"Banned Books Week": The British Library, London, 26th Sept. 2017

"Banned Books Week" - International Celebration of the Freedom to Read

26th September 2017,  Knowledge Centre

The British Library, 96 Euston Road, London, NW1 2DB, UK

Katherine Inglis and Matthew Fellion,  "Censored: A Literary History of Subversion and Control"

The British Library, London, September 2017

                            

                       

A copy of the book

 

The authors' special dedication

Literary censorship is a really meaningful  issue to be debated at school, as it represents the battle of freedom of expression against oppression and intellectual slavery. Over the years, I've regularly been dealing with it during my classes of English Literature at my school,  Liceo Scientifico "Galileo Galilei" in Bitonto,  drawing students' attention to the strictly related debate on civil rights,  freedom of speech and thought, democracy and equality.  

The syllabus of English Literature is generally started at the 3rd year of Liceo, and continued through the 5th and final year. It is a survey of English Literary works from the period of Anglo-Saxon settlements  to the present.  Students study works of prose, poetry, drama and fiction in relation to their historical and cultural contexts. They also engage with the study of the development of English language,  from the Old English  period up to the contemporary writers of today. Through the careful study of the various literary genres,  they refine the skills of critical thinking and develop their own abilities in writing, essay writing and research assignments.

As a matter of fact, a crucial topic to my syllabus is  J. Milton's pamphlet  "Areopagitica, A Speech of Mr. John Milton, For the Liberty of Unlicenc'd  Printing, To the Parliament of England". Published in 1644, this essay was a strong protest against the Parliament's  Licensing Order, issued the previous year and which intended to  bring publishing under government control.  Although it was written so many years ago, many of Milton's arguments  on the importance of free speech and  open exchange of ideas are still relevant today.

Therefore, I requested to be admitted to the  conference and presentation of the book "Censored: a Literary History of Subversion and Control" as a teacher of English Literature and my name was added to the guest list for the event.

The book was written by Katherine Inglis,  Chancellor’s Fellow and Lecturer in the Department of English Literature at the University of Edinburgh and Matthew Fellion, a writer and independent scholar on  the history of reading and the 19th-century realist novel. The book was presented by the authors themselves at The British Library, the national library of the United Kingdom, within the framework of the annual celebration of the freedom to read, the so-called "Banned Books Weeks".  

Conceived as a complete history of the censorship of literary texts, it is also a chronicle of  the long list of authorities, constitutional laws and regulations  that have prevented these masterpieces from publishing and then circulating over the years: sovereigns, politicians, judges, school governors, librarians, teachers, editors and publishers.

The most infamous cases of literary censorship and the real forces that for more than six hundred years have driven it, both in the United Kingdom and the United States, are  minutely reported,  for political, religious and civil reasons and prejudices or the oppression of same-sex lovers, immigrants and women.  The book also investigates into the long legal battles and public campaigns that have been set up, over the centuries, to defend and promote the freedom of speech and communication.  

Over the course of the evening at the British Library, the two authors gave us a detailed account of the most persecuted cases and contents in the history of literature and publishing, as they were surveyed and faithfully reported in their book.  Most notably,  J. Wyclif's and W. Tyndale's English Bibles, P.B. Shelley's "Queen Mab", W. Whitman's "Leaves of Grass", O. Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray", J. Joyce's "Ulysses, D.H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover", up to the more contemporary S. Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses" and R. Feral's "Hit Man".  In particular,  the strange case of the latter, a Technical Manual for Independent Contractors, that was written under the pseudonym Rex Feral and published  in 1983, and that is  a real  handbook for would-be assassins.  

During the evening I had the opportunity to talk to the authors about my English Literature Syllabus and I was kindly given a signed copy of the book. (see pictures)

Suffice to say, it will certainly represent one of the main resources  of my next English Literature classes on censorship.  

London, 26th September 2017

                      prof.ssa Vincenza R. Barbone