William J. Maxwell
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691130200
- eISBN:
- 9781400852062
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691130200.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Few institutions seem more opposed than African American literature and J. Edgar Hoover's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). But behind the scenes, the FBI's hostility to black protest was ...
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Few institutions seem more opposed than African American literature and J. Edgar Hoover's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). But behind the scenes, the FBI's hostility to black protest was energized by fear of and respect for black writing. Drawing on nearly 14,000 pages of newly released FBI files, this book exposes the Bureau's intimate policing of five decades of African American poems, plays, essays, and novels. Starting in 1919, year one of Harlem's renaissance and Hoover's career at the Bureau, secretive FBI “ghostreaders” monitored the latest developments in African American letters. By the time of Hoover's death in 1972, these ghostreaders knew enough to simulate a sinister black literature of their own. The official aim behind the Bureau 's close reading was to anticipate political unrest. Yet, as this book reveals, FBI surveillance came to influence the creation and public reception of African American literature in the heart of the twentieth century. This book details how the FBI threatened the international travels of African American writers and prepared to jail dozens of them in times of national emergency. All the same, it shows that the Bureau's paranoid style could prompt insightful criticism from Hoover's ghostreaders and creative replies from their literary targets. For authors such as Claude McKay, James Baldwin, and Sonia Sanchez, the suspicion that government spy-critics tracked their every word inspired rewarding stylistic experiments as well as disabling self-censorship. Illuminating both the serious harms of state surveillance and the ways in which imaginative writing can withstand and exploit it, this book is a groundbreaking account of a long-hidden dimension of African American literature.Less
Few institutions seem more opposed than African American literature and J. Edgar Hoover's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). But behind the scenes, the FBI's hostility to black protest was energized by fear of and respect for black writing. Drawing on nearly 14,000 pages of newly released FBI files, this book exposes the Bureau's intimate policing of five decades of African American poems, plays, essays, and novels. Starting in 1919, year one of Harlem's renaissance and Hoover's career at the Bureau, secretive FBI “ghostreaders” monitored the latest developments in African American letters. By the time of Hoover's death in 1972, these ghostreaders knew enough to simulate a sinister black literature of their own. The official aim behind the Bureau 's close reading was to anticipate political unrest. Yet, as this book reveals, FBI surveillance came to influence the creation and public reception of African American literature in the heart of the twentieth century. This book details how the FBI threatened the international travels of African American writers and prepared to jail dozens of them in times of national emergency. All the same, it shows that the Bureau's paranoid style could prompt insightful criticism from Hoover's ghostreaders and creative replies from their literary targets. For authors such as Claude McKay, James Baldwin, and Sonia Sanchez, the suspicion that government spy-critics tracked their every word inspired rewarding stylistic experiments as well as disabling self-censorship. Illuminating both the serious harms of state surveillance and the ways in which imaginative writing can withstand and exploit it, this book is a groundbreaking account of a long-hidden dimension of African American literature.
David Thomas, David Carlton, and Anne Etienne
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199260287
- eISBN:
- 9780191717390
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199260287.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, Drama
This chapter investigates whether any new forms of censorship have faced the theatre since the passing of the 1968 Theatres Act. After an account of attempts to bring prosecutions against plays or ...
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This chapter investigates whether any new forms of censorship have faced the theatre since the passing of the 1968 Theatres Act. After an account of attempts to bring prosecutions against plays or theatre practitioners since 1968, it explores whether — in the view of theatre companies, theatre practitioners, and playwrights — any forms of covert censorship have replaced statutory theatre censorship since 1968. Using an empirical methodology, the chapter attempts to provide a reliable snapshot of the views of theatre professionals in 2002-2003. The final section of the chapter makes use of source material from newspapers and web pages to give an account of a new form of attempted, pressure-group censorship emerging after scenes of actual or threatened violence in Birmingham and London in 2004-2005. The chapter concludes by asking whether such direct action will lead to renewed government censorship or to new forms of cautious self-censorship.Less
This chapter investigates whether any new forms of censorship have faced the theatre since the passing of the 1968 Theatres Act. After an account of attempts to bring prosecutions against plays or theatre practitioners since 1968, it explores whether — in the view of theatre companies, theatre practitioners, and playwrights — any forms of covert censorship have replaced statutory theatre censorship since 1968. Using an empirical methodology, the chapter attempts to provide a reliable snapshot of the views of theatre professionals in 2002-2003. The final section of the chapter makes use of source material from newspapers and web pages to give an account of a new form of attempted, pressure-group censorship emerging after scenes of actual or threatened violence in Birmingham and London in 2004-2005. The chapter concludes by asking whether such direct action will lead to renewed government censorship or to new forms of cautious self-censorship.
