The Dilemmas Surrounding Reading Censorship Challenged Books Sandy
The Dilemmas Surrounding Reading, Censorship, & Challenged Books Sandy Avila Science Librarian Research & Information Services Dept. – UCF Libraries
Definitions Censorship: The suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security. Deciding to get rid of something that offends you…. . for everyone. Censorship is the suppression of ideas and information that certain persons — individuals, groups, or government officials — find objectionable or dangerous
Challenged Book: Is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. Banned Book: A banning is the removal of materials. http: //www. ala. org/Printer. Template. cfm? Section=challengedbanned&
First Amendment and Censorship “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. ” First Amendment of the U. S. Constitution passed by Congress September 25, 1789. Ratified December 15, 1791.
Challenging Books: Banning Books: • Old practice of restricting access • Forcing control or regulation over First Amendment • Burning books to suppress opinions, questions, and exposure to new thoughts and practices • Create a like-mindedness- control content to maintain power • Fair practice for democratic society • No restriction on First Amendment rights • Invites questions, discussions, learning and exposure of issues and problems, raises awareness and stirs various viewpoints • No centralized power or control of ideas
Book Challenges 2007 -2011 https: //www. google. com/maps/d/u/0/viewer? msa=0&mid=1 y 18 u 5944 b. BJQf 9 yrib. SP 2 of. PZo&ll=-3. 81666561775622 e-14%2 C-153. 8461865&z=1
• Secular and religious authorities have censored books for as long as people have been writing them. • In ancient times, when hand-scribed books existed in only one or a few copies, destroying them (usually by burning) guaranteed no one would ever read them. • Invention of the printing press by Johann Gutenberg around 1450 made it possible to circulate more copies of books, essentially reducing the power of book burning to disseminate texts.
Qin Shi Huang burns Confucian writings (~221 -210 B. C. ) Girolamo Savonarola holds bonfires of the vanities (1497 -1498) A powerful ruler who consolidated China’s empire and standardized its The Florence book burnings of the fanatical priest Savonarola were so language, bureaucracy, and calendars, Qin Shi Huang left an indelible notorious, they’ve made “bonfire of the vanities” a common cultural mark on the history of his people. He also is believed to have resented reference — Tom Wolfe titled a novel after the event. In addition to the scholars who kept memories of Confucian tradition alive. As he “immoral” books, the bonfire was meant to destroy other luxuries that came to power, Qin Shi Huang supposedly had many Confucian texts might lead people into perceived sin (art, fancy clothes, destroyed, fearing that they would be used to undermine support cosmetics, and so on). Though Savonarola was a Dominican priest, for his rule; he later allegedly ordered hundreds of scholars buried he had formed a political party that held significant power in Florence, under suspicion of spreading dissent. Some historians now question giving his condemnations of certain texts and artistic creations this narrative, which is laid out in the Records of the Grand Historian, overtones of governmental as well as religious power. suggesting that it’s more likely that Confucian writings were lost when a https: //www. huffingtonpost. com/2014/09/23/historical-high-points-book-banning_n_5863804. html fire destroyed much of the imperial library during the fall of the Qin
The Meritorious Price of Our Redemption by William Pynchon banned in New England colonies (1650) The Sorrows of Young Werther banned in several European jurisdictions (1774) While, in the history of book-banning, political or religious motivations often underlie censorship, the banning of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s The Considered the first book to be banned in the New England colonies, The Sorrows of Young Werther introduces a public health angle. Goethe’s slim Meritorious Price of Our Redemption was a critique of Puritanism that novel follows the romantic travails of a passionate young man — culminating so outraged Pynchon’s fellow colonists that he was compelled to return to in Werther’s gunshot suicide after he is rejected by his beloved. The novel England. Copies of the book were burned in Boston, and Pynchon became wildly successful, so much so that its popularity was designated himself was accused of heresy in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Book “Werther fever”; young people reportedly began to imitate Werther’s fashions banning would go on to have a long and troubled history in the so-called and made pilgrimages to the grave of a friend on whom Werther was believed New World. to be based. Authorities were so concerned about reports of copycat suicides that several European cities and countries , including Denmark https: //www. huffingtonpost. com/2014/09/23/historical-high-points-book-banning_n_5863804. html and Austria, banned or regulated the book. It’s unclear how many actual
Dr. Thomas Bowdler publishes expurgated Shakespeare (1807) Like Savonarola, Dr. Bowdler popularized a new term in the vocabulary of book censorship: “bowdlerize. ” Bowdler’s 1807 edition of 24 collected Shakespeare plays — which is believed by many to have been edited by not by Bowdler, but by his retiring sister Harriet — remains infamous for attempting to make Shakespeare’s dramas palatable for polite domestic society by generously excising any vulgar or obscene portions. The 1807 edition was followed by later volumes giving the same treatment to more of Shakespeare’s works; the series was entitled The Family Shakspeare. That’s right: Shakespeare himself was given the bad-for-family-values treatment back in the day. At least the Bowdlers were able to see the value in reading and teaching Shakespeare despite his profane turns — but unfortunately the Bard isn’t really the Bard without some bawdy jokes. https: //www. huffingtonpost. com/2014/09/23/historical-high-points-book-banning_n_5863804. html
Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2017 ALA Video https: //youtu. be/yyd 2 k. II-8 D 4
Add a Slide Title - 3 Straight from the America Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom: “Censorship succeeds when no one talks about it; let’s make some noise. ”
ALA and Banned Books Week BANNED BOOKS WEEK 2018: Sept. 23 - Sept. 29 • Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Typically held during the last week of September, it highlights the value of free and open access to information. Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community — librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular. “Free People Read Freely”
Discussion Time
Thank you!!!! Feel free to contact me if you have questions. Sandy Avila Science Librarian savila@ucf. edu
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