Tuesdays, March 5 - April 16, 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
**Note there is no lecture on March 26
From Toni Morison’s Beloved to Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale to classic stories by Dr. Seuss, Roald Dahl and others, some of the world’s most popular and endearing books, considered required reading in some jurisdictions, are routinely banned in others.
In this new series from Ira Wells, a literature professor at the University of Toronto, we’ll take a lively romp through the colourful and sometimes downright hilarious history of book censorship.
We’ll ponder the legal and philosophical battles over the nature of censorship, discover why some famous authors actually wanted to be banned, and meet some of the world’s most heroic and provocative writers, from Oscar Wilde to Salman Rushdie to Margaret Atwood, whose literary brilliance drove the censors mad, with world-changing—and sometimes, tragic—consequences.
This series is led by Ira Wells, an assistant professor of literature at Victoria College in the University of Toronto. A contributing writer for publications such as The Guardian, The New Republic and The Walrus, he previously led the popular Curious Minds series Reading the Sixties: Writing the Revolution.
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March 5: From Socrates to Salman Rushdie: Censorship and the Limits of Creative Freedom
By its very definition, fiction involves stories that are untrue. And yet the history of Western print culture overflows with examples where authorities imposed draconian penalties in order to protect readers from deadly fictions. We’ll begin our series by touring some of the most explosive controversies in the history of book censorship, and consider arguments from famous authors (from George Orwell to Salman Rushdie to J. K. Rowling) who have stood up against censorship in their fictions and lives.
March 12: Writers, Scientists, Philosophers: The Targets, and Opponents, of the Index of Prohibited Books
Censorship has existed in all cultures throughout human history. Yet of all the institutional efforts to police, censor, and control books, the most ambitious and enduring was the Roman Catholic Church’s Index of Prohibited Books, a monumental apparatus of censorship that existed for some 500 years. In our second lecture, we’ll explores lives and work of the brilliant writers (Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas), scientists (Galileo, Copernicus) and philosophers (Rousseau, Kant) who were targeted by the Index—and its contemporary ramifications.
March 19: Banning Masterpieces: Ulysses, Lolita, Howl
Until the mid-twentieth-century, authorities routinely prohibited the sale of “obscene” books, even in Western jurisdictions which enjoyed some of the strongest free-speech protection in the world. One ironic result was that many masterpieces of Western culture were banned and pulped before eventually becoming the subject of influential court battles. This lecture takes up the legal history of three world classics—James Joyce’s Ulysses, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, and Allen Ginsberg’s Howl—and considers their legacy in our current legal and cultural climate.
April 2: Oscar Wilde and the Policing of Sexuality
Many of today’s most vigorously banned books are youth-oriented stories featuring LGBTQ+ characters. As we assess the life and work of the poet and playwright Oscar Wilde, whose wit, flamboyance and unrepentant homosexuality made him a target for 19th century censors, we’ll examine the centuries-long attempt to control human sexuality through controlling the transmission of subversive ideas.
April 9: Letter from Gilead: Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale
In the nearly four decades since its publication, no Canadian book has been banned as frequently as Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, often for being “anti-Christian” or sexually obscene. In this lecture, we’ll take a deep dive into Atwood’s novel and its reception, exploring how a critique of the totalitarian impulse to control women’s bodies became a prime target for those who would impose a totalitarianism of the mind.
April 16: Art, Obscenity, Freedom: The Future of Censorship
In recent years, parent groups and activist educators have turned school libraries into the front lines of book censorship, with books from Mark Twain, Harper Lee, Sherman Alexie and J. D. Salinger pulled from the shelves. In this concluding lecture we’ll discuss the ongoing battle for the minds of children and ponder the future of book banning and free speech in an age of increasing polarization.