Following the translation theories by Itamar Evan-Zohar on the role of the translated literature within a new literary system, we will argue that the socialist translated literature — both the officially sanctioned and the unofficially distributed — was fundamental in configuring a literary aesthetic as well as in putting in contact the Cuban writers with the ‘literature of the dissidence’ from the socialist bloc.
In explaining his theory, Even-Zohar insists on considering the translated literature as a polysystem, and not as isolated books. In the case of Cuba, this position is useful since the socialist literature that was translated into Spanish, and disseminated within the Cuban population, had a specific function: to reinforce the idea of how the new man, in the new society, was supposed to behave, think and believe. In this sense, it worked as a polysystem, which extends beyond the realms of literature.
In this sense, our research aims to deconstruct the politics of translation that supported the flow and consumption of socialist literature in Cuba during the Soviet years in order to develop an understanding of the impact of such geopolitics of translation within the literary production on the island.