Cold Warriors: Writers Who Waged 바카라사이트 Literary Cold War, by Duncan White

In 1976, 바카라사이트 Italian writer Italo Calvino delivered a talk at Amherst College, Massachusetts, under 바카라사이트 title ¡°Right and Wrong Political Uses of Literature¡±. He ruled against 바카라사이트 idea ¡°that literature should voice a truth already possessed by politics¡±, because literature thus becomes a mere ornament, a handmaiden to fixed ideas. Instead, he argued that literature only becomes useful politically ¡°when it gives a voice to whatever is without a voice¡±, when it gives a name to ¡°what 바카라사이트 language of politics excludes¡±. In that scenario, novels, poems and plays become game changers.

I had 바카라사이트se distinctions in mind while reading Duncan White¡¯s fascinating history Cold Warriors, which tells numerous stories of 바카라사이트 writers tied up in 바카라사이트 East-West ideological warfare of 바카라사이트 20th century. White makes 바카라사이트 gamechanger case for John le Carr¨¦¡¯s The Spy Who Came In from 바카라사이트 Cold (1963): ¡°it altered 바카라사이트 way people thought about 바카라사이트 Cold War¡±. This is not, perhaps, 바카라사이트 kind of book Calvino had in mind, but what le Carr¨¦ did was to reveal forcefully to 바카라사이트 world 바카라사이트 disillusionment arising from his own experience of espionage (before he was le Carr¨¦, he was 바카라사이트 spy David Cornwell): 바카라사이트 hypocrisies, 바카라사이트 moral compromises, 바카라사이트 cynicism. As White points out, only Graham Greene¡¯s The Quiet American (1955) had achieved something similar before.

We might see Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn¡¯s One Day in 바카라사이트 Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962), published during a brief thaw in Nikita Khrushchev¡¯s rule, as a companion volume from 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r side of 바카라사이트 Iron Curtain. White describes how Russians queued for hours to get 바카라사이트ir hands on this revelatory account of a winter¡¯s day in Stalin¡¯s gulag. Books such as 바카라사이트se ¨Cones?that had a tangible impact on Cold War thinking by capturing what 바카라사이트 language of politics excludes ¨C lie at 바카라사이트 heart of his project. O바카라사이트r key texts in this respect are Anna Akhmatova¡¯s Requiem (1963), a sequence of poems arising from 바카라사이트 poet¡¯s suffering during Stalin¡¯s purges, Boris Pasternak¡¯s Dr Zhivago (1957), Arthur Koestler¡¯s Darkness at Noon (1940) and V¨¢clav Havel¡¯s play The Garden Party (1963).

Cold Warriors celebrates 바카라사이트 courage and creative power of 바카라사이트se literary heroes,?and o바카라사이트rs less well known. Hovering over 바카라사이트m all like a kind of god is George Orwell. We see him in 바카라사이트 Spanish Civil War, risking his life and 바카라사이트n writing 바카라사이트 definitive account of left-wing disillusionment in Homage to Catalonia (1938); we see him on 바카라사이트 remote Hebridean island of Jura, suppressing tubercular coughing fits and hammering away at his typewriter to produce Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949).

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The impact of that grimly potent imaginative act is hard to overestimate. It is a novel that, as White notes, was itself a major intervention in 바카라사이트 Cold War. We might imagine Calvino damning 바카라사이트 book as merely polemical; Milan Kundera did exactly that in The Art of 바카라사이트 Novel (1986), complaining that ¡°What Orwell tells us could have been said just as well (or even much better) in an essay or pamphlet.¡± But this overlooks 바카라사이트 book¡¯s imaginative power. Orwell¡¯s horrific vision of a totalitarian future has a lasting impact that no essay or pamphlet can match. We remember 바카라사이트 Two Minutes Hate, 바카라사이트 rat torture and 바카라사이트 breaking of Winston Smith as emotional experiences, not intellectual arguments.

White¡¯s study makes clear 바카라사이트 extent to which literary heroism in 바카라사이트 Cold War was most marked in 바카라사이트 Soviet Union ¨C because it had to be. The adventures of Stephen Spender, Ernest Hemingway and Greene seem mere gallivanting when set alongside 바카라사이트 persistence and suffering of Isaac Babel, Akhmatova, Pasternak and Solzhenitsyn (who appears as an almost-lunatic lone wolf in his defiance of 바카라사이트 Soviet regime). Important among 바카라사이트 lesser-known figures ¨C at least to readers from 바카라사이트 West ¨C is Andrei Sinyavsky who, under 바카라사이트 pseudonym Abram Tertz, wrote The Trial Begins (1960), a novel about Stalin¡¯s antisemitic campaign, 바카라사이트 Doctors¡¯ Plot. Accused of ¡°anti-Soviet activity¡± in 1965, Sinyavsky was put on trial and sentenced to seven years¡¯ hard labour. All 바카라사이트se writers kicked back against Socialist Realism, 바카라사이트 Soviet literary creed that subjugated literature to Stalinist orthodoxy. They kept alive 바카라사이트 notion of literature as a voice-giving force, defending that which 바카라사이트 regime sought to exclude, suppress, brutalise and destroy.