Ellen Wiles
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231173285
- eISBN:
- 9780231539296
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231173285.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Asian Politics
This chapter draws together the themes and ideas from the book; situates the writers and their literary work transition by providing a contextual overview of the political, social, legal, artistic ...
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This chapter draws together the themes and ideas from the book; situates the writers and their literary work transition by providing a contextual overview of the political, social, legal, artistic and literary culture during the current phase of transition; and offers some concluding thoughts.Less
This chapter draws together the themes and ideas from the book; situates the writers and their literary work transition by providing a contextual overview of the political, social, legal, artistic and literary culture during the current phase of transition; and offers some concluding thoughts.
Nicholas Harrison
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198159094
- eISBN:
- 9780191673481
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159094.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
It is important to note that the discourses of moral censorship included an implicit notion that censorship may become unnecessary if it is carried out efficiently and in good faith. Censorship is ...
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It is important to note that the discourses of moral censorship included an implicit notion that censorship may become unnecessary if it is carried out efficiently and in good faith. Censorship is found to supplement self-censorship. Aside from providing standards for its object group, it also offers external reinforcement to the group'S own standards. For the Index, these standards involved Christian morality while for post-revolutionary censorship, only ‘abuses’ would cause conflict as freedom of expression guaranteed Republican values. Freud's notion of censorship had its own milieu, and it is important for historical information regarding this milieu to be identified. This chapter studies Freud's model which involves complementarity and mutual supplementarity of self-censorship and censorship.Less
It is important to note that the discourses of moral censorship included an implicit notion that censorship may become unnecessary if it is carried out efficiently and in good faith. Censorship is found to supplement self-censorship. Aside from providing standards for its object group, it also offers external reinforcement to the group'S own standards. For the Index, these standards involved Christian morality while for post-revolutionary censorship, only ‘abuses’ would cause conflict as freedom of expression guaranteed Republican values. Freud's notion of censorship had its own milieu, and it is important for historical information regarding this milieu to be identified. This chapter studies Freud's model which involves complementarity and mutual supplementarity of self-censorship and censorship.
Kam Louie (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789888083794
- eISBN:
- 9789882209060
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083794.003.0011
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
Focusing on Little Reunion, a key text for interpreting the series of self-fashioning performances Eileen Chang directed at Chinese reading publics as her imagined spectators, confessors, and ...
