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"Dystopian Fiction East and West suggests that the utopian pursuit of "the best of all possible worlds" is driven less by the search for happiness than by a determined faith in justice. Conversely, the world of dystopian fiction presents us with a society where the ruling elite deliberately subverts justice. In fact, twentieth-century dystopian fiction can be seen as a protest against the totalitarian superstate as the "worst of all possible worlds," a universe of terror and rigged trials." "Erika Gottlieb explores a selection of about thirty works in the dystopian genre from East and Central Europe between 1920 and 1991 in the USSR and between 1948 and 1989 in Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. Written about and under totalitarian dictatorship, in these countries dystopian fiction does not take us into a hypothetical future; instead the writer assumes the role of witness protesting against the "worst of all possible worlds" of terror and trial in a world that is but should not be."--Jacket What is justice? The answers of utopia, tragedy, and dystopia -- Nineteenth-century precursors of the dystopian vision -- The dictator behind the mask : Zamiatin's We, Huxley's Brave new world, and Orwell's Ninteenth eighty-four -- Dictatorship without a mask : Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Vonnegut's Player piano, and Atwood's The handmaid's tale -- The writer on trial: socialist realism and the exile of speculative fiction -- The dystopia of revolutionary justice : Serge's Conquered city, Zazubrin's "The chip," and Rodionov's Chocolate -- The legalization of terror: Platonov's The foundation pit, Ribakov's Children of the Arbat, and Koestler's Darkness at noon -- Terror in war, terror in peace: Grossman's Life and fate, Tertz Sinyavski's The trial begins, and Daniel's This is Moscow speaking -- Collective paranoia: the persecutor and the persecuted: Andzrejewski, Déry, Fuks, Hlasko, Örkény, Vaculik, and Mrozek -- Kafka's ghost: The trial as theatre: Klima's The castle, Karvas's The big wig, and Havel''s Memorandum -- From terror to entropy : the downward spiral: Konwicki's A minor apocalypse, Déry's Mr G.A. in X and Zinoviev's The radiant future -- Speculative fiction returns from exile : Dystopian vision with a sneer: Voinovich's Moscow 2042, Aksyonov's The island of Crimea, Dalos's 1985, and Moldova's Hitler in Hungary -- Dystopia East and West: conclusion.
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