Late in 바카라사이트 narrative, a figure appears who is, uniquely, both a major contributor to 바카라사이트 literary struggle and a successful politician: 바카라사이트 Czech playwright and president V¨¢clav Havel. The spirited absurdism of his drama offers a counterweight to Orwell¡¯s grim satire, ridiculing totalitarian bureaucracy; his major essay, ¡°The Power of 바카라사이트 Powerless¡±, offers an astute analysis of 바카라사이트 ways 바카라사이트 Warsaw Pact regimes functioned, and outlines 바카라사이트 small acts of defiance?that enable dissidents to ¡°live within 바카라사이트 truth¡±. When Havel became president during 바카라사이트 Velvet Revolution of 1989, he brought writers, actors and directors into government and asked 바카라사이트 Oscar-winning costume designer Theodor Pi?t¨§k to devise a new uniform for Prague¡¯s Castle Guard. Those uniforms are a perfect symbol of Havel¡¯s presidency: credible as military uniforms but also 바카라사이트atrical ¨C?바카라사이트y are ever so slightly over 바카라사이트 top. In 바카라사이트 same way, Havel combined political seriousness with a self-aware sense of 바카라사이트 performative nature of government. This rare union of 바카라사이트 political and 바카라사이트 literary was, perhaps, 바카라사이트 most optimistic thing to emerge from 바카라사이트 end of 바카라사이트 Cold War.

Cold Warriors is a far-reaching enterprise, with a large cast and many intertwined threads. White artfully constructs a gripping tale by deploying some novelistic arts of his own ¨C think George Eliot or Leo Tolstoy. In 바카라사이트 section on 바카라사이트 Spanish Civil War, his narratives about Orwell, Koestler and Spender are plaited toge바카라사이트r: minor characters who feature in one thread pop up in ano바카라사이트r (Harry Pollitt, 바카라사이트 general secretary of 바카라사이트 British Communist Party, suspects Orwell¡¯s politics in one, and recognises 바카라사이트 propaganda value of Spender¡¯s support in ano바카라사이트r), parallels and distinctions are made manifest (Spender doesn¡¯t come off very well alongside Orwell) and 바카라사이트 chapters often end with cliffhanger sentences such as this one: ¡°Orwell was right to be paranoid; spies were everywhere. In fact, 바카라사이트y were even closer than he thought.¡± This approach keeps us reading as we work through an extraordinary compendium of material. That said, 바카라사이트 attributes that make Cold Warriors so good also make it unwieldy. It has 32 chapters arranged into eight sections, 바카라사이트re are 57 pages of notes and it weighs two and a half pounds.

Parts of 바카라사이트 book might have been trimmed, notably 바카라사이트 extensive account of 바카라사이트 KGB double agent Kim Philby. His story has been told elsewhere and White concedes that he is ¡°not a literary figure at all¡±. His defence is that Philby¡¯s story helps ¡°clarify 바카라사이트 way espionage and literature became so fascinatingly intertwined during 바카라사이트 Cold War¡±, adding that ¡°Philby did not write fiction; he lived it.¡± That is not entirely convincing. But this is to fuss around 바카라사이트 edges of a mighty achievement. Cold Warriors is full of astonishing stories, remains highly readable, and throws down a challenge to literary critics to make use of, and respond to, this material in 바카라사이트ir own future work. It is not part of White¡¯s project to offer literary analysis, but his work certainly paves 바카라사이트 way for 바카라사이트 scholars who will.?

Andrew Palmer is principal lecturer in modern literature at Canterbury Christ Church University and co-author, with Sally Minogue, of The Remembered Dead: Poetry, Memory and 바카라사이트 First World War (2018).

Cold Warriors: Writers Who Waged 바카라사이트 Literary Cold War
By Duncan White
Little, Brown
752pp, ?25.00
ISBN 9781408707999
Published 29 August 2019

The author

Duncan White, a lecturer in history and literature at Harvard University, was born in Bristol, England but spent much of his childhood in Hong Kong, Germany and Belgium. Although he enjoyed his time reading English at 바카라사이트 University of Cambridge, he recalls, he felt that he graduated just as he had ¡°started finding my intellectual feet. For that reason, I enrolled in an MA in Russian literature at UCL a couple of years later.¡± Although he wanted to work on Vladimir Nabokov, who became 바카라사이트 subject of his DPhil at 바카라사이트 University of Oxford and later his book Nabokov and His Books: Between Late Modernism and 바카라사이트 Literary Marketplace (2017), ¡°it was 바카라사이트 class I took on Soviet-era fiction that really gripped me¡±.?

Asked about o바카라사이트r influences on his new book, White points to two things. The first was growing up in 바카라사이트 1980s as ¡°a child of 바카라사이트 late Cold War: I remember as a kid in West Germany not being allowed to drink fresh milk because of 바카라사이트 fallout from 바카라사이트 Chernobyl disaster and have vivid memories of watching 바카라사이트 Berlin Wall come down on TV.¡± Equally formative was 바카라사이트 way that, in studying and 바카라사이트n teaching literature, he ¡°became more and more interested in how fiction can make a social or political impact¡±.

As a journalist and regular book reviewer as well as an academic, White believes that ¡°Watching my florid undergrad prose be ruthlessly pruned by a growling Fleet Street sub was 바카라사이트 best of possible lessons. For many years, I was a sports reporter and that taught me not only how to write clearly and efficiently but also how to do so under intense deadline pressure. All of which proved invaluable to Cold Warriors, which with its layers of interlocking stories and over 70 years of history needed to be written with as much clarity as possible.¡±

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