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Focusing on Little Reunion, a key text for interpreting the series of self-fashioning performances Eileen Chang directed at Chinese reading publics as her imagined spectators, confessors, and adjudicators, this chapter argues that for Chang, autobiographical fiction calls for a unique and delicate balancing act between rhetoricity and historicity, imagination and factuality. An autobiographical text is neither a simple verbal construct of indeterminable referents, nor the mechanical recording of indisputable facts, but rather a process of self-recollecting and self-enactment repeated with an inescapable difference over time. Little Reunion brings the intersubjective politics of representation into high relief. Chang's desire for self-articulation and self-fashioning contends with the inscriptional authority of her former lover Hu Lancheng. Moreover, her desire to search for her roots, and in particular to construct a group portrait of her extended family, creates tension with the traditional Confucian expectation that respectful children/descendants should speak only selectively and positively about their parents/ancestors. Complicating her bid for access to inscriptional and cultural authority is the traditional marginality of women's self-representation. As a female autobiographical subject seeking to publicly interpret herself and the significant others in her life, Chang ineluctably confronts the gender bias of reigning literary, political, and social values.Less
Focusing on Little Reunion, a key text for interpreting the series of self-fashioning performances Eileen Chang directed at Chinese reading publics as her imagined spectators, confessors, and adjudicators, this chapter argues that for Chang, autobiographical fiction calls for a unique and delicate balancing act between rhetoricity and historicity, imagination and factuality. An autobiographical text is neither a simple verbal construct of indeterminable referents, nor the mechanical recording of indisputable facts, but rather a process of self-recollecting and self-enactment repeated with an inescapable difference over time. Little Reunion brings the intersubjective politics of representation into high relief. Chang's desire for self-articulation and self-fashioning contends with the inscriptional authority of her former lover Hu Lancheng. Moreover, her desire to search for her roots, and in particular to construct a group portrait of her extended family, creates tension with the traditional Confucian expectation that respectful children/descendants should speak only selectively and positively about their parents/ancestors. Complicating her bid for access to inscriptional and cultural authority is the traditional marginality of women's self-representation. As a female autobiographical subject seeking to publicly interpret herself and the significant others in her life, Chang ineluctably confronts the gender bias of reigning literary, political, and social values.
William Olmsted
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- December 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780190238636
- eISBN:
- 9780190238650
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190238636.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
The book argues that the stylistic features that prompted the criminal indictment of Madame Bovary and Les Fleurs du Mal were the products of an intense struggle and negotiation with a culture of ...
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The book argues that the stylistic features that prompted the criminal indictment of Madame Bovary and Les Fleurs du Mal were the products of an intense struggle and negotiation with a culture of censorship. It maintains that the stylistic features celebrated as hallmarks of modernism—Flaubert’s free indirect discourse, Baudelaire’s multiple poetic personae—are in fact the products of this struggle with censorship. The narrative of modernism that begins with the autonomous writer and extends forward to the autonomous, depersonalized, and autoreferential artwork tends to detach writing from interaction with its socioeconomic context. But censorship not only shaped the very composition of Madame Bovary and Les Fleurs du Mal but affected their reception and continues to operate in the field of literary criticism. Far from manifesting the autonomy proclaimed by modernism’s defenders, both works show (and retain) signs of self-censorship or, more bluntly, collaboration with a regime of ethical and political censorship. French modernism begins and remains deeply embedded in a culture of censorship whose proprieties, both literary and social, Baudelaire and Flaubert nevertheless challenged and transgressed.Less
The book argues that the stylistic features that prompted the criminal indictment of Madame Bovary and Les Fleurs du Mal were the products of an intense struggle and negotiation with a culture of censorship. It maintains that the stylistic features celebrated as hallmarks of modernism—Flaubert’s free indirect discourse, Baudelaire’s multiple poetic personae—are in fact the products of this struggle with censorship. The narrative of modernism that begins with the autonomous writer and extends forward to the autonomous, depersonalized, and autoreferential artwork tends to detach writing from interaction with its socioeconomic context. But censorship not only shaped the very composition of Madame Bovary and Les Fleurs du Mal but affected their reception and continues to operate in the field of literary criticism. Far from manifesting the autonomy proclaimed by modernism’s defenders, both works show (and retain) signs of self-censorship or, more bluntly, collaboration with a regime of ethical and political censorship. French modernism begins and remains deeply embedded in a culture of censorship whose proprieties, both literary and social, Baudelaire and Flaubert nevertheless challenged and transgressed.
Hillel Cohen
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520257672
- eISBN:
- 9780520944886
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520257672.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History
One of the tasks collaborators were assigned was to pass on information about people who spoke out against the state of Israel, its leaders, or its institutions. Critical statements were recorded in ...
