Banned Books Around the World
SnakReading Globally
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1markon
Banned Books Around the World is our reading theme for April - June 2023. As I researched titles for our list, I realized that the reasons for banning, burning, not publishing, etc. fall into three general categories: politics, religion, and social (threats to society, often including sexuality.)
I also realize that censorship of writing is much broader than books. However, I’ve tried, mostly successfully, to stick to fiction titles published in languages other than English for my lists.
Tess_W (Tess) and I (markon/Ardene) have split the world into six areas:
We are happy to welcome you to our discussion thread for Quarter 2. We plan to have the additional posts up by April 1.
Parthenon of Books
As an aside, please check out these links to two Parthenons of books that were created in Argentina (1983) and Germany (2017), organized by artist Marta Minujin.
Indent
After exhibition for several days, the structure was dismantled and books were distributed to the public and to libraries. (Source: website for exhibit at Tate Museum London.)
I also realize that censorship of writing is much broader than books. However, I’ve tried, mostly successfully, to stick to fiction titles published in languages other than English for my lists.
Tess_W (Tess) and I (markon/Ardene) have split the world into six areas:
- Asia
- Europe
- Latin/South/Central America
- Middle East/Northern Africa
- Oceania, also see the last two works posted in the Asia section.
- Sub-Saharan Africa
We are happy to welcome you to our discussion thread for Quarter 2. We plan to have the additional posts up by April 1.
Parthenon of Books
As an aside, please check out these links to two Parthenons of books that were created in Argentina (1983) and Germany (2017), organized by artist Marta Minujin.
Indent
For El Partenón de libros (The Parthenon of Books, 1983), 20,000 books, taken from cellars where they had been locked up by the military covered a scale replica of the Greek edifice; built out of metal tubes and elevated to one side, this Parthenon was placed in a public square in the southern part of Buenos Aires.(Source: documenta 14)
After exhibition for several days, the structure was dismantled and books were distributed to the public and to libraries. (Source: website for exhibit at Tate Museum London.)
3markon
Africa
I didn't get a good list for this so have included some north of the Sahara.
As well as listing novels many of you have heard of, I’m listing some other events. This is a sampling. You may also note that it was easier for me to find titles in former English-speaking colonies. This is partly because English is the only language I speak, but I think it is also because the concept of “banning’ books is framed from a Western European & North American perspective that grew out of the Enlightenment. What happens elsewhere may be named differently.
For example:
Democratic Republic of the Congo
La dernière envelope (play, The last envelope) by Pierre Mujomba. Allegory skewering government of Zaire. I had trouble finding original publication information: What I found said it won the Le Grand Prix at the Prix Nemis in Chile in 1988 and the Decouverte RFI Theatre Sud Prize in 1999. It was published in France in 2002 and translated into English. After a performance in Kinshasa in 2003, Mujomba’s landlord was kidnapped & he and eventually his wife and family left the country. I never saw anything that said the play was banned but there was a strong reaction to its performance.
Other countries included are Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Sudan.
Kenya
Petals of blood by Ngugi wa Thiong’o: set (and published) just after Kenya’s independence in 1977. I do not know if it continues to be banned, but Thiong’o was attacked in 2004 when he returned to Kenya for a visit.
Nigeria
An interesting study of book censorship in Nigeria (done by a Nigerian grad student in a US University) lists several forms of censorship: book burning, banning, challenging, author registration acts, by intimidation, book restriction and self-censorship.
The following three titles can non longer be used in Nigerian school curricula but may still be available in shops.The first two aren’t available via Amazon US, but I haven’t checked other sources.
South Africa
Down second avenue by Es’kla Mphahlele 1959
Looking on darkness by Andre Brink 1973
Burger’s daughter by Nadine Gordimer (1970s)
Amandla and Between two worlds, also known as Muriel at the Metropolitan, by Miriam Tlali (1980 & 1975)
July’s people by Nadine Gordimer (published 1981) was banned briefly from schools in Gauteng Province, South Africa in 2001, along with works such as Julius Caesar and Othello.
Sudan
Season of migration to the north by Tayeb Salih, published in 1966, was banned in 1983 for explicit sexual content. In 2001 this novel was selected as the most important Arab novel of the 20th century by a panelist of Arab writers and critics.
I didn't get a good list for this so have included some north of the Sahara.
