Culture, Politics, and the Cold War: the Sociedad de Escritores de Chile in the 1950s

• In Event: The Inter-American Cultural Cold War

Abstract

This paper explores a series of conflicts among writers of different ideological tendencies at the Sociedad de Escritores de Chile (SECh) in the 1950s. Originally established in 1932 as an organization to defend the professional interests of Chilean writers, by the 1950s it provided yet another venue for ideological and political disputes among them. More specifically, the paper explores the tensions and disputes between two broad groups of writers within the context of the impact of the Cold War and a growing process of political and ideological polarization in Chile. One group was represented by writers associated with the local branch of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, an international organization linked to the American cultural Cold War and that sought to gather intellectuals committed to the defense of freedom and opposed to every form of totalitarian ideology, especially communism. The other group was represented by Pablo Neruda and other intellectuals sympathetic to the Soviet Union and leftist parties, who were gaining more influence throughout the 1950s. Both groups sought to control the SECh for their own purposes and agendas, and their conflicts echoed broader political and cultural struggles that characterized Chilean history in this decade. Based on extensive research on SECh’s archives and other primary and secondary sources, the paper provides new perspectives on the dynamic relationship between the national and transnational dimensions of the Cold War.

Author

• Jorge A Nallim, University of Manitoba