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One of the tasks collaborators were assigned was to pass on information about people who spoke out against the state of Israel, its leaders, or its institutions. Critical statements were recorded in the dossiers of those who made them; the police goal was to have a file on every adult Arab citizen, especially those who were criminally and politically active. In the big picture, this collection of utterances had three purposes: to keep tabs on the general mood of the Arab population, to identify individuals who might potentially take action against the state, and to establish boundaries for the permitted discourse of Arabs in Israel. From the start, the security forces took a special interest in collecting statements against collaboration and collaborators. The security forces institutionalized their surveillance of Arab speech. Self-censorship also became an established practice. In addition, they severely punished teachers who expressed opinions opposed to those of the system. This chapter examines the violent clash between two ideologies and their symbols: the Jewish state and its emblems versus Arab nationalism and its emblems.Less
One of the tasks collaborators were assigned was to pass on information about people who spoke out against the state of Israel, its leaders, or its institutions. Critical statements were recorded in the dossiers of those who made them; the police goal was to have a file on every adult Arab citizen, especially those who were criminally and politically active. In the big picture, this collection of utterances had three purposes: to keep tabs on the general mood of the Arab population, to identify individuals who might potentially take action against the state, and to establish boundaries for the permitted discourse of Arabs in Israel. From the start, the security forces took a special interest in collecting statements against collaboration and collaborators. The security forces institutionalized their surveillance of Arab speech. Self-censorship also became an established practice. In addition, they severely punished teachers who expressed opinions opposed to those of the system. This chapter examines the violent clash between two ideologies and their symbols: the Jewish state and its emblems versus Arab nationalism and its emblems.
John E. Joseph
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748624522
- eISBN:
- 9780748671458
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748624522.003.0005
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
This discusses taboo language and its restriction. It covers swearing; the language police state; the politics of (self-)censorship; hate speech; and the right to hear no evil.
This discusses taboo language and its restriction. It covers swearing; the language police state; the politics of (self-)censorship; hate speech; and the right to hear no evil.
Holly Gayley
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780231180528
- eISBN:
- 9780231542753
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231180528.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
Chapter 2 examines the hagiographic portrait of Tāre Lhamo as a local heroine during the years leading up to and including the Cultural Revolution. The representation of this period in her ...
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Chapter 2 examines the hagiographic portrait of Tāre Lhamo as a local heroine during the years leading up to and including the Cultural Revolution. The representation of this period in her hagiography, Spiraling Vine of Faith, elides the specter of state and her own personal losses and instead narrates the period through a series of miracle tales that portray Tāre Lhamo as a tantric heroine, addressing the immediate needs of her local community. In this way, I argue that Spiraling Vine of Faith constructs a redemptive narrative amid the devastation of the Maoist period and provides a poignant means for restoring a sense of Tibetan agency in the wake of cultural trauma.Less
Chapter 2 examines the hagiographic portrait of Tāre Lhamo as a local heroine during the years leading up to and including the Cultural Revolution. The representation of this period in her hagiography, Spiraling Vine of Faith, elides the specter of state and her own personal losses and instead narrates the period through a series of miracle tales that portray Tāre Lhamo as a tantric heroine, addressing the immediate needs of her local community. In this way, I argue that Spiraling Vine of Faith constructs a redemptive narrative amid the devastation of the Maoist period and provides a poignant means for restoring a sense of Tibetan agency in the wake of cultural trauma.
John Humphrys
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748617173
- eISBN:
- 9780748671113
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748617173.003.0028
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Television
In this lecture, the author, a distinguished television journalist who presented BBC Radio 4's Today programme from 1987, examines two connected themes. First, bad television has become damaging, ...
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In this lecture, the author, a distinguished television journalist who presented BBC Radio 4's Today programme from 1987, examines two connected themes. First, bad television has become damaging, meretricious, seedy, cynical and harmful to society. Second, if journalists engage in self-censorship post-Hutton this will harm democracy. After watching ten tapes illustrating the ‘case for television’, the author concludes that reality TV is the culprit behind the worst television, which has become preoccupied with sex, confrontation, aggression and violent language, ‘even in the soaps’. One defence is the ‘no brow’ argument, which suggests that television programming should no longer be classified into high or low brow, but simply as ‘no brow’. The author also considers how news has fared while other television output has changed so radically. He also comments on the politics of journalism and concludes by arguing for more, not less, in-depth interviews with politicians, more investigative journalism and more ‘straightforward political analysis’.Less
In this lecture, the author, a distinguished television journalist who presented BBC Radio 4's Today programme from 1987, examines two connected themes. First, bad television has become damaging, meretricious, seedy, cynical and harmful to society. Second, if journalists engage in self-censorship post-Hutton this will harm democracy. After watching ten tapes illustrating the ‘case for television’, the author concludes that reality TV is the culprit behind the worst television, which has become preoccupied with sex, confrontation, aggression and violent language, ‘even in the soaps’. One defence is the ‘no brow’ argument, which suggests that television programming should no longer be classified into high or low brow, but simply as ‘no brow’. The author also considers how news has fared while other television output has changed so radically. He also comments on the politics of journalism and concludes by arguing for more, not less, in-depth interviews with politicians, more investigative journalism and more ‘straightforward political analysis’.