As well as listing novels many of you have heard of, I’m listing some other events. This is a sampling. You may also note that it was easier for me to find titles in former English-speaking colonies. This is partly because English is the only language I speak, but I think it is also because the concept of “banning’ books is framed from a Western European & North American perspective that grew out of the Enlightenment. What happens elsewhere may be named differently.
For example:
Democratic Republic of the Congo
La dernière envelope (play, The last envelope) by Pierre Mujomba. Allegory skewering government of Zaire. I had trouble finding original publication information: What I found said it won the Le Grand Prix at the Prix Nemis in Chile in 1988 and the Decouverte RFI Theatre Sud Prize in 1999. It was published in France in 2002 and translated into English. After a performance in Kinshasa in 2003, Mujomba’s landlord was kidnapped & he and eventually his wife and family left the country. I never saw anything that said the play was banned but there was a strong reaction to its performance.
Other countries included are Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Sudan.
Kenya
Petals of blood by Ngugi wa Thiong’o: set (and published) just after Kenya’s independence in 1977. I do not know if it continues to be banned, but Thiong’o was attacked in 2004 when he returned to Kenya for a visit.
Nigeria
An interesting study of book censorship in Nigeria (done by a Nigerian grad student in a US University) lists several forms of censorship: book burning, banning, challenging, author registration acts, by intimidation, book restriction and self-censorship.
- The man died: prison notes of Wole Soyinka (nonfiction) published & banned 1972 for libel of Nigerian government
- Things fall apart by Chinua Achebe published in 1958. Banned in Malaysia by British Colonialist government; continues to be banned today in Malaysian schools because of its negative portrayal of colonialism.
- 2007 book & film burning organized by a government organization at a girls school in state of Kano as a prelude to anti-publication law aimed at writers of Littattafan soyayya (works published cheaply that deal with the experiences of Hausa women and address such subjects as polygamy, women and education, and forced marriages.) See also this article describing the improved atmosphere around this literature.
- 2014 film of Adieche’s book Half of a yellow sun was not shown to avoid the Boko Haram terrorists associating it to any of already volatile ethnic issues or adding to distrust among the country’s numerous ethnic groups
The following three titles can non longer be used in Nigerian school curricula but may still be available in shops.The first two aren’t available via Amazon US, but I haven’t checked other sources.
- The tears of a bride by Oyekunle Oyedeji
- The precious child, a play by Queen O. Okweshine
- In Dependence by Sarah Ladipo Manyika
South Africa
Down second avenue by Es’kla Mphahlele 1959
Looking on darkness by Andre Brink 1973
Burger’s daughter by Nadine Gordimer (1970s)
Amandla and Between two worlds, also known as Muriel at the Metropolitan, by Miriam Tlali (1980 & 1975)
July’s people by Nadine Gordimer (published 1981) was banned briefly from schools in Gauteng Province, South Africa in 2001, along with works such as Julius Caesar and Othello.
Sudan
Season of migration to the north by Tayeb Salih, published in 1966, was banned in 1983 for explicit sexual content. In 2001 this novel was selected as the most important Arab novel of the 20th century by a panelist of Arab writers and critics.
4markon
Asia
Of course, the big one we all know of is Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses banned in multiple countries. He was attacked on stage just last year.
There are several for China, and some from other parts of Asia. (Apologies if I infringe on Oceania.)
China
Japan
I can't find lists of books banned in Japan, but a Wikipedia article includes 4 historical censorship periods
Tokugawa/Edo Period
Shogunate censors material. Initially targets Christianity, military books and information on Tokugawa clan, later spreads to any material challenging traditional way of life and pornography. Some restrictions on kabuki theater, including women and children not allowed on stage, though this was sometimes ignored.
Meiji period to end of World War II (1868-1945)
Censorship of Western ideas, pornography and political ideas critical of the Empire of Japan. Eventually a central organization had control over news, advertising and public events.
The Japanese Censorship Collection of documents seized by the US Army is a collection of fiction and nonfiction submitted by publishers to Japan’s Home Ministry between 1923-1945, as well as other material seized by the US. Hard copies are housed in the US, and the collection is available digitally via the Library of Congress. However, the novel Kanikosen (The Crab Cannery Ship) that I looked up was not available publicly, but to LC staff and contractors.
US Occupation of Japan (1945-1952)
From Wikipedia:
This included information on the effects of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (the US successfully prevented this information from being disseminated around the world for about a year.) Thus, the physical plight of those whose health was affected by the bombs was not information available to the Japanese. This also included information about the living conditions of the Japanese and treatment of women near the Okinawa base held by the US. The US continues to have a military presence on Okinawa.
