The Aesthetic Cold War: Decolonization and Global Literature

FAIN: FEL-267212-20

Peter Joseph Kalliney
University of Kentucky Research Foundation (Lexington, KY 40506-0004)

Completion of a book on the literary production in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean under the influence of Cold War politics.

During the Cold War, both the US and the Soviet Union jockeyed for geopolitical influence in what was then called the Third World. The superpowers also competed for intellectual influence by sponsoring literary activities in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. The Congress for Cultural Freedom (organized clandestinely by the CIA), the US State Department, and the Soviet Writers' Union funded outreach programs in the decolonizing world, hosting international conferences, establishing publishing houses and magazines, and sponsoring cultural exchange programs. Surprisingly, writers from decolonizing areas did not line up neatly into Cold War camps. As archival research demonstrates, writers were willing to accept patronage from both US and Soviet agencies. This includes some of the leading intellectuals the day, such as Chinua Achebe, Alex La Guma, Wole Soyinka, and Ngugi wa Thiong'o. 

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The Aesthetic Cold War: Decolonization and Global Literature (Book)
Title: The Aesthetic Cold War: Decolonization and Global Literature
Author: Peter J Kalliney
Abstract: How did superpower competition and the cold war affect writers in the decolonizing world? In *The Aesthetic Cold War*, Peter Kalliney explores the various ways that rival states used cultural diplomacy and the political police to influence writers. In response, many writers from Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean—such as Chinua Achebe, Mulk Raj Anand, Eileen Chang, C.L.R. James, Alex La Guma, Doris Lessing, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, and Wole Soyinka—carved out a vibrant conceptual space of aesthetic nonalignment, imagining a different and freer future for their work. Kalliney looks at how the United States and the Soviet Union, in an effort to court writers, funded international conferences, arts centers, book and magazine publishing, literary prizes, and radio programming. International spy networks, however, subjected these same writers to surveillance and intimidation by tracking their movements, tapping their phones, reading their mail, and censoring or banning their work. Writers from the global south also suffered travel restrictions, deportations, imprisonment, and even death at the hands of government agents. Although conventional wisdom suggests that cold war pressures stunted the development of postcolonial literature, Kalliney’s extensive archival research shows that evenly balanced superpower competition allowed savvy writers to accept patronage without pledging loyalty to specific political blocs. Likewise, writers exploited rivalries and the emerging discourse of human rights to contest the attentions of the political police. A revisionist account of superpower involvement in literature, *The Aesthetic Cold War* considers how politics shaped literary production in the twentieth century.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691230634/the-aesthetic-cold-war
Primary URL Description: Princeton University Press page
Secondary URL: https://www.worldcat.org/title/aesthetic-cold-war-decolonization-and-global-literature/oclc/1292975474&referer=brief_results
Secondary URL Description: world cat listing
Access Model: printed book for purchase
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780691230634
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

The Aesthetic Cold War: Decolonization and Global Literature (Book)
Title: The Aesthetic Cold War: Decolonization and Global Literature
Author: Peter Joseph Kalliney
Year: 2022
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Type: Single author monograph

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