Language and Reality: Examining How Language Shapes Our Perception of the World and Its Reciprocal Impact

The current dissertation aims to analyze the link between language and the external world, may it be socio-cultural factors or individual thoughts and ideas. Starting from the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which postulates the influence of language – and its structures – on people’s thoughts, the dissertation then focuses on the reverse concept, i.e. the reflection of socio-cultural elements of a community in the language they use. After assessing the reciprocal relationship between language and society, culture and thoughts, the dissertation focuses on the exploitation of such link in the historical contexts of totalitarianisms – where language is used as a propagandistic tool to shape and control people’s thoughts and align them with the dominant ideology.