Értjük egymást. Kelet-Európa és a globális Dél írói az Iowai Nemzetközi Íróprogramban
We Understand Each Other: Writers from Eastern Europe and the Global South at the International Writing Program

Summary/Abstract: The International Writing Program was created in 1967 by Paul Engle to host writers from around the globe in a literary residency in Iowa City. According to the rhetoric of its founder, the Program was meant to become the home of an international community, yet institutionally and financially, it was embedded within the framework of Cold War U.S. cultural diplomacy. The examination of the IWP, and a focus on participants from Eastern Europe and the Global South, shows how a particular implementation of “world community” was experienced and interpreted by its members. By analyzing their travelogues or diaries, the article explores the negotiated reception of the residency program. It shows that the meeting of individuals and the encounter of “worlds” in such rhetorically charged cultural sites was different from what the designers of the IWP envisioned. The writers subverted the superficial globalizing narrative of their American hosts and reflected on the inherent hierarchies within U.S. cultural diplomacy projects. Moreover, through discovery and communication, they produced a lived and personal solidarity: a deep and thorough knowledge between East and South.

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