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In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the cultural diplomacy of the two blocs began to focus on countries emerging from the process of decolonisation. The aim was to establish economic relations and influence their future development. Sport remained a privileged field for this cultural diplomacy, especially for the Hungarian People's Republic. Nevertheless, Hungarian cultural diplomacy had clear obstacles, product of the limitations Hungary had at the time: little coordination with the other countries of the Eastern Bloc and and extremely limited spending capacity.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role played by Portuguese authorities alongside Joachim Le Breton in the establishment of the 1816 French artistic mission to Brazil, as an international movement that could be understood as a notable predecessor to what we know today as cultural diplomacy. Cultural diplomacy is a term that often refers to the instrumentalization and projection of culture into the international arena. In this sense, culture was leveraged as an international asset for the construction of the Brigantine monarchy in Brazil. In this article we propose a wider approach in which “European culture” is instrumentalized by a state to elevate a colony to an Empire, capable of accommodating its European ruling class and sovereign.

The 1951 Festival of Britain was intended as a showpiece to display the country’s achievements to the world, extolling its way of life. The official Festival guide, as well as containing explanations about the various exhibition sites and exhibits, comprises sixty-four full-page colour adverts for (mainly) British companies and British-made products. No industry or manufacturer was permitted to book exhibition space within the South Bank Exhibition. Exhibits were “selected for the excellence of their design and their appropriateness to the story which is told”. This is likely to have also been the case for the adverts placed in the guide, a further way of putting Britain on display. The overall narrative related by the Festival is found echoed in these pages. In these pieces of artwork, both visual and textual references abound to British “heritage”, to a glorious future, to the literary canon, with artistic tropes projecting both tradition and futuristic visions and, as seen at the time, the place of Britain in the world.

In the wake of the recent publications on the centrality of culture in the Fascist totalitarian project, this issue examines Mussolini’s relationship to the arts and vice versa more specifically, probing the aesthetic and political aspects of representations (in literature, the performing and figurative arts, and radio) of the “duce” – both in Italy and in their circulation abroad.

In the Munich of the interwar period, many personalities from the political, industrial, intellectual and social spheres were looking towards Fascist Italy and its “Duce”. In the early 1920s, with the founding of the NSDAP in Munich and the spread of Nazi ideas, the Bavarian elite developed a strong political interest in the Fascist experience taking place on the other side of the border, since its leader, Benito Mussolini, had risen to power. Hitler’s ascension to power in 1933 and the birth of a German “Führer”, however, marked a turning point in the interest that the Bavarian elites had – and were allowed to have – in the “Duce” and his fascism. At a time when two Providential men were rising in Europe, how did the cults of these two leaders co-exist? Was it even possible for a German citizen to promote Italian fascism in Germany or to praise another “Duce”? Munich thus presents itself as a privileged observatory of the complex relationship that tied those Bavarian elites interested in Italy to the two leaders of nationalism in Europe. Through two case studies, that of the “salon” hostess Elsa Bruckmann and that of the director of the NSDAP press office in Munich, Adolf Dresler, both great admirers of Hitler and Mussolini, we would like to examine two different relationships and two different ways of making these cults of personality coexist, in a double totalitarian context.

Copyright of Cahiers d'Études Africaines is the property of Editions EHESS and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of RumeliDE Journal of Language & Literature Research / RumeliDE Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi is the property of RumeliDE Uluslararasi Hakemli Dil & Edebiyat Arastirmalari Dergisi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Throughout the twentieth century the International Art Exhibition Venice Biennale was seen as a major event by the art world of Belgrade and, more broadly, of Serbia and Yugoslavia. After the Second World War this biggest and most important international show of contemporary art provided Belgrade’s artists and art critics with an opportunity to acquaint themselves with the latest developments on the international art scene. At the same time, it was used as a platform for the leading figures of Belgrade’s artistic and cultural-policy establishment to create, through the exhibitions mounted in the national pavilion, an image of the country’s artistic contemporaneity aimed at achieving its desired standing in the West. The attitude of Belgrade’s art scene to the Venice Biennale went through a particularly interesting phase in the 1950s. Its transformations offer an opportunity to observe, analyse and expand the knowledge about the changes that marked that turbulent decade in the history of Serbian art, which went a long way from dogmatically exclusive socialist realism to the institutionalization of a high-modernist language as the dominant model. Based on the reconstruction of Yugoslavia’s sustained participation in the Venice Biennale (1950-60), this paper analyses the models of the representation of Serbian art in the international context of the Biennale within a broader context of the intensification of Serbian-Italian artistic contacts during the period under study.