Kenneth R. Johnston
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199657803
- eISBN:
- 9780191771576
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199657803.003.0017
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
Robert Burns’s general reputation does not seem to be that of a political suspect, but his legacy has been bitterly contested in political terms ever since his early death in 1796. In this respect, ...
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Robert Burns’s general reputation does not seem to be that of a political suspect, but his legacy has been bitterly contested in political terms ever since his early death in 1796. In this respect, he is a victim of Pitt’s policies of Alarm. He was dependent on local gentry and Edinburgh aristocrats, but had to hide his politics from them. His position in the Excise Office prevented him from political activity, forcing him to express his liberalism indirectly, including anonymous publication and coded language. Denounced by enemies, his political conduct was subjected to official inquiry. He was cleared, but the prospect of losing his job and facing debtors’ prison terrified him. He collected many Scottish folk songs, in which he could more freely express his opinions. He knew of Thomas Muir and the other ‘Scottish Martyrs,’ but his only poetical mention of them reveals his shame at having to keep silent.Less
Robert Burns’s general reputation does not seem to be that of a political suspect, but his legacy has been bitterly contested in political terms ever since his early death in 1796. In this respect, he is a victim of Pitt’s policies of Alarm. He was dependent on local gentry and Edinburgh aristocrats, but had to hide his politics from them. His position in the Excise Office prevented him from political activity, forcing him to express his liberalism indirectly, including anonymous publication and coded language. Denounced by enemies, his political conduct was subjected to official inquiry. He was cleared, but the prospect of losing his job and facing debtors’ prison terrified him. He collected many Scottish folk songs, in which he could more freely express his opinions. He knew of Thomas Muir and the other ‘Scottish Martyrs,’ but his only poetical mention of them reveals his shame at having to keep silent.
Barry Langford
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748638574
- eISBN:
- 9780748671076
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748638574.003.0002
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The Hollywood film industry at the end of World War II was very lightly regulated. Yet a variety of forms of regulation played a vital role in sustaining the intricate and profitable mechanisms of ...
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The Hollywood film industry at the end of World War II was very lightly regulated. Yet a variety of forms of regulation played a vital role in sustaining the intricate and profitable mechanisms of the studio system. The most obvious and visible of these was the self-censorship of motion picture content though the industry-sponsored, arm's-length Production Code Administration (PCA), run since 1934 by Joseph Breen. The effective regulation of output through the operations of an assembly line-like system of production, distribution and exhibition was central to the business model of the Big Five studios. This chapter examines the Supreme Court decision in the 1948 case United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. et al. — the famous ‘Paramount Decree’ — which revisited and definitively resolved the question of whether the major studios constituted a ‘trust’ in the terms of U.S. commercial law, that is, a cartel operating illegitimately to restrict market freedom in a given industry. It also discusses the rise of independent studios after Paramount and the impact of television on the film industry.Less
The Hollywood film industry at the end of World War II was very lightly regulated. Yet a variety of forms of regulation played a vital role in sustaining the intricate and profitable mechanisms of the studio system. The most obvious and visible of these was the self-censorship of motion picture content though the industry-sponsored, arm's-length Production Code Administration (PCA), run since 1934 by Joseph Breen. The effective regulation of output through the operations of an assembly line-like system of production, distribution and exhibition was central to the business model of the Big Five studios. This chapter examines the Supreme Court decision in the 1948 case United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. et al. — the famous ‘Paramount Decree’ — which revisited and definitively resolved the question of whether the major studios constituted a ‘trust’ in the terms of U.S. commercial law, that is, a cartel operating illegitimately to restrict market freedom in a given industry. It also discusses the rise of independent studios after Paramount and the impact of television on the film industry.