Contemporary Japan
The articles I found were about hentai manga (manga with explicitly sexual illustrations, usually heterosexual), and I don't want to open a discussion about pornography. I think we already have plenty to discuss without opening this controversial topic.
Of course, the big one we all know of is Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses banned in multiple countries. He was attacked on stage just last year.
There are several for China, and some from other parts of Asia. (Apologies if I infringe on Oceania.)
China
-
Chinese earth, the: stories of Shen Ts'ung-wen (1947), and Border Town (1934) by Shen Congwen/ Shen Ts'ung-wen
Per Wikipedia, his work was so effectively destroyed in China that most Chinese don't recognize his name. Was slated to receive Nobel in 1988, but died before it could be awarded. Other collections of stories may be more available and worth reading. - The peony pavilion by Tang Xianz (Ming dynasty romantic traji-comedy, play, 1598) Attacked for immoral sexual conduct in its time. In 1998 the Chinese dance troupe scheduled to perform an experimental production of The Peony Pavilion slated for the Lincoln Center in Washington D.C. was prevented from traveling out of the country for the performance after it's premiere in China. Because President Clinton was traveling in China at the time, much was made of this in the US press. Link to one of many sources. I think there is a larger artistic issue of modernizing classic plays that is ongoing.
- Jin Ping Mei: The golden lotus (or The plum in the golden vase) by Lanling Xiaoxiao Shen
- The dream of the red chamber (or The story of stone) by Cao Xueqi. Written in vernacular Chinese in 1740s, published 30 years posthumously. Banned during Chinese Cultural Revolution, but still popular. 13 hour movie produced in China in 1989. Considered one of four great classical novels of Chinese literature.
- Ma Jian is living in exile. Stick out your tongue and Beijing Coma are two of his books that have been banned in China.
- Tang or Candy by Mian Mian (2000, English translation 2005)
- Serve the people by Yan Lian (2005)
- Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami (2017) (Hong Kong and China) Must be sold wrapped in plastic and to adults only because of obscene content.
- Taslima Nasrin, Bangladeshi/Swedish poet, novelist and physician. Controversial in Bangladesh & India because of her outspokeness about women’s oppression under Islamic law. Novels are Lajja (Shame or Shameless) and French lover. She has also written a 3-volume autobiography, beginning with Meyebela: My Bengali Girlhood Author currently lives in India
- Aadujeevitham (Goat days) by Benyamin (born in Saudi Arabia, lives in India) Kerala Literary Academy Award 2009, longlisted for Man Booker & DSC Prize for South Asian Literature
- Dương Thu Hương is a Vietnamese writer who fought on the Communist side of the war against America, was thrown out of party in 1989 & was denied permission to travel abroad; lived in internal exile until 2006 and her works are not published in Vietnam. Dương moved to Paris in 2006. Works include Paradise of the blind, Novel without a name. No Man's Land (Terre des oublis in French, won the Grand prix des lectrices de Elle (2007.)
- Tetralogi Buru (Buru Quartet) by Pramoedya Ananta Toer is historical fiction and was written at the Buru Island detention camp where he was interned from 1965-1979. It was published over an 8 year period in the 1980s in Indonesia. It was banned through 2000 by the regime of long-serving Indonesian president Suharto and his successor B.J. Habibie.
The novels trace the development of Minke, a scion of a minor Javanese noble house who has been educated in an elite Dutch colonial high school and hopes to use his progressive European education to make a difference. Inspired by early 20th-century Indonesian journalist Tirto Adhi Soerjo, the tetralogy traces his gradual disillusionment and shaping of his Indonesian identity. Minke’s encounters shape the latter with Nyai Ontosoroh, the Dutch concubine who overcomes her status, and his love for her daughter Annelies, whom she marries off to Minke in defiance of Dutch colonial laws. Minke’s epiphany continues to inspire university students, labor unions and other activists since its publication, though the Buru Quartet tetralogy continues to be left off the literature curriculum of Indonesian schools to this day. Source
- Ahmad Tohari’s trilogy The dancer, set in 1960s Indonesia highlights the lives of Srintil, a dancer, and Rasus, a bewildered young man torn between tradition and political progress.
