Introduction.

What is it about a few pages of paper bearing the inscriptions of its writer that can cause such controversy? Censorship and the destruction of books has a long and torrid history. Through research I aim to discover the history of book banning and censorship and the reasons why books are the victims of such destruction. What are the agendas fuelling the destruction of books? What effects does this have on a community?


In my current stage of reading I have come to the opinion that censorship and book banning and/or destruction can run down two different pathways of thought. In one sense books are censored and banned because their content is considered too sexually scandalous or erotic. Themes of sexuality, anatomy, violence and supernatural content have caused outrage within society in various eras. Fear that the minds of readers will be corrupted by reading certain literature is one of the agendas behind censorship coupled with the fear that readers will turn to immoral behaviours through the influence of reading certain texts. A recent example of this is with the Harry Potter books, with religious groups in America banning the Harry Potter series as they were fearful the series of books about a boy wizard would encourage an unhealthy interest in paganism and witchcraft amongst children.

On the other hand we have the destruction of whole collections of books relating to a specific culture. This form of censorship and book banning aims to obliterate an entire section of a community/country for racial and/or religious reasons. It is a form of domination and control by keeping groups of people uneducated about their cultural history, in order to eventually destroy this particular group. By erasing a culture’s traditions, beliefs and memories, power and knowledge are diminished. There have been many incidences of the pillaging of books relating to a specific culture in the past that was the forewarning for much more severe atrocities. One example we can look to is the Holocaust, wherein the Nazi authorities pillaged several libraries and burned, willfully lost or destroyed over 20 million books. These acts of cultural destruction and relocation were a prelude to the propaganda campaign against the Jewish community and eventually the mass murders of millions of Jews in World War Two in the 1940’s.



References

Fishburn, M 2008, Burning Books, Palgrave Macmillan, Hampshire, New York.

Knuth, R 2003, Libricide: The regime-sponsored destruction of books and libraries in the twentieth century, Praeger, Westport, Connecticut.

Sullivan, J 2010, ‘Censorship and sensibility’, The Age, 10 July, A2, p12-13. (N.B: article written corresponded with the Monash Rare Books ‘Lewd and Scandalous Books’ exhibition 14 July-30 September, 2010 and the Conferences held at the Wheeler Centre Auditorium.)