Hope for a New Order: Postwar PEN and the Reconstruction of the Global Republic of Letters

This article examines a series of annual PEN conferences from 1946 to 1950 to chart the changing landscape of the global literary space in the immediate postwar period. Founded in 1921, PEN was an international writers’ organization dedicated to protecting the rights of authors and the rights of freedom of expression. The article begins by detailing PEN’s growing politicization during the 1930s and the war years to help situate its postwar political imperatives. Major debates emerged in the postwar period about the rights of freedom of expression and who could be a member of the organization. Many of these debates mirrored larger concerns in the wider literary and political space, such as the emergence of blacklists for collaborators (and then communists), the reintegration of Germany into the society of nations, and the growing conflict between East and West. Larger debates about “minor languages” and translation also showcased PEN’s diversity and its close affiliation with changing literary tides. Rather than being a neutral institution pushing a largely autonomous aesthetic, PEN was deeply politicized and reflected a literary and political world in rapid flux.