Japan
I can't find lists of books banned in Japan, but a Wikipedia article includes 4 historical censorship periods
Tokugawa/Edo Period
Shogunate censors material. Initially targets Christianity, military books and information on Tokugawa clan, later spreads to any material challenging traditional way of life and pornography. Some restrictions on kabuki theater, including women and children not allowed on stage, though this was sometimes ignored.
Meiji period to end of World War II (1868-1945)
Censorship of Western ideas, pornography and political ideas critical of the Empire of Japan. Eventually a central organization had control over news, advertising and public events.
The Japanese Censorship Collection of documents seized by the US Army is a collection of fiction and nonfiction submitted by publishers to Japan’s Home Ministry between 1923-1945, as well as other material seized by the US. Hard copies are housed in the US, and the collection is available digitally via the Library of Congress. However, the novel Kanikosen (The Crab Cannery Ship) that I looked up was not available publicly, but to LC staff and contractors.
US Occupation of Japan (1945-1952)
From Wikipedia:
After the surrender of Japan in 1945, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers abolished all forms of censorship and controls on freedom of speech. Article 21 of the Constitution of Japan was later integrated in 1947 to guarantee that the Japanese had the freedom to associate with each other and express their thoughts freely. However, press censorship remained a reality during the occupation of Japan, especially in matters of pornography, and in political matters deemed subversive by the American government
This included information on the effects of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (the US successfully prevented this information from being disseminated around the world for about a year.) Thus, the physical plight of those whose health was affected by the bombs was not information available to the Japanese. This also included information about the living conditions of the Japanese and treatment of women near the Okinawa base held by the US. The US continues to have a military presence on Okinawa.
Contemporary Japan
The articles I found were about hentai manga (manga with explicitly sexual illustrations, usually heterosexual), and I don't want to open a discussion about pornography. I think we already have plenty to discuss without opening this controversial topic.
5Tess_W
EUROPE
I thought this topic would be rather easy....just Google "banned books." However, not so much, especially for only an English reader with a smattering of Spanish. The US & UK are not hesitant at all to ban books and make those bans public. However, especially in the Mid-East and former controlled Communist countries, I don't think this is the case. It was very difficult to find banned books in each country when one excludes American and British authors.
In 2004, the European Court of Human Rights restricted the range of reporting on celebrities or prominent people in the so-called "Caroline ruling" -- a case which Princess Caroline of Monaco brought before the court. To condense the ruling, paparazzi and others may not photograph celebrities other than while acting in an official capacity. Princes Caroline was photographed in a topless bikini on an island while vacationing with her husband. This has also evolved into the idea that if celebrities "see themselves" in the written word, they can sue. (German Courts 2007)
Dates are posted when available. However, it is the case that most of the cancelation dates are unknown. My information was obtained from many sources, amongst them: Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia, Amazon, World Literature Today, and Publisher’s Weekly.
Albania
The Palace of Dreams by Ismail Kadare-In Albanian and French. Novel alludes to the Stalinist regime in Albania. Rich in symbolism by necessity. Banned 1965-1990. Still difficult to find in Albania. "Dictatorship and authentic literature are not compatible. The writer is the natural enemy of the dictator." Ismail Kadare
Austria
The Sorrow of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Banned in 1774 by the Hapsburgs.
Anything by Karl Marx—banned in 1938 by Nazis.
Anything by Albert Einstein banned in 1938 by Nazis
Mein Kampf Adolf Hitler Banned in 1947, ban still in place.
Belgium
Uitgeverij Guggenheimer by Herman Brusselmans Not translated from the Dutch. Banned in 1990 by the Courts as offensive and an invasion of the privacy of Ann Demeulemeester , a fashion designer. Ban still in place.
Bosinia and Herzegovinia
The Mountain Wreath by Petar II Petrović-Njegoš. Written in Serbian, translated to English. Removed from school curriculum in 1937. Drama in verse. Please see the discussion for this title in >25 LolaWalser:
Czechoslovakia
The White Disease by Karel Kapek Banned in 1937, lifted in 1945. Play about a disease (communism) ravaging the world.
Here is an entire list of hundreds of books banned in 1973: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03064227308532279
Following the Prague Spring of 1968, all works by Franz Kafka were banned. Ban lifted in 1989
France
Les moeurs (Loose Women) by Francois-Vincent Toussaint Not translated. Banned in 1748
Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert banned in 1858 after a court trial. Charges: offenses against public morals
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov Banned in 1955 for being “obscene.”
