Through this article we attempt to explore the relation between totalitarianism and literature from an epistemological point of view, mainly in Hannah Arendt's work. More precisely, we will present and analyse through the combination of two concepts: the one emerging from the Art of Aesthetics (and more particularly from the theory of literature) and the other from political theory/philosophy. The first – obvious – concept, considers totalitarianism and literature as absolutely opposed to each other, the second considers totalitarianism as a governing power, controlling everything, whereas literature is considered a per se expression of absolute freedom. Our goal is to indicate the connecting paths between the two concepts, i.e. the question whether every totalitarian regime has and/or intends to build its own literature or whether it oppresses all kinds of literature.
Koumasidis et al. (Wed,) studied this question.