The Literary History of Censorship

Censorship of literature is not a new phenomenon - but it is something we encounter again in new ways. TikTok, Instagram and Facebook remove user content citing so-called community guidelines, and books are blacklisted worldwide, including in the Western world. In the USA, titles like 'The Diary of Anne Frank' and the Harry Potter series are being removed from libraries on a large scale.

The lecture traces the development of censorship through history: what has been forbidden at different times, and why. The starting point is Denmark, but with a look at international literature. Along the way, we encounter absolutism's critic number one, Jacob Worm, lampoons with erotic undertones, Herman Bang's debut novel 'Hopeless Generations' and John Cleland's 18th-century classic 'Fanny Hill'. Both political satire and erotic literature are on the programme, and the lecture discusses how literature puts society's boundaries up for negotiation.

The lecturer is Christina Holst Færch, lecturer in Danish and history at Silkeborg Gymnasium and PhD in early literature from Aarhus University. She is the author of 'Forbidden Literature - Censorship in Denmark from Absolutism to Facebook' (Systime 2021) and 'Lampoons, Gossip and Erotic Verse in the 18th Century' (Museum Tusculanum Press 2019).

Venue: Salonen