The adoption of the World Heritage Convention (WHC) in 1972 was the response to a world asking for peace after the destruction caused by the two world conflicts, particularly to cultural heritage (CH). UNESCO World Heritage Sites (WHS) act as enablers in establishing strong and effective relationships among countries, people, culture and history, while influencing and attracting these elements to promote a positive national image and fostering mutual understanding, which is the main objective of cultural diplomacy (CD). This holds true also for China and this institutes the need to investigate on how UNESCO World Heritage acts as a strategic asset in Chinese CD. This paper will provide an empirical framework addressing the position of WHS embedded in the Chinese CD. Discussion on the growing Chinese involvement of WHS in cultural projects fostering international relations and considerations on the potential impact and future development of this phenomenon with regards to China and the WHC are offered.

The international projection of Catalan culture is one of the institutional missions of Catalonia since the recovery of democracy. The intensification of activities to promote culture as a distinctive feature of Catalan identity began at the end of the 80s. However, at the beginning of the 21st century, some specific events, such as the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2007 or the nomination of Barcelona as a UNESCO City of Literature in 2015, reaffirm and strengthen the work carried out by institutions that work strictly on an international level, such as the Ramon Llull Institute, or to a different extent the Generalitat de Catalunya or the Institut de Cultura de Barcelona. In the present article, we review the main events related to the international projection of Catalan literature during the 21st century, in order to understand how these political and administrative actions have become a key factor in making Catalan culture visible as an identity in the global arena.

The article discusses translation policy in Slovenia as part of the country’s cultural diplomacy. Translations of Slovenian literature, especially into German and English, are among the goals of the country’s cultural policy, in part because of Slovenia’s upcoming role as Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2023. The article analyses the role of the financial support for and promotion of translations from Slovenian into foreign languages by the Slovenian Book Agency and the Trubar Foundation. The study of subsidies for translations into German, English, French, Italian, Croatian, and Hungarian shows that while the number of subsidies for translations into German and English is high, as expected, Croatian takes the leading role among the target languages studied. This underscores the importance of the still-vibrant social and political ties stemming from the historical context of Yugoslavia. In addition to the crucial role of subsidies in exporting literature from a peripheral language such as Slovenian, the translation process and the promotion of literature depend to a considerable extent on other market actors-as the interviews with three literary experts showed.

This contribution aims to question the place of the Louvre as an actor in the globalized circulation of objects, based on the movement of artifacts loaned to museum institutions abroad between 1924 and 2017. For a cultural institution such as the Louvre, the geo-history of the loan of artworks is linked to the history of its increasing internationalization. The mapping of the cities and countries hosting the Louvre's collections for exhibitions reveals a geographical extension of the Louvre's relations within the world over the course of the twentieth century, although this geography remains selective and polarized. This article thus proposes a critical approach to the "global influence" of the Louvre, while revisiting the challenges of the museum's internationalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We discuss in this paper the concept of Portuguese as a Foreign Language (PFL) teacher as a cultural diplomat and discuss the theoretical and methodological aspects of teaching practice of the foreign language teacher. It is pointed out the concepts of approach, methods and techniques as well. Furthermore, we describe a task to work Brazilian culture in PFL class. This task is in accordance with the theories discussed here. Thus, the objective of this text is twofold: first, to defend the idea of the foreign language teacher as a cultural diplomat; second, present the task example to illustrate the assumptions we follow. After the introduction, we discussed the conception of PFL teacher as a cultural diplomat, in (1); we present the theories of teacher-researcher, action research and active methodologies, as well as the notions of approach, method and techniques, in (2); we describe a task is used in our course syllabus, called ‘Brazilian themes’, and some suggestions for developing it, in (3). In our final remarks, in addition to returning to central ideas, we point out the importance of support, from private and public initiatives, to PFL teacher.

