Archives of Authority: Empire, Culture, and the Cold War

199 Pages·2012·3.43 MB·English

by  Andrew N. Rubin

Archives of Authority
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SERIES EDITOR EMILY APTER

A list of titles in the series appears at the back of the book.
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Archives of Authority
Empire, Culture, and
the Cold War
Andrew N. Rubin
P r i n c e t o n U n i v e r s i t y P r e s s
P r i n c e t o n a n d ox f o r d
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Copyright © 2012 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock,
Oxfordshire OX20 1TW
press.princeton.edu
Jacket illustration: Jenny Holzer, Xenon for Bregenz, 2004, photo by Attilio Maranzano,
courtesy Jenny Holzer/Art Resource, NY, © 2012 Jenny Holzer, member Artists Rights
Society (ARS), New York
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rubin, Andrew.
Archives of authority : empire, culture, and the Cold War / Andrew N.
Rubin.
p. cm. — (Translation/transnation)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-691-15415-2 (hardback : acid-free paper) 1. Criticism—History—20th
century. 2. Cold War in literature. I. Title.
PN94.R83 2012
801'.950904—dc23 2011049576
British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available
This book has been composed in Verdigris MVB Pro
Printed on acid- free paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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In memory of Edward W. Said
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Chapter 1
Archives of Authority 11
The Archive and the Juridical 12
States of Exception 13
States of Criticism 17
Chapter 2
Orwell and the Globalization of Literature 24
Communist Crypts 28
The “Communist Menace” 34
The Translation of Authority 37
Translation and Modes of Domination 44
Chapter 3
Transnational Literary Spaces at War 47
The Sun Never Sets on the British Writer 47
The Time of Translation 58
London Calling 60
Literary Diplomacy 65
Chapter 4
Archives of Critical Theory 74
Accommodations 80
Chapter 5
Humanism, Territory, and Techniques of Trouble 87
Terrain of Philology 90
Notes 109
Bibliography 141
Index 167
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Acknowledgments
The idea of writing a book on the subject of the U.S. and British gov-
ernment’s support and promotion of various writers, poets, and intellectu-
als abroad during the Cold War owes its origins to the encouragement of
Edward W. Said. For their intellectual generosity and constructive criti-
cism, I am grateful to George O’Brien, Mark McMorris, Carolyn Forché,
Jonathan Arac, Ammiel Alcalay, Emily Apter, Norman Birnbaum, Eric
Foner, Jean Franco, Andreas Huyssen, and Bruce Robbins. I owe special
thanks to my editor, Hanne Winarsky, whose patient understanding made
this book possible in many ways. I am also grateful to Emily Apter, whose
support and criticism were entirely indispensable over the years. I also
wish to thank Kelly Malloy for her thorough assistance, vigilance, and en-
thusiasm for the project. I am particularly grateful to Penn Szittya, Jason
Rosenblatt, and Kathryn Temple for their support, encouragement, and
understanding throughout my years at Georgetown. In the final stages, the
manuscript benefited enormously from the meticulous attention of Mary
Taveras, Elizabeth Gibbens, Amy Margolin, Brenda Werth, and especially
Cathy Slovensky.
I have benefited from the kindness and generosity of many institutions.
I especially wish to express my gratitude to the Lannan Foundation for
their generous support, which gave me the time and space to write large
portions of the manuscript. In particular, I would like to thank Patrick
Lannan, Jo Chapman, Chris Abani, Dinaw Mengetsu, and Martha Jessup
for their kindness and spirited interest in the project. I owe a special thanks
to Georgetown University Graduate School for its generous assistance.
Georgetown’s Department of English provided me with invaluable time to
research and write much of this book, and I am thankful for the several oc-
casions when they did so. The librarians at Butler Library at Columbia Uni-
versity were of critical assistance in helping me with the Trilling Papers.
The staff at the Joseph Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago as-
sisted me with the Congress for Cultural Freedom Papers. Without the
support of the Stern Fellowship, much of the research on Orwell at the
University College of London would not have been possible.
I must gratefully acknowledge the critical interest of colleagues, friends,
and students whose questions and discussion sharpened the text to a con-
siderable degree. George O’Brien and Mark McMorris played an enor-
mous role in helping me reshape the manuscript as a whole. They were re-
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