Issue 44 / May 2012
Banned books: forbidden fruit?
This month celebrates intellectual freedom and our 'right to read' in the form of Banned Books Week. From 24th September to 1st October, events at libraries across the country will discuss problems of censorship, highlighting books that have been banned or challenged over the years.
Historically controversial novels such as Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover or Nabokov's Lolita will of course feature. But, as last week's dismissal of Haruki Murakami's cult classic Norwegian Wood from a US school reading list suggests, contemporary novels still have the power to shock and offend. Following complaints made by parents about the novel's 'inappropriate' content (notably a sexual encounter between a 13-year-old girl and an older woman), the board of Williamstown High School, New Jersey removed the novel from their 10th-grade reading list. The decision has divided opinion and sparked intense debate.
Applauding the board's decision, Peter Sprigg from the Family Research Council decried the book as an example of the "hyper-sexualisation of our youth and the homosexual agenda being pushed". The inclusion of it on the reading list, he continued, "offended" parental values.
In its defence, Chuck Earling, the superintendent of Monroe Township Schools in Williamstown reasoned that the novel had been chosen precisely to "spur interest in kids' reading that fits their needs, not that of people in the 1930s." Of course, there is a high chance that the outrage surrounding the book will spur all the more interest in reading as students flock to the forbidden text.
Formal challenges against 'inappropriate' material contained in schoolbooks are a regular occurrence in the US, but despite the odd case here and there, similar protests are rare in this country. Why? Perhaps the answer resides in the disparity between the level of local control over schools. While school boards in the US can withdraw books that parents have petitioned against, here in the UK control over choice of texts is ultimately reserved for individual head teachers.
But could it also be that British parents are less likely to kick up a fuss about novels studied in school because it might seem preferable for these matters to be dealt with in a controlled and supervised environment? In a society bombarded by sexual imagery, violence and bad language (and poor inter-generational communication), the novel may be the ideal vehicle through which to explore taboo topics.
Banned Books Week takes place from 24th September to 1st October.
Marion Poerio
Monday, 5 September, 2011
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