The Second Republic attracted the attention of the United States, which, regardless of religious beliefs, longed to confirm the success of a new democracy in a country characterized by the influence of a strong Catholic tradition. The personal correspondence and the reports prepared by William Montavon for the National Catholic Welfare Conference, as well as those submitted by Irwin Laughlin and Claude Bowers (American ambassadors in Madrid) to the Department of State, make it possible to analyse the different images and thoughts generated by the evolution of the Catholic factor in the unstable Republican context. They also prove the emergent influence of the transnational networks created by the Vatican in Spain.

The year of Brazil in France (2005) and that of France in Brazil (2009) were a media success and strengthened the strategic partnership between the two countries. The research aimed to investigate, if a decade later, cultural diplomacy proved successful in furthering economic and comercial ties between Brazil and France. The article introduces both cultural events and their integration into a larger strategic project. As methodology, the author analyzes data and economic indicators between 2003 and 2018 to verify the development of trade and the flow of tourists and students between Brazil and France. The research found out that, although Brazil did not reach the economic and commercial objectives it hoped to achieve, a well conducted cultural diplomacy can be a factor of economic growth.

France used to have one of the most powerful cultural diplomacy: it needs nowadays to modernize its strategy to hold on to its international position. France has a long history of foreign cultural policy and is one of the few countries that have placed great emphasis on fostering its culture abroad. However, the French position is currently being challenged by emerging international rivalries. Establishing a cultural strategy in the 21st century requires not only a consistent approach between the projection of an elite culture and of a pop culture, but also a joint action between public and private players. Japan could be a model, even a paradigm for France and its cultural action abroad, as well as an ally through a cultural alliance.

Although the place of music in the French political imagination has recently been the subject of fruitful research, it remains a blind spot in the study of French cultural exchange. This can be explained by the non-verbal nature of musical events, or the relative technicality of their study. This article shows how the Association d'expansion et d'échanges artistiques contributed to the promotion of French musicians in Cairo between the late 1920s and the late 1930s.

This paper presents the policy of commemoration with regard to young people and in particular schoolchildren during the Centenary of the Great War ; it shows how educational actions have led to international cooperation in response to the French conception of an "international" and "global" Centenary. Written by one of the actors in charge of the design and implementation of this policy, the paper discusses the multiple objectives assigned to this policy involving many stakeholders in France and elsewhere in Europe and around the world. It describes different modalities of international cooperation, illustrating both the educative and diplomatic stakes of the commemoration. Finally, it stresses the difficulties encountered in implementing international educational initiatives, underlining the fragility of the notion of "shared memory", given the domination of national or even nationalist approaches in war commemorations involving young people. Based on the author’s experience and observations as a pedagogical advisor in the board of the "Mission du Centenaire", the French State Office for the Centenary, the paper presents a vision of this policy from the inside.

The aim of this paper is to explore, detect, describe and explain the path of Serbian press in France during the 20th century. The main hypothesis is that the press in the Serbian language was the paving stone from the cultural diplomacy to the information on the Serbian diaspora. The paper would explain how Serbian journals in French language and Serbian journals in Serbian language which were lanched in France became the paths of presentation of the Serbian people through mechanisms that would be recognized as elements of cultural diplomacy. Key issue is the role which Serbian journals played in the general circulation of men and ideas, the cultural transfers that they facilitated, as well as the hybrid identities they fostered. On the basis of contents of the journals and the reading public, as well as the intellectuals engaged in creation of the journals it would be shed light on the Serbian press in France during the 20th century.

