A Critique Of Totalitarian In Alexievich’s“Voices Of Utopia” Five-Part Series

Under totalitarian rule,human life and freedom were denied and destroyed.Alexievich’s five-part series "Voices of Utopia" is a ruthless exposé and critique of the totalitarian system in the Soviet Union,where the history of war is a history of victory and sanctity under official propaganda,but in the author’s view,war is full of suffering and death.After the collapse of the Soviet Union,the Soviet Union’s nuclear technology program collapsed,while the people suffered from mental trauma across time and space.With his pen in hand,the writer spared no effort to resist totalitarianism,the will of the state over the individual,the unjust war and the political system that fools the masses.The writer shows a high sense of social responsibility,and also reflects on the moral degradation of people under the totalitarian system in his criticism,as a warning to the present and future society.This thesis will be discussed in four parts:The introductory section briefly introduces the writer Alexievich and his literary achievements,and compares the main contents and storyline of the five-part series "Voices of Utopia".It also organizes and classifies the research literature on Alexievich at home and abroad,and clarifies the significance and methodology of this paper.The first chapter deals with the theoretical foundations and historical context of Alexievich’s critique of totalitarianism.Her critique of totalitarianism is not an empty one.The formation of the political-critical theme is supported by the theoretical support provided by anti-totalitarian thinkers,who analyzed the theory of totalitarianism and its development history from an ideological perspective,as well as the criticism and reflection of totalitarianism by anti-totalitarian representatives;on the other hand,she inherited the ideas of the Russian anti-utopian novel.His own suffering experience combined with his deep concern for the propositions of the times also contributed to the formation of his political-critical themes.The second chapter discusses the multidimensional presentation of the theme of totalitarianism critiqued in the five-part series "Voices of Utopia.First,it expresses a direct critique of totalitarianism in three ways: from the exaltation of war to the reflection on war,from the national context to the individual context,and from the sociology of man to the nature of man.Secondly,it is about the destruction of the moral ideal state.The history of the just war that the Soviet Union officially propagated conceals the suffering and death of the war;the Soviet Union’s " utopian "dream of building a powerful empire through the development of nuclear technology,but at the cost of destroying individual human values;the disillusionment of ideals and the loss of faith,and the fact that people live in " second-hand time.After the disillusionment of ideals and the loss of faith,people live in the historical dilemma of "second-hand time".Finally,the story is about the reshaping of the Russian people’s consciousness in the "second-hand time" after the shattering of the Soviet dream of "utopia",and the redemption of their own lives.Chapter 3 discusses the narrative characteristics of the critique of totalitarianism in the five-part series "Voices of Utopia".The text is analyzed in terms of narrative voice,narrative perspective,and narrative space in relation to the relevant concepts of narratology.The "Utopian Voices" five-part series focuses on documentary voices through nonfiction writing and polyphony,raising voices that are different from the official voices,rebelling against and questioning the extreme political order of the Soviet Union.The overlapping perspectives of different narrators and the multi-focused narrative perspectives profoundly expose the mental and physical torture caused by the totalitarian rule.In terms of narrative space,space as a container of memory carries heavy memories,intertwining historical space and real space,social space and psychological space,witnessing suffering and trauma through the constant flow of space,allowing the truth hidden under the ideology to emerge.