1984: Totalitarism, vigilance and censorship: retaking the question of language determinism

• Main Author: Freitas, Emanuele Mendonça de
• Publication Date: 2018
• Other Authors: Feltes, Heloísa Pedroso de Moraes, Zanella, Sílvia Maria
• Format: Article
• Language: por
• Source: letrônica
• Download full: https://revistaseletronicas.pucrs.br/ojs/index.php/letronica/article/view/28076
• topic: 1984; George Orwell; Totalitarianism; Linguistic determinism; 1984; George Orwell; Totalitarismo; Determinismo linguístico.

This article analyses the book 1984, written by George Orwell, establishing relation with the totalitarian regimes in the twentieth century, highlighting the context of both censorship and repression in Brazil experienced during two distinct periods: Vargas Era and Military dictatorship. Foucault’s theoretical base proposes discipline, vigilance, censorship and punishment as strategies of institutionalization and maintenance of power in the works The Order of Discourse and Discipline and Punish. One of the ways of control presented by Orwell’s work is the linguistic determinism being established after the creation of the Newspeak, language used for mind control in 1984. In this context, it is approached the Newspeak as being related to the extreme version of Sapir-Whorf hypothesis of the linguistic determinism, which, in discussion, cannot be supported utterly.