The Eastern Question in its Balkan dimension, involved in various manners the Great Powers throughout the 19th century. Competing each other in order to promote their own political and economic interests, cultural influence represented a parallel expression and stake of these antagonisms. As far as the French policy was concerned, Third Republic’s governments, sustained the establishment of schools run by secular institutions or religious congregations and the organisation of French scientific and humanitarian missions. Through the exploration of Quai d’Orsay’s diplomatic archives and consular correspondence, this paper aims at studying which were the initiatives and institutions at the aftermath of the Great War, that made part of this network, serving as an ambassador of cultural diplomacy.

The article discusses the publication history of André Gide’s book Return from the USSR written after his trip to the Soviet Union. It explains how the Kremlin gathered information about the book and how official Soviet reaction to this publication was developed. Since Gide’s decision to join in the camp of the “friends of the USSR,” information about it had been deliberately mispresented, that is why at the end of 1936 communist ideologues had to reap the fruits of their shortsightedness. Immediately after the Congress in the Defense of Culture, which took place in 1935 in Paris, Gide converged with the anti-Stalinist opposition in France and Belgium and welcomed a campaign in support of Victor Serge, politician and writer who had passed in the case of the so called Zinoviev group and had been exiled to Orenburg. Soviet authorities knew about Gide’s conversion but accepted Mikhail Koltsov’s position who vouched Gide’s absolute loyalty. When Gide began preparing his manuscript for publication, the Kremlin was immediately informed about it. Among the informers were I. Ehrenburg, F. Masereel, and E. Ratmanova. Attempts to dissuade Gide from publication failed. The book was translated into Russian for the leaders of the Communist party and Gide was condemned in the Soviet press. The history of the book’s publication and attention that the Kremlin paid to this question, however, demonstrates that the State control of the literary and cultural field was circumscribed within the Soviet borders. The Soviets failed to implement their program in the West. The case of Gide’s Return from the USSR shows the obvious failure of Soviet cultural diplomacy and its strategies. Keywords: André Gide, USSR, cultural diplomacy, opposition, Return from the USSR

The centenary of the Great Union of Romanians was the keystone of the 2018 cultural diplomacy programme of the Romanian Cultural Institute (RCI). The one hundred years that passed since the unification of Romania were an opportunity to draw attention to the values of national culture. Furthermore, 2018 was the European Year of Cultural Heritage, an opportunity to recall how great the need for an inclusive Europe is, a Europe for which heritage is the guarantor of the common identity. The RCI's cultural diplomacy strategy for 2018 was, from this point of view, a success. And the inauguration of the statue of Queen Marie at Ashburn, in Great Britain, was undoubtedly the most important moment of the entire series of events dedicated to the Centenary of Modern Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1919 and 1921, Romanian government donated to the Musée de l'Armée [French National Army Museum], in Paris, a group of paintings, drawings and stamps commissionned to the artist-soldier Ion Stoica Dumitrescu (1886-1956) by the Romanian Army's Great Headquarter. These works of art were immediatly exhibited in the frame of the new « Great War galleries » created during the conflict by general Gustave Niox (1840-1921), then director of the Musée de l'Armée, and developped by his successor, general Gabriel Malleterre (1858-1923). Stoica Dumitrescu's production and its donation to France can be analyzed as the byproduct -- rooted in the raise of propaganda and cultural diplomacy -- of a symbolic struggle towards the shaping and dissemination of Romanian self-representations in words and images. It aimed to remind French opinion of the tribute paid by Romania's State, Army and Nation and its geopolitical new rank in post-WWI Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is focused on the network of transnational intellectual relations and the political-cultural activity of Luchaire in Florence from the foundation of the French Institute (1907) to his departure for Paris in the post-war period. Through the analysis of periodicals, correspondence (published and unpublished), memoirs are explored the historical roots and the political use of "Latinity" in the different contexts and stages of the First World War and are raised questions on the politicization of intellectual work between opinion-forming process, propaganda and “new diplomacy”.

