Forbidden Literature: Case Studies on Censorship. / edited by Erik Erlanson, Jon Helgason, Peter Henning, Linnéa Lindsköld

As long as there has been literature, there have also been attempts to control and direct it. Art and literature are often cross-border, and a significant part of the texts that we now count among the literary classics have from the beginning been perceived as provocative, blasphemous or offensive. The provocation is a hallmark of modern literature and has been normalized since the middle of the 19th century. Therefore, it is easy to forget that book censorship and other mechanisms to counter the spread of unwanted literary expression are phenomena that do not only belong in religious or politically totalitarian states. In Forbidden Literature, the authors examine the complex relationship between literature and society that the control of literary and other texts illustrates. Censorship and various forms of restrictions make visible, for example, the power relations that exist between state, market, law, institutions, citizens, authors and readers. The forbidden literature, paradoxically, also shows a belief in the effectiveness of literature. A ban on a text always says something about its expected impact on the reader. The primary purpose of this anthology is to provide both historical and contemporary examples of literature's often complex interactions with freedom of expression. Through eleven case studies, which deal with material from different places and different times, the anthology provides perspective on today's debates about literature and freedom of expression. The case studies move between several different language and cultural areas, and deal with everything from 17th century manuals in black art to modern literature and avant-garde comic art. *** Freedom of the printed word is a defining feature of the modern world. Yet censorship and the suppression of literature never cease, and remain topical issues even in the most liberal of democracies. Today just as in the past, advances in media technology are followed by new regulatory mechanisms. Similarly, any attempt to control cultural expression inevitably spurs fresh discussions about freedom of speech. In Forbidden Literature scholars from a variety of disciplines address censorship's past and present, whether in liberal democracies or totalitarian regimes. Through in-depth case studies they trace a historical continuum in which literature reveals its two-sided nature: it demands both regulation and protection. The contributors investigate the logic of literary repression, particularly in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and analyze why it is thought essential to control literature. Moreover, the authors determine how literary practices are shaped and transformed by regulation and censorship.

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