ORWELL 1984 (LITERARY PREFIGURATION OF DIGITAL DICTATORSHIPS)

Abstract

The digital dictatorships described by Yuval Noah Harari are characterized by centralized data processing and information in a (computational) technical environment, and total exercise of power. The novel 1984 by George Orwell is a literary prefiguration of this totalitarian social system. Communication tools, observation and instructional methods described in the text are technically defined, function as the pretext of digitality, and the symbolic Great Brother illustrates the centralized nature of control and regulation in the diegetic world of the novel. The method of interpretation elaborated in the study does not ignore the aesthetic values of the text, its literary characteristics, the embeddedness of its genre and its paradigmatic significance, while illuminating the reasons behind the contemporary and increasing popularity of the novel, its appearance as a reference, as well as explaining why its symbols are coming to independent life and spread so virulently across different discourses of culture and art.