Ministério do amor: a representação da tortura na sociedade distópica de 1984

Abstract

This study aims to reflect on issues related to the figurations of torture represented in George Orwell's novel 1984 (2009), particularly in Part III, which portrays the scenes in which the protagonist Winston Smith is tortured in the Ministry of Love. To this effect, I draw on excerpts from the novel to point out the ways torture is metaphorized in this fiction. The theoretical background for the analysis is explored by means of the connections between Orwell's novel and studies by ngela Maria Dias (2005) on the theme of cruelty; by Tom Moylan (2016) and Lyman T. Sargent (1994) on dystopia; by Erich Fromm (1961), Ben Pimlott (1989) and Thomas Pynchon (2003) in their impressions regarding the universe of 1984 and its impacts on the historical moments in which the authors produced their critiques; by Glauco Mattoso (1984) on definitions and characterizations of torture; by Roger Paden (1984) regarding the history of torture and correlations with the Orwellian literary work; and by Evanir Pavloski (2014), who provides a thorough analysis of the novel in focus. In addition, I elucidate the goals behind the practices performed by the Party, the metaphorization of the only and sovereign form of government in this dystopia, symbolizing an authoritarian regime. Finally, I emphasize the novel's alarming contemporaneity, especially regarding the correlations between the novel and our current society.