Maria Belodubrovskaya
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781501709944
- eISBN:
- 9781501713804
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501709944.003.0004
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Chapter Three discusses the implications of the director-centered mode of film production and suggests why entrusting self-governance and self-censorship to a select group of director-masters was ...
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Chapter Three discusses the implications of the director-centered mode of film production and suggests why entrusting self-governance and self-censorship to a select group of director-masters was counterproductive. The Soviet film industry did not have producers, and only directors had the creative and technical expertise to make films. This unique expertise, which was hard to replicate, as well as their status as “engineers of human souls,” put Soviet film directors in a formidable position vis-à-vis the party-state. Moreover, most of them were not propagandists, but artists, and their professional agenda was never entirely subsumed by Stalinism.Less
Chapter Three discusses the implications of the director-centered mode of film production and suggests why entrusting self-governance and self-censorship to a select group of director-masters was counterproductive. The Soviet film industry did not have producers, and only directors had the creative and technical expertise to make films. This unique expertise, which was hard to replicate, as well as their status as “engineers of human souls,” put Soviet film directors in a formidable position vis-à-vis the party-state. Moreover, most of them were not propagandists, but artists, and their professional agenda was never entirely subsumed by Stalinism.
Maria Belodubrovskaya
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781501709944
- eISBN:
- 9781501713804
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501709944.003.0006
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Soviet censors were also poorly equipped to guide filmmakers. Censorship was primarily carried out by the industry itself, which created conflicts of interest and contributed to risk aversion. When ...
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Soviet censors were also poorly equipped to guide filmmakers. Censorship was primarily carried out by the industry itself, which created conflicts of interest and contributed to risk aversion. When industry self-censorship proved unsuccessful, Stalin and the Central Committee apparatus intervened. Stalin’s involvement and party censorship, the outcome of which was hard to predict, introduced extreme uncertainty and lack of responsibility to the already compromised self-censorship, making it only less productive. It was not the strength of censorship, but its weaknesses that made it impossible for Soviet cinema to properly function. While industry censors multiplied, film production slowed.Less
Soviet censors were also poorly equipped to guide filmmakers. Censorship was primarily carried out by the industry itself, which created conflicts of interest and contributed to risk aversion. When industry self-censorship proved unsuccessful, Stalin and the Central Committee apparatus intervened. Stalin’s involvement and party censorship, the outcome of which was hard to predict, introduced extreme uncertainty and lack of responsibility to the already compromised self-censorship, making it only less productive. It was not the strength of censorship, but its weaknesses that made it impossible for Soviet cinema to properly function. While industry censors multiplied, film production slowed.
Francis M Nevins
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199272235
- eISBN:
- 9780191699603
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199272235.003.0006
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law
This chapter talks about motion pictures made during the first golden age of juriscinema, which is during the period from the 1920s to mid-1934. Most of these films are no longer available and only a ...
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This chapter talks about motion pictures made during the first golden age of juriscinema, which is during the period from the 1920s to mid-1934. Most of these films are no longer available and only a very limited number can be found in the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) collection. This chapter reviews the film Counsellor at Law, provides an overview of the film made outside the US, and outlines the impact on juriscinema of the curtain of self-censorship that fell over Hollywood in the summer of 1934.Less
This chapter talks about motion pictures made during the first golden age of juriscinema, which is during the period from the 1920s to mid-1934. Most of these films are no longer available and only a very limited number can be found in the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) collection. This chapter reviews the film Counsellor at Law, provides an overview of the film made outside the US, and outlines the impact on juriscinema of the curtain of self-censorship that fell over Hollywood in the summer of 1934.
Sarah Oates
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199735952
- eISBN:
- 9780199332465
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199735952.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Russian Politics, Democratization
By the end of 2011, it became clear the internet had changed the political landscape in Russia as the largest street protests since 1993 were triggered by reports of election falsification. This ...
