In this Book

University of Minnesota Press
summary
The “new” censorship of the arts, some cultural critics say, is just one more item on the “new” Right's agenda, and is part and parcel of attempts to regulate sexuality, curtail female reproductive rights, deny civil rights to gays and lesbians, and privatize public institutions.  Although they do not contest this assessment, the writers gathered here expose crucial difficulties in using censorship, old and new, as a tool for cultural criticism. 

Focusing on historical moments ranging from early modern Europe to the postmodern United States, and covering a variety of media from books and paintings to film and photography, their essays seek a deeper understanding of what “censorship,” “criticism,” and the “public sphere” really mean.

Getting rid of the censor, the contributors suggest, does not eliminate the problem of censorship.  In varied but complementary ways, they view censorship as something more than a negative, unified institutional practice used to repress certain discourses.  Instead, the authors contend that censorship actually legitimates discourses-not only by allowing them to circulate but by staging their circulation as performances through which “good” and “bad” discourses are differentiated and opposed.

These essays move discussions of censorship out of the present discourse of diversity into what might be called a discourse of legitimation.  In doing so, they open up the possibility of realignments between those who are disenchanted with both stereotypical right-wing criticisms of political critics and aesthetics and stereotypical left-wing defenses.

Contributors: Richard Burt, Stuart Culver, Donald Hedrick, Christian Jouhaud, Michael G. Levine, Timothy Murray, Aamir Mufti, David Norbrook, Dennis Porter, Brook Thomas, Jirina Smejkalová-Strickland, Jeffrey Wallen, and Rob Wilson.

Table of Contents

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  1. Cover
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  1. Title Page, Copyright
  2. pp. i-v
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  1. Contents
  2. pp. vii-viii
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  1. Acknowledgments
  2. p. ix
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  1. Introduction: The "New" Censorship
  2. Richard Burt
  3. pp. xi-xxix
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  1. Part I. Criticism, Censorship, and the Early Modern Public Sphere
  1. 1. Areopagitica, Censorship, and the Early Modern Public Sphere
  2. David Norbrook
  3. pp. 3-33
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  1. 2. Power and Literature: The Terms of the Exchange 1624–42
  2. Christian Jouhaud
  3. pp. 34-82
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  1. 3. Flower Power: Shakespearean Deep Bawdy and the Botanical Perverse
  2. pp. 83-105
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  1. 4. Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Policing the Aesthetic from the Left
  2. Dennis Porter
  3. pp. 106-122
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  1. Part II. Censorship and Modernity
  1. 5. Ulysses on Trial: Some Supplementary Reading
  2. Brook Thomas
  3. pp. 125-148
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  1. 6. Whistler v. Ruskin: The Courts, the Public, and Modern Art
  2. Stuart Culver
  3. pp. 149-167
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  1. 7. Freud and the Scene of Censorship
  2. Michael G. Levine
  3. pp. 168-191
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  1. Part III. The New Censorship and Postmodernity
  1. 8. Censoring Canons: Transitions and Prospects of Literary Institutions in Czechoslovakia
  2. Jirina Smejkalovd-Strickland
  3. pp. 195-215
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  1. 9. "Degenerate 'Art'": Public Aesthetics and the Simulation of Censorship in Postliberal Los Angeles and Berlin
  2. Richard Burt
  3. pp. 216-259
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  1. 10. The Contrast Hurts: Censoring the Ladies Liberty in Performance
  2. Timothy Murray
  3. pp. 260-288
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  1. 11. Cyborg America: Policing the Social Sublime in Robocop and Robocop 2
  2. Rob Wilson
  3. pp. 289-306
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  1. 12. Reading the Rushdie Affair: "Islam," Cultural Politics, Form
  2. Aamir Mufti
  3. pp. 307-339
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  1. 13. Conclusion: Political Correctness: The Revenge of the Liberals
  2. Jeffrey Wallen
  3. pp. 340-369
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  1. Contributors
  2. pp. 371-373
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  1. Index
  2. pp. 375-381
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