Book censorship
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Illustration: Index Librorum Prohibitorum ("List of Prohibited Books") of the Catholic Church.
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"The book which most deserved to be banned would be a catalogue of banned books." --Georg Christoph Lichtenberg |
Illustration: Cover of the Nazi Germany 1937 Degenerate art exhibition.
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Many societies have banned certain books. Grounds for banning are 1) political, 2) religious, 3) sexual and 4) social.
The invention of the printing press and movable type led to the Index Librorum Prohibitorum and a climate where every book either first needed an imprimatur or a Royal Privilege.
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Religious reasons
Various religious texts have been banned (and sometimes burned) at several points in history. The Bible, the Qur'an, and other religious scriptures have all been subjected to censorship and have been banned in various cities and countries. In Medieval Europe the Roman Catholic Church created a program that lasted until 1966 to deal with dissenting printed opinion; it was called the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (index of prohibited books). Over the years many books based on the scriptures have also been banned, such as Leo Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God is Within You, which was banned in Russia for being anti-establishment.
Political reasons
Governments have also sought to ban certain books which they perceive to contain material that could threaten, embarrass, or criticize them.
Social reasons
Books that deal with criminal matter have also been subjected to censorship. Small-press titles that have become infamous by being banned include The Anarchist Cookbook, E for Ecstasy, and Hit Man.
Notably, children's books that deal with death or other teenage angst or various crimes often find themselves banned perhaps because of parental worries about teenage suicide or copycat crimes. Many publications are targeted on the premise that children would be corrupted by reading them. This fear led to the creation of the Comics Code Authority in 1954.
Sexual reasons
Materials are often suppressed due to the perceived notion of obscenity. This obscenity can apply to materials that are about sexuality, race, drugs, or social standing.
Lists
- Censorship
- Cult fiction
- List of banned books
- List of authors banned during the Third Reich
- Banned films
- Book burning
- The Roman Catholic Church's Index Librorum Prohibitorum
- List of controversial books
- Freedom of the press
- The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France
- Underground literature
