Totalitarian systems and their peaceful alternatives in Karin Boye’ s Kallocain and Olga Ravn’ s The Employees

Strany: 93 - 103

Jazyk: eng

Drawing on recent discussions on fragility and vulnerability, this article delves into the questions of why and how the totalitarian systems collapse. Applied to Karin Boye’ s Kallocain (1940) and Olga Ravn’ s The Employees (2018), the concept of acknowledged fragility helps societies to locate an alternative to oppressive systems. In Boye’ s authoritarian world state, the eponymous substance is instrumentalized to eliminate dissidence, yet ultimately causes a rupture within the body politic. Likewise, Ravn’ s anonymous corporation’ s exclusionary tactics result in unexpected results among its humanoid crew. Both text’ s alternative visions of vulnerability can be characterized as peaceful and accepting of the interconnectedness of human and non-human life.

ISO 690:

Matejicka, A. 2024. Totalitarian systems and their peaceful alternatives in Karin Boye’ s Kallocain and Olga Ravn’ s The Employees. In World Literature Studies, vol. 16, no.4, pp. 93-103. 1337-9275. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31577/WLS.2024.16.4.7

APA:

Matejicka, A. (2024). Totalitarian systems and their peaceful alternatives in Karin Boye’ s Kallocain and Olga Ravn’ s The Employees. World Literature Studies, 16(4), 93-103. 1337-9275. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31577/WLS.2024.16.4.7

Vydavateľ: Ústav svetovej literatúry SAV, v. v. i.