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European dictatorships left a profound cultural footprint in the local culture, to the point that a certain vocabulary, a certain manner of writing, and even a certain manner of speaking is evocati...
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#2: Initial revision
European dictatorships left a profound cultural footprint in the local culture, to the point that a certain vocabulary, a certain manner of writing, and even a certain manner of speaking is evocative of that period. I am not talking about propaganda material; I am referring to the actual writing style of the period. For instance, consider the obsessive denial of foreign words in Italian, or the compulsive use of R's in German, or the dry gritty tone of certain Russian literature. For a native reader, such styles set an unmistakable tone in the prose. Is there such a style of prose in English? I could easily transfer the basic ideas from the other languages I mentioned to English, but that may not sound true enough to a native. Besides, there are no rolling R's in English, and not even that many foreign words that would be of such common use that one would notice their absence. I am looking for a writing style in English which would be perceived by a native as the expression of an oppressive, despotic power (or anything close to that).