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Article published In:
Translation and the Formation of Collectivities: Special issue of Translation in Society 2:1 (2023)
Edited by Dilek Dizdar and Tomasz Rozmysłowicz
[Translation in Society 2:1] 2023
► pp. 15–32

Literary translation: Between intellectual cooperation and cultural diplomacy

The Ibero-American collection (1930-1940)

ORCID logo | Open University of Catalonia | KU Leuven

Intellectual cooperation and cultural diplomacy are generally addressed by historians of international relations and by scholars working in global history. In this contribution, I approach them from a cultural but socially oriented perspective. I examine the history of the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation (IIIC) with a focus on the translation activities it promoted and the functions the latter fulfilled in society. To this end, I first present the main activities that configured the IIIC’s translation policy. Then I delve into the political dimensions of intellectual cooperation, many of which shaped the translation projects developed by this institution in turn. Finally, I focus on a specific translation project, namely, the Ibero-American Collection. Its editorial history is reconstructed to show the ways this collection fulfilled functions that surpassed its foundational purpose, including unplanned functions related to Latin American regional cooperation and to the promotion of a Latin American regional identity.

Keywords: translation history, cultural diplomacy, intellectual cooperation, Latin American literatures, International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation, translation policy, global literary space
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Reconstructing the IIIC’s interventions in the field of translation
  • 3.Nationalism and internationalism, or the self-interested uses of cooperation
  • 4.The Ibero-American Collection: Beyond literary analysis
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 10 March 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tris.22004.car
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