This article investigates Norman Mailer's appropriation and Americanization of the concept of totalitarianism as an internal critique of US society and culture in the 1960s. Dominant understandings of totalitarianism from the 1930s to the 1950s focused on external threats and were wedded to notions of pervasive state control of all aspects of life. Mailer's crucial intervention offered an alternative theory which viewed totalitarianism as an internal threat to the United States and de-emphasized the centrality of the state. His theory of cultural totalitarianism focused on internal psychological manipulation rather than external political coercion. Mailer's focus on the United States was symptomatic of a broader intellectual trend towards the study of non-statist forms of totalitarianism which has yet to receive adequate scholarly attention. This article thus illuminates new dimensions of the totalitarianism debate in American political thought and provides a fuller picture of Mailer's significance as a social critic.

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诺曼梅勒和 1960 年代的美国极权主义

本文调查了诺曼梅勒对极权主义概念的挪用和美国化，作为对 1960 年代美国社会和文化的内部批判。从 1930 年代到 1950 年代，对极权主义的主要理解集中在外部威胁上，并与国家普遍控制生活各个方面的观念结合在一起。梅勒的关键干预提供了另一种理论，该理论将极权主义视为对美国的内部威胁，并淡化了国家的中心地位。他的文化极权主义理论侧重于内部心理操纵，而不是外部政治胁迫。梅勒 对美国的关注表明了一种更广泛的学术趋势，即研究非国家主义形式的极权主义，这种趋势尚未得到足够的学术关注。因此，本文阐明了美国政治思想中极权主义辩论的新维度，并更全面地描述了梅勒作为社会批评家的重要性。