Window on Slavic Studies in Lisbon. Guide to Research and Teaching

The history of symbolic exchanges between Slavic countries and those of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America has already produced a large enough body of research that allows us to look at these cultural transfers as a chapter unto itself in the comparativist literature. There is a significant amount of material available on the intellectual contacts and various aspects of the circulation of literary texts and cultural mediators. These studies were conducted both on the Slavic ‘side’ and the Iberian ‘side’, as well as sporadically by some scholars working in other countries in Europe and the Americas. For examples (and focusing on the case of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union), see studies by Bagno, Tejerizo, Kuteishchikova, Obolenskaia, among others. At the same time that it seeks to outline the differences and the unique rhythms that characterize each country and region involved, this Iberian-Slavic line of research identifies some common features: the central role of journalistic writings and essays in the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America for the commentary and diffusion of Slavic cultures, the relatively late – and often troubled – development of Slavic studies as a university discipline (even though some of the universities involved are among the oldest in the world), and the dependence of this incipient field of study on more traditional centres of Slavic studies, generally located in France, the United Kingdom, Italy and the United States (here I am referring only the places whose prestige was a more decisive factor for Slavic studies in the Hispanic world). Another common feature of the Iberian-Latin American orbit was, of course, the overwhelming weight of the political issue throughout the 20th century, especially in the latter half, when countries at the ‘center’ of international Slavic studies invested strategically to advance research on Slavic countries, due to their location in the socialist ‘bloc’. During that same period, much of the Hispanic world was under the thumb of right-wing dictatorships, some of which lasted for many years – Franco, Salazar and a plethora of authoritarian regimes in Latin America. This cannot be underestimated as a limiting factor to Slavic studies taking root in these places. In Argentina, for example, despite robust cultural creativity and large numbers of Slavic immigrants, political repression destroyed any possibility of developing Slavic studies into an academic field. As a result, the discipline did not begin to thrive until very recently. Although several excellent works have already been published, there are still lots of areas for further research. One of them is the more systematic study of the role of translations, including a quantitative and, especially, an analytical inquiry into these translations, both the translations themselves and the literary dialogues that they