From 2005 to 2012, a flagrant difference existed between the successful audience ratings of nationally produced telenovelas and the silence of the Romainian media (daily newspapers, cultural magazines or televised reports) to comment on this success. When broadcasts of the Turkish series Suleyman magnificul [the Turkish title, Muhtessem Yüzyil (The Magnificent Century)] began in 2012, the national media came out of its silence. Absent any concertation, they all immediately directed a sort of cultural diplomacy against the telenovela narratives as well as against TV viewer enthusiasm for the show. Journalists and critics, although admitting the absence of major homemade narratives and heritage fictions, revealed a latent intrinsic nationalism coming from the elites towards popular culture in Romania and the ambiguous inclusion of Romania into the zone of western Europe or the Balkans.

In 1916, the philosopher Dominique Parodi accomplished a mission in the Milanese satellite office of the Institut français de Florence : his involvment in propaganda for a close alliance between France and Italy against germanism is partially linked to the memory of his father, a franco-italian writer. In his lectures, notes for the Nouvelles internationales and articles on French political life for the Revue des nations latines, Parodi contributed to the promotion of latin fraternity, underlining its cultural and moral foundations and giving to latinity an idealistic and democratic definition.

Cet article explore les notions de diplomatie culturelle et de diplomatie informationnelle à travers l'exemple de Britain To-day, une revue publiée par le British Council entre 1939 et 1954. À la fin des années 1940, Britain To-day fut l'objet d'un conflit entre le Council et le Central Office of Information (le successeur du ministère de l'Information créé pendant la guerre), chacun voyant dans la revue un moyen important pour suivre sa mission respective. Cette histoire illustre à la fois la contiguïté des deux organisations et leurs divergences. Elle met également en lumière le rôle spécifique joué par les périodiques dans le domaine des relations internationales, même à l'ère des médias de masse.

Over the past two decades, Arab film festivals have proliferated all around the world, inside and outside the borders of the Arab world. Their purpose and actions are complex. On the one hand, they endeavor to introduce Arab films and, with them, the societies which they portray and within which they are made. On the other hand, they have an effect on the image of the Arab culture constructed by the receiving societies, and, in turn on the film creations themselves. To shed light on the subject, we studied a sample selected according to longevity and geographical situations: the festivals we selected have been in existence for at least five years or have been created since 2009 on all continents. We focused our study on the mission and format of these festivals’ first year editions, thereby connecting these cinematographic events to the political, social and cultural contexts in which they take place.

The role played by the USSR in the popular democracies in Central and Eastern Europe is both overestimated and underestimated in current works. It is overestimated in numerous studies, which consider the imposing force of the "Soviet model" to have been acquired when these countries fell under the Soviet sphere of influence at the end of World War II. The mere definition of a model is however anything but clear: its transplantation had many loopholes and showed significant discrepancies depending on the periods and areas taken into consideration. It is underestimated since the entire array of exchanges made with the USSR during the socialist period have rarely been fully considered. While much attention was paid to the relationship between the East and the West during the Cold War, this special issue aims to address an underresearched topic, the cultural relations between the popular democracies and the USSR. By focusing on different countries and on different forms of exchanges in literature, visual arts, architecture or cinematography, the various contributions to this special issue are hopefully expanding the study of East-East relations, while offering a necessary comparative understanding of how each country shaped its own communist experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Synergies Pays Germanophones is the property of GERFLINT (Groupe d'Etudes et de Recherches pour le Francais Langue Internationale) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objectives: The main objective of the paper is to highlight the role of cultural diplomacy for strengthening the international cooperation within the Danube macro-region. Prior Work: Some leading points of view in the field of cultural diplomacy serve as a theoretical background of the paper. In order to prove the theses of the research, existing empirical results are discussed and analyzed. Approach: The research uses interdisciplinary approach to conceptualization of cultural diplomacy and applies the methods of observation and systematic analysis and synthesis. Results: The presented empirical data indicate that some measures and actions are needed in the Danube macro-region in order to enhance the culture-based awareness of its citizens and intensify the intercultural cooperation. The establishment of a University Centre for Cultural Diplomacy in the Danube Region (UCDR) is presented as a possible tool for the achievement of this goal. Implications: The results of the study can be interesting for public authorities and academics. Value: the promotion of the idea for UCDR is the first of its kind.

