Portuguese newspapers and magazines have become a significant source of study regarding the construction of Iberian cultural relations in the 20th century.

The objective of this project—originally funded by the Xunta de Galicia (2014-2016)—was to explore a selection of cultural and literary publications such as Ilustração, Civilização, and O Diabo. Simultaneously, specific inquiries were conducted on dates and periods in daily newspapers like O Comércio do Porto, Diário de Notícias, or Diário de Lisboa, with the aim of locating data related to the relationships between agents and institutions belonging to the Spanish, Galician, Catalan, and Portuguese artistic and cultural fields.

As a result, we present here an extensive corpus of materials: articles and critiques on literature and art; interviews with relevant figures in literature, theater, art, and journalism of the time on both sides of the border; news, advertisements, and reflections on the publishing field and the world of translation; reviews of musical, theatrical, artistic, and cultural events, among many others.

This media corpus speaks to the strong impact of political situations on the Portuguese cultural scene and, consequently, the constant redefinition of its parameters at a time when contacts and interactions between agents on both sides of the border are highly intense, especially during the 1920s and 1930s.

As a result of this flow, the Spanish cultural scene becomes a model for Portuguese agents attempting to address the systemic deficits projected onto the pages of newspapers and magazines: the crisis of the theatrical scene, the relationship between the literary and journalistic fields, the impact of translation and literary awards as dynamic elements, the participation and role of women in this domain, the development of legislation on labor rights in the theatrical world, or even the prevailing editorial business models… All these issues are central to the redefinition of the Portuguese cultural scene, on the one hand, but also to the debate on the so-called "literary nationalism" in Portugal compared to more conventional concepts such as Iberianism.

Browse the repository IberCorpus.