The dehumanisation of totalitarianism: George Orwell’s "Nineteen Eighty-Four" and the Spanish Civil War and Francoism

Abstract

The phenomenon of dehumanisation has been present throughout the history of humankind, being totalitarianism the principal instigator. Processes of dehumanisation are adaptive and stand out from the times of slave-trading and colonisation to the Holocaust and the two world wars of the last century. These human violations caused, especially, by the ideological conflicts of the 20th century, have increased the literary interest in understanding humanity and in analysing wherein the humanity of human beings lies. In fact, dystopian novels have emerged as a means to denounce these human violations. Although little has been said about what is to be human, dehumanisation provides a closer understanding of this notion. George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) might be the most remarkable representation of this paradigm by addressing the social and cognitive impact totalitarian political systems cause in human beings. In the novel, the phenomenon of dehumanisation employs specific mechanisms which bear considerable resemblance to certain historical events of the last century, such as the Spanish Civil War and the Francoist period. Also, Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia (1938) serves as a nexus between them and Nineteen Eighty-Four. Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four has also served as a warning for future political and human crises. The principal raison d’être of this connection between history and fiction is due to the potential of totalitarianism to threaten the human condition of individuals. This essay aims to explore the distinctive dehumanising techniques used by totalitarianism in order to undermine the self in Nineteen Eighty-Four and the aforementioned Spanish events. This essay, in particular, will be closely examining how uninterrupted surveillance of individuals, political propaganda and censorship of information and thought, which can be considered as the three distinctive dehumanising mechanisms of totalitarianism, are used in both Nineteen Eighty-Four and the Spanish historical events starting in 1936.