The 14º International Congress of P. E. N. Clubs (1936): intellectuals, culture, and politics in the midst of wars

Abstract

The article analyzes the political debates that took place at the XIVth International Congress of P.E.N. Clubs, organized by the association's Argentine center in the city of Buenos Aires in 1936 to show the impasse between culture and politics experienced by the intellectual group, represented in the microcosm of the congress in question, against the professed apolitical ideals of PEN. In this way, the internal contradictions that had to be equalized by the members of the PEN, especially with regard to the relations between the intellectual and the political engagement, are shown, a link sometimes discouraged, other times unavoidable. The different positions in this debate are explained by the effects of the post-war traumatic experience, as well as by the individual trajectories of the thinkers who gave themselves to these discussions.