The Aesthetic Cold War

Decolonization and Global Literature

Peter J. Kalliney

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English

Princeton University Press
19 March 2025

How decolonization and the cold war influenced literature from Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean

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, Ngg 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.

By: Peter J. Kalliney
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9780691230658
ISBN 10: 069123065X
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 19 March 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , General/trade , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Peter J. Kalliney is the William J. and Nina B. Tuggle Chair in English at the University of Kentucky. His books include Cities of Affluence and Anger, Commonwealth of Letters, and Modernism in a Global Context.

Reviews for The Aesthetic Cold War: Decolonization and Global Literature

"""Winner of the MSA Book Prize, Modernist Studies Association"" ""A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year"" ""Kalliney’s book is an intriguing read for those interested in understanding the Cold War and situating the relationship between the state and anticolonial writers.""---Christina Obolenskaya, LSE Review of Books ""A wonderful addition to the reevaluation of mid-century literary products.""---A. S. Newson-Horst, Choice ""A groundbreaking work. . . . [The Aesthetic Cold War] points to a prehistory of postcolonial literature that is almost never discussed in the field.""---Nivedita Majumdar, Catalyst ""[S]uperb. . . . [The Aesthetic Cold War] offers a compelling portrait of writers struggling to make art— including activist art.""---Michaela Bronstein, American Literary History"