Suicide mode d'emploi (1982) by Claude Guillon. Not translated. A guide for suicide. Banned in 1982. Ban still in place
GERMANY Books banned by Nazi Germany were lifted between 1945-1948
The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx Banned by Nazis
Stefan Zweig, all works. (The World of Yesterday, Chess Story, Beware of Pity) Banned by Nazis
Sigmund Freud all works banned by Nazis
Berthold Brecht all works banned by Nazis
Adolf Hitler Mein Kamp banned from 1945-2016 when the copyright expired. It has since been reprinted
Truth for Germany—The Question of Guilt for the Second World War by Udo Walendy Banned in 1979 as “harmful to young persons.” Restriction lifted in 1994 with cautionary warning. (Holocaust denier)
Esra by Maxim Biller written in Dutch. Two persons had a provisional order obtained from the Federal Courts because they claimed to have seen themselves reflected in characters in the book. A German court obliged their request to take the book from circulation on these grounds. (2007) Reaffirmed in 2012.
Here is a link to all books banned in 1933: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/01/german-index-nazi-official-list-of...
GREECE
Lysistrata by Aristophanes Banned in 1967 because of its anti-war message.
A link to books banned in Greece over the ages---https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03064227208532176
HUNGARY
In 2021, Reuters reported that bookshops were ordered by the Hungarian government to seal and wrap all books that promote homosexuality, gender transition, or contain “explicit” portrayals of sexuality before sale.They also can not sell these titles within 200 meters of a school or church. In the same year, a distributor was penalized for a children’s book that includes families with same-sex parents.
ITALY
All Quiet on the Western Front Erich ReMarque Banned by Fascist Italy
Banned in Venice in 2017:
Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Leonni banned because a blue square and a yellow square fell together and created a green square--harmful to traditional families
I'm Not Like the Others by Janik Coat The differences in nature of animals
within species and implications that this also applies to humans.
THE NETHERLANDS
De doofpotgeneraal (The Cover Up General) by Edwin Giltay Banned by court order in 2015. Ban lifted by the Court of the Appeals in the Hague in 2016. Deals with spies/coverups.
Mein Kampf Adolf Hitler Banned in 1945. Some sources say still in place, others say republished in 1990.
NORWAY
Fra Kristiania-Bohêmen by Hans Jaeger. Translated from Norwegian to German. Prosecuted in 1886 and convicted and sentenced to 60 days' imprisonment and a fined for infringement of modesty and public morals, and for blasphemy. He also lost his position as a stenographer at the Parliament of Norway. He was forced to flee Norway when it had been discovered that he sent out 300 copies of the book to various individuals. He went to live with his friend, artist Edvard Munch. Jaeger was considered progressive for his day, but I found this amusing in today’s “time”, “…believe that sexual relationships should not be inhibited or infringed upon by consenting adults of the SAME SOCIAL CLASS.”
Albertine by Christian Krogh Translated from Norwegian into English banned in 1886 for being sexually explicit
The Song of Red Ruby by Agnar Mykle. Translated from Norwegian to English Banned in 1956 for being sexually explicit. Ban lifted in 1958.
PORTUGAL
História do Mundo para as Crianças by Monteiro Lobato Not translated from the Portuguese. Banned in 1933 for no clear reason (per the author). However, it is thought that his take on the discovery of Brazil was random and that the Arabs had been there years before. This book (children’s history), is for sale on Amazon currently.
New Portuguese Letters by Maria Isabel Morreno Translated from the Portuguese into English. Banned in 1972 as "pornographic and an offense to public morals"; authors charged with "abuse of the freedom of the press" and "outrage to public decency." Confirmed again in 1974
RUSSIA
Throughout Russia’s history the Quran has been subject to bannings and censorship. The most notable recent (and controversial) ban of a translated edition of the Quran happened in 2013 when a Russian court censored the text under the country's 'extremism' laws
The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx Banned in Czarist Russia
Works, by Friedrich Nietzsche. Banned in 1923. All works were placed on the list of forbidden books and kept in libraries only for restricted, authorized use. No info of banned lifted.
Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler. Banned by the Russian Confederation as being extremist
Doctor Zhivago, by Boris Paternak Banned in the Soviet Union until 1988 for criticizing life in Russia after the Russian Revolution. When its author, Boris Pasternak, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958 he was forced to reject it under government pressure.
