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Chapter 8 - Cold War

from Part II - 1945–1989: New Nations and New Frontiers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2022

Christos Hadjiyiannis
Affiliation:
University of Cyprus
Rachel Potter
Affiliation:
University of East Anglia
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Summary

This chapter explores the politicisation of literature during the period of the Cold War. It argues that literature became a key coin in the cultural cold war, invested with the power to represent working-class subjectivity and class struggle by the Soviets, and construed as embodying and igniting individual liberty by the US. Literary writers and literature, during the cultural cold war, were both censored and funded as never before. While the Soviets took control of book production by both censoring and funding writers, the US pumped enormous sums of money into funding global literature deemed representative of individual freedoms. The literary dissident, stifled by the East and lionised by the West, was a key figure in cultural cold war politics. The chapter focuses on two very different kinds of writers, Stephen Spender and Doris Lessing, who were shaped by the conditions of the cultural cold war. Both writers viewed their literary writing in the light of the politics of the Cold War, and used their writing to explore the political issues of censorship, freedom, and dissidence.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • Cold War
  • Edited by Christos Hadjiyiannis, University of Cyprus, Rachel Potter, University of East Anglia
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-Century Literature and Politics
  • Online publication: 01 December 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108886284.010
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  • Cold War
  • Edited by Christos Hadjiyiannis, University of Cyprus, Rachel Potter, University of East Anglia
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-Century Literature and Politics
  • Online publication: 01 December 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108886284.010
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Cold War
  • Edited by Christos Hadjiyiannis, University of Cyprus, Rachel Potter, University of East Anglia
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-Century Literature and Politics
  • Online publication: 01 December 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108886284.010
Available formats
×