Browsing by Author "Krupa, Henrieta"

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Aestheticizing politics and politicising aesthetics: Principles of aesthetics in the context of totalitarianism
(Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi, 2024-09-01) Krupa, Henrieta
This article examines the complex interplay between art, society, and power, focusing on the aesthetic strategies employed by totalitarian regimes, particularly Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union. Both regimes harnessed aesthetics to propagate their ideologies and suppress dissent. While Nazi Germany aestheticized politics to promote their ideology of racial purity, the Soviet Union politicised aesthetics to glorify the proletariat and the Soviet state through Socialist Realism. The regimes’ manipulation of aesthetics reveals how art can become instrumental in enforcing authoritarian control and shaping public perception through manipulating emotions. The paper further examines common aesthetic principles utilised by totalitarian regimes, aiming to raise awareness about practices of aestheticizing politics and politicising aesthetics, which makes the topic relevant in contemporary turbulent times. The article thus underscores the contemporary relevance of these strategies in the digital age, where art continues to influence political discourse and public behaviour. It calls for a critical engagement with the ethical dimensions of art in politics and advocates for supporting artistic freedom to ensure that art serves as a tool for empowerment of the silenced, resistance against totalitarianism, and positive social change. Through historical and contemporary lenses, this study highlights the dual potential of art to both oppress and liberate, emphasising the need for vigilance in maintaining its ethical use in society.
Approaching Huxley’s prognosis: The subjugation of science to propaganda
(Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi, 2024-06-29) Krupa, Henrieta
In the previous century, Sigmund Freud developed a method called psychoanalysis. By analyzing dreams, exploring the unconscious processes of the mind, and practicing the free association method, he came up with theories about human nature. According to Freud, powerful instinctual drives govern individuals and masses. He was called the archeologist of mind and argued that these primitive drives are remnants of the human’s animalistic past. If not repressed and controlled, they would have led societies into destruction and chaos. The article offers a historical overview and reflects on how authorities used psychoanalytic and scientific findings on group behavior to manipulate and control masses and eventually, to foster consumerism. The article also discusses the reasons why the Freudian theory of repression, initially serving the system of power, gradually failed to do so and thus, discusses the historical context that explains the transition into the ideology of the liberated self to serve financial purposes. Finally, the article suggests that consumerism, governing many contemporary societies, is a political ideology, not much different from types of mass control generally associated with totalitarianism.