Censorship

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Censorship

• Think of a book or movie that has influenced you
  in some way
• What would be lost if no one could ever read the
  book or see the movie again?

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What is Censorship?
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Types of censorship

• Challenges to material
• Banning of material
• Destroying material

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Where does censorship take place?

• Schools textbooks, reading material
• Libraries
• ?

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Reasons for Censorship

• Family values
• Religion
• Political views

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General Principles for the Compilation of
Blacklists1933-1939

• Literature that undermines way of thinking
  living
• Predominantly Jewish authors
• Cleansing should be done in stages
• Materials categorized in 3 groups
• Group 1 to be destroyed
• Group 2 to be put into Poison Cabinet
• Group 3 requires future assessment to be put into
  1 or 2
• Replacement with new literature

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Evaluation Guidelines1935

• Works of traitors, emigrants, anyone who attacks
  the new Germany
• Marxism, Communism, Bolshevism
• Liberal, democratic tendencies and attitudes
• All historical works denigrating German culture
  or racial and structural order of Germany
• Philosophical and social works dealing with false
  science of Darwinism or Monism

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Evaluation Guidelines, cont.

• Decadent, bloodless, or constructivist art
• Writings on sexuality or sex education
• Decadent writings of middle class urban society
• All literature by Jewish authors
• All entertainment literature that depicts life in
  superficial, unrealistic manner based on upper
  class view of life
• All literature that ridicules, belittles
  Christianity
• When Books Burn, Univ. of Arizona

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Germany, 1932-1939

• By 1934 over 40 agencies involved with banning of
  books
• Those agencies compiled lists of 4100
  publications to be banned

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Top 10 Challenged Books in U.S.1990-2000

1. Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
2. Daddys Roommate by Michael Willhoite
3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
4. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

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Challenged books, cont.

• 6. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
• Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
• Forever by Judy Blume
• 9. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
• Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
• ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom(based on
  6,364 reported challenges)

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Reasons for Challenges1999-2000

• Sexually explicit challenges (1,607)
• Offensive language (1,427)
• Unsuitable for age group (1,256)
• Occult theme or promoting Satanism (842)
• Violent (737)
• Homosexual theme/promoting homosexuality (515)
• Promoting a religious viewpoint (419)

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Reasons, cont.

• Nudity (317)
• Racism (267)
• Sex education (224)
• Anti-family (202)

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Penn Township, PA
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What was burned?

• Disney videos Hercules, Pinocchio, Aladdin
• Ace Ventura
• The Lost World
• The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway
• Bruce Springsteen CDs
• Harry Potter

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When is censorship justified?
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Additional Reading

• American Library Association Office of
  Intellectual Freedom http//www.ala.org/alaorg/oi
  f/
• The Censorship Pages http//www.booksatoz.com/cen
  sorship/
• Book Burning http//www.ala.org/bbooks/bookburnin
  g.html
• When Books Burn (Germany, 1932-39)
  http//dizzy.library.arizona.edu/images/burnedbook
  s/documents.htm