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By the end of 2011, it became clear the internet had changed the political landscape in Russia as the largest street protests since 1993 were triggered by reports of election falsification. This chapter analyzes a combination of factors that contributed to the Russian “winter of discontent”: (1) the failure of state media controls that relied on self-censorship; (2) an online sphere that was freer than traditional mass media; (3) an explosion in internet use that eroded the dominance of state-run television; (4) a lack of understanding about citizen attitudes and the online sphere on the part of the Kremlin; (5) crowd-sourcing; (6) online political networks; and (7) the role of online social entrepreneurs. In conjunction with these factors, reports of widespread electoral falsification served as a particularly emotive and powerful protest trigger for Russian citizens.Less
By the end of 2011, it became clear the internet had changed the political landscape in Russia as the largest street protests since 1993 were triggered by reports of election falsification. This chapter analyzes a combination of factors that contributed to the Russian “winter of discontent”: (1) the failure of state media controls that relied on self-censorship; (2) an online sphere that was freer than traditional mass media; (3) an explosion in internet use that eroded the dominance of state-run television; (4) a lack of understanding about citizen attitudes and the online sphere on the part of the Kremlin; (5) crowd-sourcing; (6) online political networks; and (7) the role of online social entrepreneurs. In conjunction with these factors, reports of widespread electoral falsification served as a particularly emotive and powerful protest trigger for Russian citizens.
Jessica M. Fishman
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780814770757
- eISBN:
- 9780814724361
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814770757.003.0004
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Television
Can bad timing or insufficient access explain why photojournalism rarely bears witness to death? It becomes clear that logistical challenges are not the problem. In fact, major resources are ...
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Can bad timing or insufficient access explain why photojournalism rarely bears witness to death? It becomes clear that logistical challenges are not the problem. In fact, major resources are leveraged successfully to assure that photojournalists achieve ample and immediate access. Ironically, despite the copious resources devoted to granting photojournalists immediate access, they are often willing to turn a blind eye. The missing images reflect an editorial drive among photojournalists and their editors to conceal the corpse. The gaps in the visual record of images are an artefact of choice—an act of self-censorship.Less
Can bad timing or insufficient access explain why photojournalism rarely bears witness to death? It becomes clear that logistical challenges are not the problem. In fact, major resources are leveraged successfully to assure that photojournalists achieve ample and immediate access. Ironically, despite the copious resources devoted to granting photojournalists immediate access, they are often willing to turn a blind eye. The missing images reflect an editorial drive among photojournalists and their editors to conceal the corpse. The gaps in the visual record of images are an artefact of choice—an act of self-censorship.
Martha C. Nussbaum
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199777853
- eISBN:
- 9780190267612
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199777853.003.0037
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This chapter reviews the book That's offensive! Criticism, Identity, Respect (2010), by Stefan Collini. It comments on Collini's defense of rigorous criticism and his failure to appreciate the virtue ...
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This chapter reviews the book That's offensive! Criticism, Identity, Respect (2010), by Stefan Collini. It comments on Collini's defense of rigorous criticism and his failure to appreciate the virtue of civility as well as the special demands it makes when a majority is discussing traditionally stigmatized groups. Collini values the no-holds-barred give-and-take of argument and believes that open debate of this sort is a valuable ingredient in political life. According to Collini, we have entered an era in which people shrink from challenge and want to be surrounded only by the like-minded; or those who will not subject the cherished beliefs others hold to searching criticism. Particularly when beliefs are bound up with a religious, ethnic, or other group identity, people expect to be able to shield them from criticism, and would-be critics have learned to silence themselves. Collini maintains that we are all the worse for this self-censorship. He also argues that the threat of violence should never be used as a device to stifle debate: a climate in which people fear violence if they give offense is incompatible with an open political culture in which all receive equal respect.Less
This chapter reviews the book That's offensive! Criticism, Identity, Respect (2010), by Stefan Collini. It comments on Collini's defense of rigorous criticism and his failure to appreciate the virtue of civility as well as the special demands it makes when a majority is discussing traditionally stigmatized groups. Collini values the no-holds-barred give-and-take of argument and believes that open debate of this sort is a valuable ingredient in political life. According to Collini, we have entered an era in which people shrink from challenge and want to be surrounded only by the like-minded; or those who will not subject the cherished beliefs others hold to searching criticism. Particularly when beliefs are bound up with a religious, ethnic, or other group identity, people expect to be able to shield them from criticism, and would-be critics have learned to silence themselves. Collini maintains that we are all the worse for this self-censorship. He also argues that the threat of violence should never be used as a device to stifle debate: a climate in which people fear violence if they give offense is incompatible with an open political culture in which all receive equal respect.
