The BBC Latin American Service (LAS) was created in 1938 to counter fascist propaganda broadcast to Latin America. Now considered one of the major Latin American novelists of the twentieth century, Brazilian writer Antônio Callado (1917-1997) got his start writing radio drama scripts for the BBC LAS during and after World War II.

Largely forgotten until Daniel Mandur Thomaz collected them in a 2018 volume published in Brazil, these radio scripts combined propaganda and literary ambition and were part of a concerted effort to win sympathy for Britain and the Allies in Latin America.

The scripts suggest how Callado's experiences during the war influenced his writing, with thematic resonances throughout his literary career. Transatlantic Radio Dramas analyses the scripts themselves, alongside the institutions, practices and beliefs that allowed modernist transatlantic networks like the BBC LAS to flourish.

Daniel Mandur Thomaz is a historian and cultural studies scholar with interests spanning literature, history, the media and popular culture in Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula, with an emphasis on Brazil. He has presented his research outputs in universities and research institutions in the UK, Europe, Asia and the Americas, as well as publishing analyses of current affairs in the Brazilian media. He has a DPhil (PhD) in Modern Languages from the University of Oxford, and a BA and an MA in History from the University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). Daniel joined King’s College London in 2019, after researching and teaching at St. Peter’s College, University of Oxford (2015-2019), and at the University of Leiden, Netherlands (2014-2015).