The Gulag Archipelago, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, The First Circle by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Banned until 2009.
Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler Ordered to cease publishing in the USSR sometime after Khrushchev.
This is Moscow Speaking and Other Stories by Daniel Yuli Yuli had this published aboard while living in the Soviet Union. He was fined an sentenced to the gulag. This was considered the end of the Khrushchev thaw.
The Tale of the Unextinguished Moon by Boris Pilnyak.
Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman Refused publication. Author's apartment raided and all original copies and recording equipment were confiscated.
Cursed Days by Ivan Bunin Written in 1920 Critical of the Bolsheviks. Went to publisher in 1988 and was required to be more heavily edited. Finally published in the Russia in 1990.
The Complete Black Book of Russian Jewry by Vasily Grossman and Illya Ehrenburg Written in 1943-45. Published in the US in 1947 and Russia in 2015. Grossman was a war reporter and one of the first to arrive at Treblinka when it was liberated by the Soviets.
Kolyma Stories · Sketches of the Criminal World (Further Kolyma Stories) by Varlam Shalamov Shalamov spent 15 years in a forced-labor camp in the Arctic region of Kolyma. One of the stories, Cherry Brandy, written in 1961, describes the last days of the condemned poet Osip Mandelstam. Another story, The Resurrection of the Larch (1966), resurrects “a memory of the millions who were killed and tortured to death, who are laid in common graves to the north of Magadan.”
Requiem and Poem without a Hero by Anna Akhmatova. It was a work of 30 years and finally published in Russia in 1987. Dedicated to the victims of Stalin's terror.
Any book by Andrey Kurkov. He is an Ukrainian and writes in Russian, although some of his work has been translated into English. (Diary of an Invasion, Death and the Penguin, and The Ukraine Diaries). An interesting article about the author here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/05/30/andrey-kurkov-is-banned-in-russia-...
The Return of the KGB by Alexander Litvinenko, the ex KGB agent who died of radiation poisoning in the UK in 2006.
Books and movies banned under Russia's LGBT Propaganda Law: https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/03/15/books-removed-and-movies-banned-under-...
In 2021 Russia banned books with "incorrect history." A new law came into force in the country forbidding the "comparison of the actions of the USSR and Germany during the Second World War." This also includes banning of books with a Nazi symbol on the cover. https://www.asianews.it/news-en/Moscow-bans-books-with-incorrect-history-53665.h...
THE UKRAINE Here is a news article about the banning of Russian books in the Ukraine. The article claims some context is needed: https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-has-ukraine-banned-19-million-russian-books-...
SPAIN
All works, Johann Kepler banned by the Spanish Inquisition
All works, Voltaire, banned by the Spanish Inquisition, reaffirmed by the Bourbon Monarchy
Works by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez Banned by the Franco government in 1939.
Mare Nostrum (Our Sea): A Novel.
Blood and Sand: A Novel.
La Bodega
The Blood of the Arena
Woman Triumphant (La Maja Desnuda).
The Last Lion and Other Tales by Published by Edmund R. Brown
The Story of Ferdinand, Munro Leaf a children’s tale. Banned in Francoist Spain in 1939. As an aside, I was trying to get this book from my library consortium because it is on the 1001 Children's Books List and was unable! It wasn't banned, just no copies. It is for sale on Amazon
The Second Sex, by Simone de Beauvoir. Banned in Francoist Spain as being feminist.
The Hive by Camilo José Cela Banned in Francoist Spain, no reason given.
SWITZERLAND
In Jesus Name by Christian Lutz this is a photo book about "power." It was banned in Switzerland because 17/52 people photographed did not agree to have their photo printed. The original ruling came in 2012 and it was upheld in 2013.
YUGOSLAVIA
The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System by Milovan Dilas banned in 1956. Not sure in which language originally published, but translated into 6 different languages. Dilas was at one time part of Tito’s regime, but when Dilas began to push for more “revolutionary” (democratic) reform, he was jailed by Tito. This work was published in the U.S. in 1957 while he was jailed in Yugoslavia.
Curved River (no touchstone) by Živojin Pavlović. Withdrew by the publisher in 1963 by request of the State Security Officials. Written in Serbian. There is a Serbian/English book on Amazon.
VATICAN CITY
Many books were banned by the Catholic Church down through the ages. These books can be found in the Catholic Church’s Prohibited Indexes (Index_Librorum_Prohibitorum ). They can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_authors_and_works_on_the_Index_Librorum_Pr...
I thought this topic would be rather easy....just Google "banned books." However, not so much, especially for only an English reader with a smattering of Spanish. The US & UK are not hesitant at all to ban books and make those bans public. However, especially in the Mid-East and former controlled Communist countries, I don't think this is the case. It was very difficult to find banned books in each country when one excludes American and British authors.
In 2004, the European Court of Human Rights restricted the range of reporting on celebrities or prominent people in the so-called "Caroline ruling" -- a case which Princess Caroline of Monaco brought before the court. To condense the ruling, paparazzi and others may not photograph celebrities other than while acting in an official capacity. Princes Caroline was photographed in a topless bikini on an island while vacationing with her husband. This has also evolved into the idea that if celebrities "see themselves" in the written word, they can sue. (German Courts 2007)
Dates are posted when available. However, it is the case that most of the cancelation dates are unknown. My information was obtained from many sources, amongst them: Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia, Amazon, World Literature Today, and Publisher’s Weekly.
Albania
The Palace of Dreams by Ismail Kadare-In Albanian and French. Novel alludes to the Stalinist regime in Albania. Rich in symbolism by necessity. Banned 1965-1990. Still difficult to find in Albania. "Dictatorship and authentic literature are not compatible. The writer is the natural enemy of the dictator." Ismail Kadare
Austria
The Sorrow of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Banned in 1774 by the Hapsburgs.
Anything by Karl Marx—banned in 1938 by Nazis.
Anything by Albert Einstein banned in 1938 by Nazis
Mein Kampf Adolf Hitler Banned in 1947, ban still in place.
Belgium
Uitgeverij Guggenheimer by Herman Brusselmans Not translated from the Dutch. Banned in 1990 by the Courts as offensive and an invasion of the privacy of Ann Demeulemeester , a fashion designer. Ban still in place.
Bosinia and Herzegovinia
The Mountain Wreath by Petar II Petrović-Njegoš. Written in Serbian, translated to English. Removed from school curriculum in 1937. Drama in verse. Please see the discussion for this title in >25 LolaWalser:
Czechoslovakia
The White Disease by Karel Kapek Banned in 1937, lifted in 1945. Play about a disease (communism) ravaging the world.
Here is an entire list of hundreds of books banned in 1973: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03064227308532279
Following the Prague Spring of 1968, all works by Franz Kafka were banned. Ban lifted in 1989
France
Les moeurs (Loose Women) by Francois-Vincent Toussaint Not translated. Banned in 1748
Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert banned in 1858 after a court trial. Charges: offenses against public morals
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov Banned in 1955 for being “obscene.”
Suicide mode d'emploi (1982) by Claude Guillon. Not translated. A guide for suicide. Banned in 1982. Ban still in place
GERMANY Books banned by Nazi Germany were lifted between 1945-1948
The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx Banned by Nazis
Stefan Zweig, all works. (The World of Yesterday, Chess Story, Beware of Pity) Banned by Nazis
Sigmund Freud all works banned by Nazis
Berthold Brecht all works banned by Nazis
Adolf Hitler Mein Kamp banned from 1945-2016 when the copyright expired. It has since been reprinted
Truth for Germany—The Question of Guilt for the Second World War by Udo Walendy Banned in 1979 as “harmful to young persons.” Restriction lifted in 1994 with cautionary warning. (Holocaust denier)
Esra by Maxim Biller written in Dutch. Two persons had a provisional order obtained from the Federal Courts because they claimed to have seen themselves reflected in characters in the book. A German court obliged their request to take the book from circulation on these grounds. (2007) Reaffirmed in 2012.
Here is a link to all books banned in 1933: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/01/german-index-nazi-official-list-of...
GREECE
Lysistrata by Aristophanes Banned in 1967 because of its anti-war message.
A link to books banned in Greece over the ages---https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03064227208532176
HUNGARY
In 2021, Reuters reported that bookshops were ordered by the Hungarian government to seal and wrap all books that promote homosexuality, gender transition, or contain “explicit” portrayals of sexuality before sale.They also can not sell these titles within 200 meters of a school or church. In the same year, a distributor was penalized for a children’s book that includes families with same-sex parents.
