E-Thesis 295 views
The tyranny of non-objectivity: The philosophical and legal systems of authoritarian regimes in dystopian literature, 1932–1958, examined from Ayn Rand’s perspective on authoritarianism. / CONNOR MORRIS-WATTS
Swansea University Author: CONNOR MORRIS-WATTS
Abstract
The mid-twentieth century was a significant period of authoritarianism around the world. This project examines the ways in which key literary texts of this period depict how authoritarian regimes are constructed and sustained philosophically and how these regimes approach law. Through a philosophica...
| Published: |
Swansea, Wales, UK
2025
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| Institution: | Swansea University |
| Degree level: | Doctoral |
| Degree name: | Ph.D |
| Supervisor: | Williams, Daniel G. ; Robinson, R. |
| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa68912 |
| Abstract: |
The mid-twentieth century was a significant period of authoritarianism around the world. This project examines the ways in which key literary texts of this period depict how authoritarian regimes are constructed and sustained philosophically and how these regimes approach law. Through a philosophical analysis of the ideas that underpin these systems, I aim to compare and contrast the philosophical, political and legal ideas that are foundational to such regimes and permeate the authoritarian societies imagined by some of the period’s most significant writers. In making my analysis, I draw on the philosophical premises that Ayn Rand held comprise the basis of authoritarianism and its underpinnings and provide the first sustained, scholarly concentration on Rand’s ideas of authoritarianism and its underpinnings as they relate to key texts in mid-twentieth century dystopian fiction. This project aims to address three key questions. Firstly, what are the philosophical ideas at the base of the authoritarian regimes depicted in key works of the mid-twentieth century? Secondly, how do these texts represent authoritarian approaches to law? Finally, how do the philosophical, political and legal ideas contained in the fictional texts relate to prevalent ideas, schools of thought and/or movements in modern times? I address these questions in the hope that it will help to demonstrate the usefulness of abstract analyses of fictional works to the analysis and understanding of contemporary political and legal ideas, figures, movements and practices. To this end, my analyses engage with a range of significant modern figures, schools of thought and movements, including J.A.G. Griffith and the political constitutionalist school more generally, Hannah Arendt, Klaus Schwab, David P. Barash, and Sebastian Schindler. I also examine the issues at the core of theories of natural law, legal positivism and “neoliberalism” to highlight the authoritarian potential of those schools of thought. |
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| Item Description: |
Due to Embargo and/or Third Party Copyright restrictions, this thesis is not available via this service. |
| Keywords: |
Dystopian literature, philosophy, politics, law, jurisprudence, intellectual history, authoritarianism |
| College: |
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |