically and culturally determined phenomenon in the Ukrainian art space. Existential discourse is unanimously regarded as an organic component of modernist processes, marked by the shift of attention from the external reality to the internal life. of The literary critics active search has resulted both in the diversity of the scientific and methodological spectrum of research and the broadening of the visions of the artistic and aesthetic context in which this discourse operates.

How Information Vacuum Can Convince Society of Reaching the Communism Soon: the Information Broadcasting of Kazakhstan in the 60s

Journalism of the period of the 60s is an interesting experience in the application of methods and methods of mastering the minds of people with the help of images and a total information attack, a lim- ited and narrowed “information agenda” formed by the ruling party. The Soviet people practically had no other sources of information. The purpose of the article is to show how a dense ideological curtain, hiding what is happening in the world, created for the Soviet person his own ideals and images, which he followed. In such an information vacuum, any ideas, up to the advent of communism in the near future, seemed real. For Kazakhstani television, the experience of the 60s was of great importance in mastering professional skills, understanding the significance and importance of television broadcasting&nbsp; for promoting the values of culture, language and traditions of Kazakhstani society. The leading headings&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; of news releases of Kazakh television are analyzed, their stereotyped standard, idolatry to party leaders&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; are revealed. The imposed images of Stakhanovites, tractor drivers, combine operators, led to mass ac-&nbsp; tions like “A class in shepherds”, “Girls&nbsp; on a tractor”. Television&nbsp; gives examples of heroism in the shops&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; of the workers-smelters of the Ust-Kamenogorsk plant, the miners of Karaganda, the famous virgin lands. These were real feats of ordinary people, admirable today, but what was their price? To analyze the broadcasting news network, the method of comparing materials was applied, with an emphasis on the form and genres of news stories. For the evidence base, the microphone materials of the Kazakh television of the State Archives of the Republic of Kazakhstan were used. Television broadcasting in Kazakhstan has overcome many difficulties. Lack of professional staff, including Kazakh-speaking journalists, poor-quality equipment for television production, weak filming equipment. In the content structure, the Kazakh broadcasting of news issues with difficulties overcame the secondary effect, since the news was broadcast in a translated version, the stories were of a declara- tive nature, calling for active participation in the building of communism. People were optimistic about the propaganda, and the successes of the Soviet Union in the field of cosmonautics evoked belief in the reality of the goals set. The practical significance of the study is that on specific examples of broadcasting of the news editorial office of Kazakh television it is proved that the conditions of a totalitarian society had few prospects for the creation of professional visual and text content, the development of national broadcasting.

Ewolucja zawodu i kształcenia architektów w Niemczech od II połowy XVIII wieku do 1933 roku

The aim of this article is to show the range of responsibilities, professional and business titles and the evolution of the system of architectural education, functioning on the territory of selected German states, which in 1871 formed the Second German Reich. Other German-speaking countries, such as Austria or Switzerland, have been omitted, as were those Polish territories under the Prussian and Austrian partition. These issues, despite numerous German-language publications (Bolenz 1991; Schnier 2009; Mai 2012) and English publications (Kostofa 1986), pose many problems for Polish researchers, especially those researching the history of architecture of former German-speaking regions, and the lack of research is not compensated for by modest Polish publications (Serdyńska 2015). The main research questions that are posed concerned issues related to the education of architects and the conditions within their profession. The 18th century was the starting point for my reflections, when the first academic centres for the education of architects in the German-speaking area were established. The thought of the 18th century as a caesura for the architectural profession is also dictated by the effects of the Industrial Revolution, which determined the emergence of professional specialisations in construction and, in the long term, determined the modern understanding of the words architect and engineer. The year 1933 marks the endpoint of the ensuing paper, when, as a result of the takeover of power by the National Socialists, a violent and radical process of building a totalitarian society began in Germany, in which higher education and the fine arts, especially architecture, were subordinated to Nazi ideology.

DISCUSSIONS ON THE ISSUES OF ART EDUCATION AND THE ARTISTIC TRENDS WITHIN THE ACADEMIC ENVIRONMENT OF NAFAA IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE XX CENTURY

The article considers the problem of discussion as a process and a way of academic exchange and communication. The relevance of the research is substantiated by the fact that the chosen topic has mostly not been considered in the field of scientific research. The importance of researching informal sources of information for a better understanding and more objective analysis of events is substantiated as well. For the first time, numerous facts gathered by the author during personal communication with the academics are presented. The subject and the conclusions of the study will contribute for a better understanding of the historical role of both public and non­public discussion in the artistic process, in particular in its pedagogical component.Contemporary art education, as well as public opinion in general, focuses on the individuality of the artist, so in the artistic environment can not but arise new discussions and even conflicts. Discussions and controversy among teachers and students in the analyzed period were less ideological in nature, in contrast to the pre­WWII period in the educational institution. In the postwar period, some artists­teachers were oppressed and persecuted because of their own conceptual principles in teaching practice. Such teachers were deprived of the opportunity to spread their artistic ideas among students. Later, under the influence of the changing political situation in the country, they were invited to teach at universities again and they formed the forefront of the revival and formation of a new art school.The influence of mass media on the cultural process both in the conditions of a totalitarian society and in the conditions of the modern reforms is analyzed in the article. The current state of the coverage of cultural events in the media and the impact of this process on the artistic environment is considered. The article shows that the decisive role in the course of the discussion is played by the personality, and not by the ideological or pedagogical value of the subject of discussion. The key role of the individual in the discussion process in the absence of a systemic tool for making decisions independent of the dominant ideology is also emphasized. The author concludes that even in the Soviet postwar period there was still opposition in art education.

