The Bizarre World of Totalitarianism: Defamiliarization in Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-577-5_5How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Yevgeny Zamyatin; Dystopia We; defamiliarization

Abstract

Yevgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin (Евгений Иванович Замятин) (1884.02.01-1937.03.10)He is a writer living in silver age of Soviet Union. He is a ship engineer as well. He stands among the writers with the greatest influence laid in Soviet literature after the October Revolution. He is famous in literati circle for his colloquial narrative style and humorous irony. We (мы) was completed in 1921, but it was disapproved and banned by the Soviet government. We was only publicly published in Soviet Union in 1988. It is a dystopia literature. We addresses the ills of totalitarianism. In the form of notes and records, the book dramatizes the life and mentality of various people in a highly digitalized, centrally governed “One State” from the perspective of a model citizen living in a future world. The writing style of We directly influenced the later 1984 and Brave New World and created the genre of dystopia literature. We was written in 1921. And the Moscow Linguistic Circle was founded as early as 1915. It was also the year of the birth of Russian formalist theory. The two has got a certain nexus. In Russian formalist theory, “defamiliarization” is one of the most important tools in the study of literature and art. This essay will demonstrate how We used “defamiliarization” to make these aspects - narrative style, names and personalities, objects - distinctive and artistic. The essay is based on Hugh Aplin’s translation.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Kai Wang
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/15
TI  - The Bizarre World of Totalitarianism: Defamiliarization in Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 5th International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities and Arts (SSHA 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 40
EP  - 49
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-577-5_5
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-577-5_5
ID  - Wang2026
ER  -