The Latin American Literary Boom and U.S. Nationalism during the Cold War

Deborah Cohn

Description

During the 1960s and 1970s, when writers such as Julio Cortazar, Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Mario Vargas Llosa entered the international literary mainstream, Cold War cultural politics played an active role in disseminating their work in the United States. Deborah Cohn documents how U.S. universities, book and journal publishers, philanthropic organizations, cultural centers, and authors coordinated their efforts to bring Latin American literature to a U.S. reading public during this period, when interest in the region was heightened by the Cuban Revolution. She also traces the connections between the endeavors of private organizations and official foreign policy goals.

The high level of interest in Latin America paradoxically led the U.S. government to restrict these authors' physical presence in the United States through the McCarranWalter Act's immigration blacklist, even as cultural organizations cultivated the exchange of ideas with writers and sought to market translations of their work for the U.S. market.

Sujets

• Latin American Studies
• Literary Criticism
• Literature
• History of the United States
• Spanish
• Portuguese
• European
• History

Informations

• Publié par: Vanderbilt University Press
• Date de parution: 15 mai 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780826518064
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Deborah Cohn THE LATIN AMERICAN LITERARY BOOM AND U.S. NATIONALISM DURING THE COLD WAR

THE LATIN AMERICAN

LITERARY BOOM

AND U.S. NATIONALISM

DURING THE COLD WAR

THE LATIN AMERICAN

LITERARY BOOM

AND U.S. NATIONALISM

DURING THE COLD WAR

Deborah Cohn

Vanderbilt University Press ■ Nashville

© 2012 by Vanderbilt University Press Nasville, Tennessee 37235 All rigts reserved First printing 2012

his book is printed on acid-free paper. Manufactured in te United States of America

Excerpt from letter by Carlos Fuentes on José Donoso’s Coronation, copyrigt © 1964 by Carlos Fuentes. Reprinted by permission of Brandt and Hocman Literary Agents Inc.

Excerpts from letter to Carlos Fuentes by Artur Miller, copyrigt © 1969 by Artur Miller. Reprinted by permission of he Wylie Agency LLC.

Excerpts from address by Pablo Neruda, 10 April 1972, 50t Anniversary of te American Center of PEN, copyrigt © Fundación Pablo Neruda, 2011. PEN Arcives, Box 95, Folder 14. Reprinted by permission of te Agencia Literaria Carmen Balcells SA.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file

LC control number 2011023793 LC classification PQ7081.C633 2012 Dewey class number 860.9/980904

ISBN 978-0-8265-1804-0 (clot) ISBN 978-0-8265-1805-7 (paperback) ISBN 978-0-8265-1806-4 (e-book)

To my beloved boys— Noa, Benjamin, and Daniel— and to Peter, for giving me te joy of is love and our family

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CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUC TION Multiple Agendas: Latin American Literary Fervor and U.S. Outreach Programs following the Cuban Revolution

“Catch 28”: The McCarranWalter Immigration Blacklist and Spanish American Writers

PEN and the Sword: Latin American Writers and the 1966 PEN Congress

Latin America and Its Literature in the U.S. University ater the Cuban Revolution

The “Cold War Struggle” or Latin American Literature at the Center or Inter-American Relations

CONCLUSION

NOTES

WORKS CITED

INDEX

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6

1

7

5

9

5

145

193

203

231

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am extremely fortunate to ave ad te opportunity to speak to many of te writers, translators, critics, and editors of wom I ave written ere. Carlos Fuentes, William Styron, and Mario Vargas Llosa provided me wit important insigts into te period and te dynamics covered in tis book, and my interview wit Mr. Vargas Llosa provided me wit te seeds of my concluding tougts. I am also very grateful to Keit Botsford, Cass Can- field Jr., Patricia Cepeda, Ronald Crist, Rita Guibert, Suzanne Jill Levine, Alfred Mac Adam, William MacLeis, Jon Macrae III, Rosario Peyrou, Gregory Rabassa, Alastair Reid, Rosario Santos, André Sciffrin, Saúl Sosnowski, Jane Spender, and Eliot Weinberger, for teir time and teir tougtful responses to my questions. In addition to Mr. Styron, several oter individuals wo provided me wit invaluable information died be- fore I was able to finis tis book. hey include Jon Alexander Coleman, Arnold Del Greco, Herminia (Pipina) Prieto, and William D. Rogers. I am sorry beyond words tat I am unable to tank tem in person for teir elp wit my project.  I am extremely grateful to Nick Cullater, Susan Gillman, Matt Guterl, Liam Kennedy, Caroline Levander, Robert Levine, Jon Macrae III, Giles Scott-Smit, and Steve Stowe for taking te time to offer important feed- back on drafts of my capters. Suzanne Jill Levine and Alfred Mac Adam, wo were bot involved in many of te activities tat I discuss ere, ave given unstintingly of teir time over te past few years. hey ave answered countless questions, suggested many leads to follow, pointed me in new di- rections and to new resources, and read multiple drafts of my capters. Jon King as likewise generously sared is insigts and is experiences troug many e-mails and comments on my capters, and I am indebted to im

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