Literary dimensions of dictatorship in national and global context

Abstract

Abstract Dictatorship, totalitarianism, autocracy, as parallel concepts and synonyms are used both at the global and national levels. It should be noted that the national totalitarianism of different countries reveals signs of a common model (H. Arendt). A point of our interest is the presentation of global and national aspects of dictatorship from the perspective of fiction based on the methods of comparative research. For the analysis, we took a totalitarian narrative and two novels of two small nations, Georgia and the Dominican Republic, - “Oh World (Kakhetian Chronicles)” by Georgian writer and director, national award winner, Zaira Arsenishvili, and “The Feast of the Goast” by Peruvian writer, Nobel Prize Winner, Mario Vargas Liosa. Both novels describe the era of dictatorship and mass terror. The development of action and the historical era in the novels coincide with each other. The period of the Soviet leader, Stalin’s and the dictator of the Dominican Republic, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo’s regime begins from the 30s of the 20th century and continues in the case of Stalin - until 1953, and in the case of Trujillo - until 1952 as the first person of the state, and as an influential person - until 1961. The central characters of the novels, girls, are trying to avoid direct persecution through forced migration. In one case, internal, and in the other, external migration serves the same goal - to survive. Both works mark out common signs of totalitarianism, which include gender aspects; demonstration of the narrator’s, main character’s life full of tragedies; characteristics of dictatorship; characteristic features of dictatorship, etc. Dictatorship is a source of important observations from a literary perspective. Key words: Dictatorship, authoritarianism, totalitarianism, literature