“The Ways of Censorship: New Trends, New Challenges” (original) (raw)
Related papers
Censorship and Cultural Regulation: Mapping the Territory
The revival of censorship studies over the last two decades is due not only to the implosion of the Soviet bloc and the ensuing release of official records from East European states for research purposes, but also to conceptual changes in our understanding of censorship. Proponents of the so-called ’new censorship’ have advocated a view of censorship much broader than the traditional one by insisting that apart from institutionalized, interventionist (’regulatory’) censorship, social interaction and communication is affected by ’constitutive’, or ’structural’ censorship: forms of discourse regulation which influence what can be said by whom, to whom, how, and in which context. However, widening the concept ’censorship’ in this way carries the risk of equating censorship with any kind of social control, thus endangering its heuristic potential. The analysis of censorship should adopt Wittgenstein’s concept of family resemblance to distinguish between central and peripheral characteristics of censorship, in addition to using the communication model as a systematic basis for censorial practices and effects.
I provide an overview of some of the arguments in Sue Curry Jansen’s classic 1988 book Censorship: The Knot that Binds Knowledge and Power. Then I describe some of my own areas of interest connecting with censorship: suppression of dissent, power and scientific knowledge, and whistleblowing. The connections with censorship in these areas are compatible with Sue’s framework, while also suggesting avenues for broadening its application.
International Encyclopedia of Linguistic Anthropology, 2020
Censorship is generally understood as formal restrictions, in some way endorsed or supported by the state, on expressive acts that are perceived as threats to public order. Modern discourses against censorship tend to be informed by an Enlightenment and liberal tradition of viewing free speech as both a human right and integral to just governance. However, every society regulates communicative or expressive acts in a variety of ways, including many that are neither institutional nor subject to discussion. A linguistic anthropological approach to censorship engages with different communities ideas about the nature and function of transgressive acts, studies the multidimensional nature of communication to understand the effects of these acts in different contexts, and analyzes contradictions and biases in awareness to advocate for the linguistically marginalized.
One type of censorship comes to an end, but a new is developing, writes cultural theorist Dave Boothroyd. The power that corporations such as Network Solutions or YouTube wield produces a new form of subjectivity characterized by self-censorship. There is never any pure censorship or pure lifting of censorship, which makes one doubt the rational purity of this concept (Jacques Derrida, The Eyes of the University) It's important to know what one means by "censorship" (indeed, what has become "censored" in the definition of censorship) in order to understand the limits of its eradicability as well as the bounds within which such normative appeals might plausibly be made. (Judith Butler, Excitable Speech)
Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies, 2024
Censorship studies are currently facing an important conceptual change towards enlarging the phenomena deemed to be censorial (class, race, gender), while risking losing sight of the conceptual specificity of what censorship means. If everything is censorship, then the concept loses explanatory power, but if we restrict the concept it fails to account for the multiple forms censorship takes to be powerful. By mapping censorship studies about the Portuguese dictatorship (1926–1974), we propose an overreaching framework to study the censorship phenomenon in general that articulates its institutional-regulatory and socio-structural dimensions. This articulation enables us to understand the dynamics, productivity and mutations of the regulatory dimension, without losing the conceptual specificity of censorship by assuming that only when this dimension manifests itself can structural constraints be considered part of the censorship process. This framework allows to identify which scientific areas, their preferential objects and methodologies, facilitate an articulated approach to censorship.
Censorship dispute and the cry for silence
MATRIZes, 2012
Repression and Resistance: Books Censorship in the Military Dictatorship focus censorship processes against fiction books during the Brazilian military regime. Besides the literary evaluations conducted by State censors, the study also presents letters that were sent by members of the civil society recommending the censorship of books considered to be offensive or asking for the release of forbidden works. This documentation allows a fruitful analysis of censorship capillarity, its broad and flexible regulation, and the discussion of its legitimacy in a period when the government repression even sought to control the very visibility of its censorship practice.
Editorial: Ambiguities of censorship. An international perspective
2010
When we think about censorship today, vivid images of brutal governments' repression of free speech around the world might come to mind. The works of courageous artists and activists like Ai Wei Wei-an outspoken critic of China's Communist rulers-are constant reminders of the curbing of dissent perpetrated by the Chinese government. Wei Wei's criticism has put him on a collision course with the Chinese government, despite his artistic international fame. In fact, he was assaulted and beaten by the police after having investigated and documented the names of more than 5000 children who had died under shoddy school buildings in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Similarly, we cannot forget the appalling murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, 'guilty' of having unfolded horrific stories about abductions and Russian military abuses against civilians in Chechnya. Likewise, we are aware that Iran has in place one of the most extensive internet filtering system in the world (OpenNet Initiative, 2007) that proved its strength when protests erupted over the recent disputed election victory of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Seminar 63, ESSE 2020 (15th Conference of the European Society for the Study of English), Lyon, France, 31/08-4/09/2020, 2020
This seminar seeks to connect scholars working in the field of 20th-century censorship in both English and Anglophone literatures. Intending to explore the spectrum of defiance and conformity in textual production and transmission (also via translation), it invites proposals concerned with, among other topics, political or religious patronage and control, canon inclusion and exclusion, international backing and interference, or censorship evasion via transnational collaborations, clandestine publishing and circulation. The seminar means to further our understanding of both apparent and hidden practices of textual authorization and control and the bearing these may have on canonicity and subsequent influence. Deadline for abstracts: 15 January 2020 More at: http://www.esse2020lyon.fr/en/pages/esse-2020-list-of-seminars