Dystopian Fiction East and West: Universe of Terror and Trial

333 Pages·2001·4.598 MB·English

by  Erika Gottlieb

98343_90.fm Page i Friday, April 27, 2001 4:55 PM
Dystopian Fiction East and West
A Universe of Terror and Trial
Dystopian Fiction East and West suggests that the utopian pursuit of
“the best of all possible worlds” is driven less by the search for happi-
ness than by a determined faith in justice. Conversely, the world of
dystopian fiction presents us with a society where the ruling elite delib-
erately subverts justice. In fact, twentieth-century dystopian fiction can
be seen as a protest against the totalitarian superstate as the “worst of
all possible worlds,” a universe of terror and rigged trials.
After an original and comprehensive analysis of the tragic and satiti-
cal patterns underlying dystopian classics that warn against the
possible emergence of a totalitarian state in the future (We, Brave New
World, Nineteen Eight-Four, Fahrenheit 451, Player Piano, and The
Handmaid’s Tale), Erika Gottlieb explores a selection of about thirty
works in the dystopian genre from East and Central Europe between
1920 and 1991 in the ussr and between 1948 and 1989 in Poland,
Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. Written about and under totalitarian
dictatorship, in these countries dystopian fiction does not take us into
a hypothetical future; instead the writer assumes the role of witness
protesting against the “worst of all possible worlds” of terror and trial
in a world that is but should not be.
erika gottlieb is the author of The Orwell Conundrum (1992) and
Lost Angels of a Ruined Paradise: Themes of Cosmic Strife in Romantic
Tragedy (1982).
98343_90.fm Page ii Friday, April 27, 2001 4:55 PM
98343_90.fm Page iii Friday, April 27, 2001 4:55 PM
Dystopian Fiction
East and West
Universe of Terror and Trial
erika gottlieb
McGill-Queen’s University Press
Montreal & Kingston · London · Ithaca
98343_90.fm Page iv Friday, April 27, 2001 4:55 PM
© McGill-Queen’s University Press 2001
isbn 0-7735-2179-8 (cloth)
isbn 0-7735-2206-9 (paper)
Legal deposit third quarter 2001
Bibliothèque nationale du Québec
Printed in Canada on acid-free paper
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Humanities and
Social Sciences Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council of Canada.
McGill-Queen’s University Press acknowledges the financial support of the
Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program
(bpidp) for its activities. It also acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for
the Arts for its publishing program.
An earlier version of the concluding chapter, under the title of “Dystopia East and
West: The Writer and the Protagonist,” appeared in Vite di Utopia, ed. Vita Fortunati
and Paola Spinozzi (Ravenna: Longo Editore 2000).
Pen and ink drawings are by the author.
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Gottlieb, Erika
Dystopian fiction east and west : universe of terror and trial
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 0-7735-2179-8 (bound) –
isbn 0-7735-2206-9 (pbk.)
1. Fiction – 20th century – History and criticism. 2. Science fiction – History and
criticism. 3. Dystopias in literature. 4. Totalitarianism and literature. i. Title.
pn56.d94g68 2001 809.3’9372 c00-901550-7
Typeset in Sabon 10/12
by Caractéra inc., Quebec City
98343_90.fm Page v Friday, April 27, 2001 4:55 PM
To Paul, Peter, and Julie
98343_90.fm Page vi Friday, April 27, 2001 4:55 PM
98343_91.fm Page vii Friday, April 27, 2001 4:55 PM
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Dystopia West, Dystopia East 3
part one dystopia west
1 What Is Justice? The Answers of Utopia, Tragedy, and
Dystopia 25
2 Nineteenth-Century Precursors of the Dystopian Vision 43
3 The Dictator behind the Mask: Zamiatin’s We, Huxley’s Brave
New World, and Orwell’s Nineteenth Eighty-four 56
4 Dictatorship without a Mask: Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451,
Vonnegut’s Player Piano, and Atwood’s The Handmaid’s
Tale 88
part two dystopia east:
the soviet union 1920s–1950s
5 The Writer on Trial: Socialist Realism and the Exile of
Speculative Fiction 115
6 The Dystopia of Revolutionary Justice: Serge’s Conquered City,
Zazubrin’s “The Chip,” and Rodionov’s Chocolate 132
7 The Legalization of Terror: Platonov’s The Foundation Pit,
Ribakov’s Children of the Arbat, and Koestler’s Darkness at
Noon 152
98343_91.fm Page viii Friday, April 27, 2001 4:55 PM
viii Contents
8 Terror in War, Terror in Peace: Grossman’s Life and Fate,
Tertz Sinyavski’s The Trial Begins, and Daniel’s This Is Moscow
Speaking 182
part three dystopia east:
the soviet bloc 1950s–1980s
9 Collective Paranoia: The Persecutor and the Persecuted:
Andzrejewski, Déry, Fuks, Hlasko, Örkény, Vaculik, and
Mrozek 207
10 Kafka’s Ghost: The Trial as Theatre: Klima’s The Castle,
Karvas’s The Big Wig, and Havel’s Memorandum 221
11 From Terror to Entropy: The Downward Spiral: Konwicki’s
A Minor Apocalypse, Déry’s Mr G.A. in X, and Zinoviev’s
The Radiant Future 233
12 Speculative Fiction Returns from Exile: Dystopian Vision with
a Sneer: Voinovich’s Moscow 2042, Aksyonov’s The Island of
Crimea, Dalos’s 1985, and Moldova’s Hitler in Hungary 249
13 Dystopia East and West: Conclusion 267
Notes 287
Bibliography 305
Index 319
98343_92.fm Page ix Friday, April 27, 2001 4:56 PM
Acknowledgments
I wish to thank Professors Dennis Rohatyn (University of San Diego),
Gorman Beauchamp (University of Michigan), and Professor Emeritus
Arthur O. Lewis (Pennsylvania State University) for their extremely
helpful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript.
I am grateful to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Coun-
cil of Canada for the three-year research grant (1994–97) that made
research and travel possible.
I am very grateful to Philip Cercone, executive director and editor
of McGill-Queen’s University Press, for his support and encouragement
throughout the past years, to Denis Leclerc, program officer, Research
Grants Division of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Coun-
cil of Canada, and to Nadine May, publication officer, Aid to Scholarly
Publications Programme, the Humanities and Social Sciences Federa-
tion of Canada. I also wish to express my sincere thanks to my copy
editor, Susan Kent Davidson, for her excellent contribution, and to
Joan McGilvray, co-ordinating editor, for editorial guidance.
98343_92.fm Page x Friday, April 27, 2001 4:56 PM