Editorial function and political project in the Chilean left of the 20th century. The case of Editorial Austral

Abstract

From a preferably qualitative perspective of analysis based on various primary and secondary printed sources, this work examines the thematic characteristics that shaped the editorial performance of the Austral label during its years of existence (1946—1973). Promoted and maintained by the Communist Party of Chile, studying this publishing experience opens us to the understanding of how, in terms of publishing history and the book that corresponds to us, the bibliographic production sponsored by this party was positioned, an activity that had to be carried out within the variety of discursive offers that, not without struggle, articulated the ideological sphere of the country in the mid-twentieth century. We postulate that, fully responding to the conceptual contours that modeled its performance, Austral served as a diffusion mechanism for an ideological bricolage of self-sufficient pretensions and, therefore, dispensed with, circumstances that would determine both the limited size of its editorial presence and its functional role. to the communist social discourse of the 20th century.