From the 1930s (the Thirties) Brazil has been building the tools of a cultural diplomacy, trying to show the world a positive image of the country. This process takes roots in intellectual cooperation practices which develop in Latin America at the end of the 19th century, and thanks to protagonists and networks that emerge in the days following the First World War, in an international surrounding, through the National Institute of Intellectual Cooperation, depending on the SdN, and Pan-American. Therefore, it’s on a score which is played as much in Europe as in America, in a development process which mixes the national, transnational and international scales that some Brazilian actors construct their country’s international identity.

The paper addresses the issue of the country’s image from a perspective, aiming to identify and analyze the ways in which cultural diplomacy can support the branding process. The article discusses the role of cultural diplomacy in promoting Italy’s positive image abroad. The article explores Italian application of soft power through culture and language promotion, and cultural tourism. The analysis was conducted by assessing official documents. The author stresses that the instruments of cultural diplomacy are not fully supported in promoting the image of Italy in the world’s communication channels, and it reduces the efficiency of image policy. Such problems as the absence of unified strategy, combining the various initiatives of ministries and departments at central and regional levels, and funding restrictions obstruct to effective application of soft power instruments

This paper is an extract of the sixth chapter of my doctoral thesis entitled ‘From Intellectual Cooperation to Cultural Diplomacy: the Argentinian, Brazilian and Chilean Experiences (1919-1946)’ where I examine how Argentina, Brazil and Chile developed their cultural diplomacy by using networks and practices stemming from international cooperation during the interwar period. This paper adopts a multi-scalar approach: I will first explore the international role played by the predecessor of the UNESCO, the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation created by the League of Nations in 1926. Secondly, I will assess the regional role played by the Pan-American Union which dealt with cultural exchanges between different states throughout the continent. The Latin-American countries perceived the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation and the Pan-American Union as two potential alternatives to counterbalance the power of Europe on the one hand and the United States on the other hand. The participation of Argentina, Brazil and Chile in both international and regional institutions also constitutes a manner in which these countries constructed their image on the international scene in order not to appear as simple peripheries. This paper will especially focus on Brazil’s project of an Inter-American Institute of Intellectual Cooperation and will shed light on the way the country tried to position itself on the continent. The Brazilian initiative is also a perfect case-study to understand the debates surrounding intellectual cooperation.

In 1938 the Museum of Modern Art organized a US government-funded, multi-disciplinary exhibition in Paris, entitled “Three Centuries of American Art.” In this paper I explore the geopolitical, aesthetic and cultural dimensions of the exhibition as an episode of cultural diplomacy in Franco-American relations and as an attempt to promote, for the first time, an American ‘national artistic scene’ to the world. Special focus is placed on the selection of artworks and on curatorial practice. A comparison is offered with the sole precedent: an exhibition of American Art staged immediately after the end of WW I. A complex intertextual and intermedial web emerges from this comparison that reveals various tensions around an emerging “narrative” for the self-representation of the United States as a world-power and an artistically “emancipated” nation and provides a glimpse into a New Deal-era attempt at cultural diplomacy on the eve of WW II. These poles ultimately converge to indicate the role that “region” and “place” assumed in the American imaginary of the nineteenth century as it reverberated in interesting political and aesthetic ways in the first decades of the twentieth.

The article tries to understand how current reforms of the French cultural network might transform the profession of cultural agent. The question is whether the restructuring of cultural institutes’ cultural activities reflects a privatization of the State’s external cultural action, and if other actors might then assume responsibility for cultural cooperation. It responds with a case study of the French cultural centre in Stockholm, which gave up a part of its activities to adopt other cooperation actions.

This article examines how French and British diplomats have perceived, in the years 1920-1940, cultural exchanges within the North American Catholic world. While the Dominions Office considers that the French Canadians are “cut off from the world”, the French cultural diplomacy is concerned to support cultural transfers within Catholicism through some institutions and some academic figures. Cultural exchanges, even if they sometimes seem strictly from ecclesiastical or academic origin, are often supported by the diplomatic apparatus, forging an element of their cultural soft power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]