Small States, Global Visions: Hungary, UNESCO, and the Cultural Politics of Literary Studies

• In Event: Transnational and Trans-Ideological Connections: Cultural Relations between the Communist Regimes in Eastern Europe and the Capitalist West I

Abstract

This paper examines the role of culture and literature in postwar international diplomacy, with a focus on the Euro-Atlantic region. While scholarship on the cultural Cold War has traditionally emphasized the U.S.–Soviet rivalry, recent studies have highlighted the importance of multilateral engagements and transnational exchanges. Building on these perspectives, this paper explores how cultural diplomacy unfolded through institutional networks, particularly UNESCO, which emerged as a key forum for shaping international intellectual cooperation. A pivotal moment in this process was UNESCO’s 1951 integration of the International Federation for Modern Languages and Literatures (FILLM), the organization under whose aegis the International Comparative Literature Association (AILC) was founded. The paper traces the interplay between UNESCO’s cultural diplomatic initiatives and the institutionalization of comparative literature, arguing that these developments were shaped by both geopolitical considerations and the disciplinary ambitions of literary scholars. Hungary played a significant role in this dynamic, both in the formation of comparative literature as an institutionalized field and within FILLM itself, presided over in the early 1980s by literary historian and cultural politician Miklós Szabolcsi, known for his research on avant-gardism. Drawing on archival materials, this paper examines how personal ambitions, scholarly debates, and the global expansion of cultural relations intersected, revealing the entanglement of intellectual networks and cultural diplomacy in the postwar era. By foregrounding these interactions, the study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of cultural diplomacy beyond narrow Cold War frameworks and highlights the role of smaller states and disciplinary formations in shaping transnational intellectual/cultural landscapes.

Author

• Tamás Scheibner, Eötvös Loránd U (Hungary)