Building plurality: The discursive construction of state, publics, and civil society in totalitarian contexts

Designed as a rhetorical investigation that draws largely on communication and political theory, this study has two primary concerns. The first is to explore how rhetorical configurations of democracy endorse the colonizing power of the totalitarian state. By looking at definitions of democracy and the impact they have on political institutions, the analysis shows how discursive and political power shape one another and influence human subjectivity. The second goal is to examine grassroots mechanisms of resistance and the significance of interpersonal discursive encounters in fostering civic life and in opposing the state. Through a close examination of testimonies about life in political prisons, deportation villages, labor and concentration camps (as narrated by Eastern European people with a direct experience of incarceration), the study explores the mechanisms through which grassroots resistance is cultivated through interpersonal communication.