Print (and Broadcasting Capitalism in Times of Crisis: The Quest for a Unified Language Market in Buenos Aires, 1935-1943

JUAN ANTONIO ENNIS; LAURA SESNICH

Bulletin of Spanish Studies

Routledge

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2020 vol. 97 p. 1211 - 1223

1478-3428

Along the late 1930s and early 1940s, what we nowadays know as Hispanofonía stands before a deep crisis, when the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War moves the center of intellectual life and print industry definitely from the Iberian realm to the Americas, being Mexico and mainly Buenos Aires both then outstanding editorial and intellectual irradiating points for the Spanish-speaking communities. This paper focuses on the development from print capitalism to media capitalism in a time when broadcasting acquires a massive dimension, reaching every home and turning thereby into a massive means of communication, and therefore also a battlefield for ideological language issues. In this context, some intellectual figures in Argentina began to question the role of the State in the organization of cultural guidelines for the mass culture production industry both a risk as much as a useful strategy in the pursuit of a unified Spanish language.