Joel Simon
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231160643
- eISBN:
- 9780231538336
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231160643.003.0008
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter considers two countries where journalists have been targeted with murder and violence—Russia and the Philippines. A combination of international and domestic pressure has forced their ...
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This chapter considers two countries where journalists have been targeted with murder and violence—Russia and the Philippines. A combination of international and domestic pressure has forced their respective governments to take action. In both countries, fear and self-censorship have become deeply ingrained in the press corps, to the point that the flow of global information depends almost entirely on the willingness of journalists to risk their lives in reporting the news. In most cases, it is recognized that the motive for killing a journalist is to use violence as a form of censorship. The best way to weaken this logic is by keeping the story alive after a journalist is killed, by supporting media organizations and journalists that continue to cover sensitive issues, or, as stated by Mexican investigative reporter Marcela Turati, by not abandoning them.Less
This chapter considers two countries where journalists have been targeted with murder and violence—Russia and the Philippines. A combination of international and domestic pressure has forced their respective governments to take action. In both countries, fear and self-censorship have become deeply ingrained in the press corps, to the point that the flow of global information depends almost entirely on the willingness of journalists to risk their lives in reporting the news. In most cases, it is recognized that the motive for killing a journalist is to use violence as a form of censorship. The best way to weaken this logic is by keeping the story alive after a journalist is killed, by supporting media organizations and journalists that continue to cover sensitive issues, or, as stated by Mexican investigative reporter Marcela Turati, by not abandoning them.
Dave Boothroyd
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780748640096
- eISBN:
- 9780748693795
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748640096.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter takes the theme of the archivatisation/ big data, secrecy/transparency/technics of recall introduced in the previous chapter and recontextualises it specifically in relation to the ...
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This chapter takes the theme of the archivatisation/ big data, secrecy/transparency/technics of recall introduced in the previous chapter and recontextualises it specifically in relation to the impact of media technological change on forms of censorship and censorial powers and institutions. It examines the case of the centenary/ disestablishment of the Swedish Board of Film Censorship (in 2011) and its archives’ ‘reindexing’ through the work of the media artist Markus Ohrn. It then uses this example to explore how ethical subjectivity can be seen to be a function of a cultural nexus of media technics and technicized forms of recall and the institutional preservation of media ‘material’. It draws centrally on Derrida's remarks about archivisation and the necessary violence associated with that. It explores the link between technology, control and the powers of representation and recall in order to theorise the ethco-political significance of the archive in the context of the contemporary shift towards ubiquitous user-generated and user-distributed media content.Less
This chapter takes the theme of the archivatisation/ big data, secrecy/transparency/technics of recall introduced in the previous chapter and recontextualises it specifically in relation to the impact of media technological change on forms of censorship and censorial powers and institutions. It examines the case of the centenary/ disestablishment of the Swedish Board of Film Censorship (in 2011) and its archives’ ‘reindexing’ through the work of the media artist Markus Ohrn. It then uses this example to explore how ethical subjectivity can be seen to be a function of a cultural nexus of media technics and technicized forms of recall and the institutional preservation of media ‘material’. It draws centrally on Derrida's remarks about archivisation and the necessary violence associated with that. It explores the link between technology, control and the powers of representation and recall in order to theorise the ethco-political significance of the archive in the context of the contemporary shift towards ubiquitous user-generated and user-distributed media content.
