Etymology

1. "All of us can think of a book... that we hope none of our children or any other children have taken off the shelf. But if I have the right to remove that book from the shelf - that work I abhor - then you also have exactly the same right and so does everyone else. And then we have no books left on the shelf for any of us." -- Katherine Paterson "Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there." -- Clare Booth Luce "Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it." -- Mark Twain

2. Etymology • The word ‘censorship’ is derived from the ancient Roman institution of the censors: two elected magistrates responsible for overseeing the morals of the Roman people and who could warn or ban certain people or behavior at will

3. Definition • Censorship comprises many methods of preventing the publication or dissemination of ideas, images, information, literary, artistic, educational materials, speech, printed matter, art, theater, music, electronic media, or other forms of expression, on the grounds that these materials are objectionable in the light of standards (beliefs, convictions, insights, prejudices) applied by the censor, who or whatever the censor might be: Church, state, teacher, librarian, parents.

4. As a phenomenon, censorship “sprawls across several disciplines, including law, aesthetics, moral philosophy, human psychology, and politics” (Coetzee vii) • Censorship is a matter of: • Threat, fear • Power, control • Silence

5. Types of censorship • Preventive censorship/prior restraint • Some type of authority (e.g., the government, the Church) issues requirements such prior review and licensing; • Then examines a text before it is published and distributed, and changes or bans it if that is deemed necessary

6. Types of censorship II • Repressive censorship: • Preventing an already published work (or parts thereof) from being read and becoming known • Examples: • Changing words, passages; • Destroying works; • Declaring possession illegal; • Prosecuting the author; • Market censorship (without force of law behind the censorship decision): publishers refusing to publish, advertisers refusing to advertise, book sellers and librarians refusing to purchase and put on display, the public refusing to read

7. Types of censorship III • Censorship: • Before or after publication • With or without force of law behind it

8. Types of censorship IV • Self-censorship: • All of the limitations that the author imposes on herself to protect herself during and/or after the creation and publication of her work • Examples: • Denying authorship • Becoming silent: to not write and/or publish • Using Aesopian language: • Can lead to a more creative exploitation of language

9. Types of censorship V: Preventive, repressive, self censorship? • to suppress = conscious and forceful action to put an end to something, destroy it, or prevent it from becoming known • to expurgate = to remove words or passages considered offensive or unsuitable • to bar = to refuse something entry to a place; to prevent a work from entering the country

10. Types of censorship VI: Preventive, repressive, self censorship? • to seize = to take official or legal possession of something • to challenge = to attempt to remove or restrict materials • to burn • to distort

11. Issues of Censorship • Subjectivity and situation specicifity of ‘objectionable’ • Protection of certain groups • Censorship: elitist? Paternalistic? • Breeding ignorance? • Carefoote: “argumentation is always preferable to outright censorship; rather than advancing society, such censorship runs the risk of making it retrograde” (21) Carefoote, Pearce J. Forbidden Fruit: Banned, Censored, and Challenged Books for Dante to Harry Potter. Intr, Alberto Manguel. Toronto: Lester, 2007.

12. Issues of Censorship II • Prize of freedom of expression • Allowing hate literature?

13. What Texts Are Censored? • Works that question, challenge, ridicule an authority, tradition, idea, belief • E.g.,: Are men superior to women? • Works that present alternatives to authority • E.g., Darwinism instead of creationism; bisexuality instead of heterosexuality; Bible in vernacular language instead of Hebrew and Greek • Works that address and expose issues that the censor wants to ignore, silence • E.g., Flaws of an authority (child abuse in Catholic Church); female sexuality; oppression of minorities; violence; certain use of language: swearing • Works that express hate toward (a) certain group(s) of people • E.g,, Anti-Semitic; Islamophobic; misogynist; racist

14. Topics of Censorship • Religious topics • E.g., questioning and ridiculing religious authority and convictions • Political topics • E.g., positive depiction of state form that is considered to be dangerous and deviant: communism in capitalist society, democracy in dictatorship

15. Topics of Censorship II • Social topics: • E.g., mention or inclusion of abortion, birth control, drug use; discriminating depiction of ethnicities, social groups, handicapped individuals, women, special interest groups; questioning parental authority • Sexual topics: • E.g., depiction of sexual behavior, reproductive organs, what is considered to be deviant sexual behavior (pedophilia, homosexuality, S&M), phenomena such as prostitution, unwed pregnancy, adultery, and writing in order to stimulate arousal

16. Justification 4 Censorship Practices • Heresy: • Expression of opinions, beliefs, or doctrines that contradicts established religious teaching • Blasphemy, profanity: • Speaking in a disrespectful manner of, or disrespect for God or gods, religion, and that which is perceived as being sacred

17. Justification 4 Censorship Practices • Treason: • Violation of the allegiance owed by a person to his or her own country, for example, by aiding an enemy • Political dissidence: • Reflecting political ideas that are at variance with the convictions and/or practices of the rulers, politicians, certain group of people, individuals • Obscenity: • Offensiveness to conventional standards of decency, especially as a result of sexual explicitness

18. Futility of Censorship? • Underground market • Bestsellers • Robert Louis Stevenson: “If a thing is wrong for us, we should not dwell upon the thought of it; or we shall soon dwell upon it with inverted pleasure” (Qtd. Manguel 10) • Montaigne: “To forbid us anything is make us have a mind for it”