The Writing and Practice of Diplomacy from the Perspective of Arts Criticism: Alfonso Reyes in Paris (1925-1927); A escrita e a prática da diplomacia na perspectiva da crítica de arte: Alfonso Reyes em Paris (1925-1927); LA ESCRITURA Y LA PRÁCTICA DE LA D

Abstract

Mexican writer and diplomat Alfonso Reyes represented his country in France from 1925 to 1927. In his activities as a bureaucrat – on which he focused exclusively – he assigned the arts an important role. As part of the Mexican intellectual field at the beginning of the 20th century, which dedicated to the public discussion of the arts (visual, literary, etc.), politics, and society, he developed a point of view that conceived of culture as a bridge of mutual understanding between nations. For Reyes, culture (materialized in artworks) represented the spirit of nations, which is why diplomacy had to bring together cultural agents and works. In other words, from the perspective of arts criticism, aesthetic matters were connected to political ones, nationally and internationally. This impacted his way of writing, which we analyze in two formats: the diplomatic report and the personal diary. He turned these texts into critical tools to realize his conception of a diplomacy that ought to be cultural. We propose the usefulness of looking at the report and diary as extensions of arts criticism, beyond the environment of cultural and literary reviews of the period, which have been the main subject of study.