Travel (and) Literature During the Fascist Period: The State, Travel and Literature in the German-portuguese Context (1933-1945)

Abstract

Authoritarian regimes tend to develop a contradictory relationship with travel. On the one hand, they promote it, for propaganda purposes, on the other hand, they restrict it, for fear of the disruptive effects that might arise to the stability of State’s self and hetero-perceptions. Starting from the wide range of German travel books about Portugal and Portuguese on Germany published during the Nazi period, the article seeks to address the complex relational network in which travel, literature and the State find themselves involved at the time. Special attention is given to the books by Friedrich Sieburg (Neues Portugal, 1937) and by Gerhard Pommeranz-Liedtke and Gertrud Richert (Portugal, aufstrebender Staat am Atlantik, 1939).