Motyw choroby i dysfunkcji w powieści Marii Matios Słodka Darusia

The text concerns the subject of the disease in Ukrainian literature based on the novel by Maria Matios Sweet Darusia. The novel was published in 2003, has received many awards and is one of the most famous Ukrainian novels of the last decades. Many Ukrainian literary scholars have written about this novel, including Sofi a Filonenko, Jaroslaw Holoborodko, Nila Zborowska and Tamara Hundorowa. Maria Matios analyzes in Sweet Darusia an illness as a metaphor for social and cultural phenomena. In the fi rst part of my paper, I analyse the metaphor of a disease and dysfunction in Ukrainian literature. The second part of the text is about a disease as a consequence of the traumatic experience of the heroine, in which Maria Matios illustrates the problems of memory of the Ukrainian nation. Diseases, dysfunctions, and pathological states are quite popular motifs in the Ukrainian prose of the independence period. They appear, among others, in the texts of Yuri Andrukhovych, Stepan Procuik, Oksana Zabuzko, Yuri Gudz, and Yuri Izdryk. All mentioned authors combine a state of disease with the mental, political and economic condition of post-Soviet society. In Ukrainian prose, the disease is a posttraumatic symptom, manifested in both the individual plan – in the hero’s body and psyche – and also with a broader, over-individual dimension, allowing to diagnose the condition of post-totalitarian space residents. In the novel Sweet Darusia, physical suff ering and illness of the main character is an image of a historical trauma experienced by totalitarian society. The illness in this novel is the starting point for self-refl ection and the stimulus to construct new identifi cation, basing on what is individual, human, intimate but often painful and difficult to accept.

Dobrovoljno ropstvo i totalitarnost u distopijskim romanima 20. stoljeća: Status književnosti u Vrlome novom svijetu, 1984. i Fahrenheitu 451

The article thematises the relationship of the will to rule and the will to be ruled in the aforementioned dystopian novels by Aldous Huxley, George Orwell and Ray Bradbury. The first part of the article points out Hannah Arendt’s observations on the nature of totalitarianism, the second part deals with the similarities concerning the status of literature in the fictitious totalitarian societies represented in the three novels, whereas the final part exemplifies Arendtʼs views through Étienne de La Boétieʼs writings on “voluntary servitude”. The conflict between those who want to be ruled and those who want to be free reflects the clash of those who want to annihilate literature and those who want to preserve it.

BETWEEN SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS (School in a Totalitarian Society)

In the article a rather effective scientific approach is used – the study of totalitarianism through certain spheres of the spiritual life of society, that is the most complex and contradictory sphere of life of the human community.The object of the study is the school education of Bulgaria in the socialist period from the September 1944 events connected with the rise to power of the Patriotic Front Government to the “palace coup” in 1989, when the country’s educators were faced with the choice between deep national traditions of schooling and the unified approaches of the socialist era. The choice of the country is connected with the intention to analyze the situation in education development under the conditions of the Soviet model of the regime other than it was in the USSR, which was called “People’s Democracy”, and to define the peculiarities of this regime in one of the countries of the former “socialist camp”. Among these features it is identified the role of the personal factor in the party – governmental leadership of this Balkan country.The historical and pedagogical process in Bulgaria is characterized by the indicators of several levels. At the general level, it is shown that the education system is an important component and a leading feature of human civilization. The general pattern (that is, an indicator that applies to all or at least the vast majority of states) of the educational space development of Bulgaria in a certain period was a steady trend of increasing the role of education in public progress, when education and upbringing were focused on reaching all the segments of the population. The peculiarities, inherent in particular groups of states, were the features characteristic for the education development in socialist countries: the party leadership and a strict control of party bodies, ideologization of the educational process and extracurricular work, too high degree of planning, the subordination of state structures to party organs, an excessive centralization, etc; the individual features include the preservation of the national system of public-state leadership in the spiritual sphere, the non-antagonistic coexistence of religious and secular-democratic consciousness of an individual and a high role and place of a Bulgarian teacher in the society. Contrary to the totalitarian rule, the Bulgarian teacher patiently taught children and adults to peace, tolerance and sociability, respect for work and social justice.Further explorations of the author will be devoted to the analysis of the common features of the education development in the countries of the Balkan region, which have historically been at the intersection of western and eastern trends, under the influence of multi-vector approaches and orientations.