ITALY
All Quiet on the Western Front Erich ReMarque Banned by Fascist Italy
Banned in Venice in 2017:
Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Leonni banned because a blue square and a yellow square fell together and created a green square--harmful to traditional families
I'm Not Like the Others by Janik Coat The differences in nature of animals
within species and implications that this also applies to humans.
THE NETHERLANDS
De doofpotgeneraal (The Cover Up General) by Edwin Giltay Banned by court order in 2015. Ban lifted by the Court of the Appeals in the Hague in 2016. Deals with spies/coverups.
Mein Kampf Adolf Hitler Banned in 1945. Some sources say still in place, others say republished in 1990.
NORWAY
Fra Kristiania-Bohêmen by Hans Jaeger. Translated from Norwegian to German. Prosecuted in 1886 and convicted and sentenced to 60 days' imprisonment and a fined for infringement of modesty and public morals, and for blasphemy. He also lost his position as a stenographer at the Parliament of Norway. He was forced to flee Norway when it had been discovered that he sent out 300 copies of the book to various individuals. He went to live with his friend, artist Edvard Munch. Jaeger was considered progressive for his day, but I found this amusing in today’s “time”, “…believe that sexual relationships should not be inhibited or infringed upon by consenting adults of the SAME SOCIAL CLASS.”
Albertine by Christian Krogh Translated from Norwegian into English banned in 1886 for being sexually explicit
The Song of Red Ruby by Agnar Mykle. Translated from Norwegian to English Banned in 1956 for being sexually explicit. Ban lifted in 1958.
PORTUGAL
História do Mundo para as Crianças by Monteiro Lobato Not translated from the Portuguese. Banned in 1933 for no clear reason (per the author). However, it is thought that his take on the discovery of Brazil was random and that the Arabs had been there years before. This book (children’s history), is for sale on Amazon currently.
New Portuguese Letters by Maria Isabel Morreno Translated from the Portuguese into English. Banned in 1972 as "pornographic and an offense to public morals"; authors charged with "abuse of the freedom of the press" and "outrage to public decency." Confirmed again in 1974
RUSSIA
Throughout Russia’s history the Quran has been subject to bannings and censorship. The most notable recent (and controversial) ban of a translated edition of the Quran happened in 2013 when a Russian court censored the text under the country's 'extremism' laws
The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx Banned in Czarist Russia
Works, by Friedrich Nietzsche. Banned in 1923. All works were placed on the list of forbidden books and kept in libraries only for restricted, authorized use. No info of banned lifted.
Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler. Banned by the Russian Confederation as being extremist
Doctor Zhivago, by Boris Paternak Banned in the Soviet Union until 1988 for criticizing life in Russia after the Russian Revolution. When its author, Boris Pasternak, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958 he was forced to reject it under government pressure.
The Gulag Archipelago, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, The First Circle by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Banned until 2009.
Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler Ordered to cease publishing in the USSR sometime after Khrushchev.
This is Moscow Speaking and Other Stories by Daniel Yuli Yuli had this published aboard while living in the Soviet Union. He was fined an sentenced to the gulag. This was considered the end of the Khrushchev thaw.
The Tale of the Unextinguished Moon by Boris Pilnyak.
Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman Refused publication. Author's apartment raided and all original copies and recording equipment were confiscated.
Cursed Days by Ivan Bunin Written in 1920 Critical of the Bolsheviks. Went to publisher in 1988 and was required to be more heavily edited. Finally published in the Russia in 1990.
The Complete Black Book of Russian Jewry by Vasily Grossman and Illya Ehrenburg Written in 1943-45. Published in the US in 1947 and Russia in 2015. Grossman was a war reporter and one of the first to arrive at Treblinka when it was liberated by the Soviets.
Kolyma Stories · Sketches of the Criminal World (Further Kolyma Stories) by Varlam Shalamov Shalamov spent 15 years in a forced-labor camp in the Arctic region of Kolyma. One of the stories, Cherry Brandy, written in 1961, describes the last days of the condemned poet Osip Mandelstam. Another story, The Resurrection of the Larch (1966), resurrects “a memory of the millions who were killed and tortured to death, who are laid in common graves to the north of Magadan.”
Requiem and Poem without a Hero by Anna Akhmatova. It was a work of 30 years and finally published in Russia in 1987. Dedicated to the victims of Stalin's terror.
Any book by Andrey Kurkov. He is an Ukrainian and writes in Russian, although some of his work has been translated into English. (Diary of an Invasion, Death and the Penguin, and The Ukraine Diaries). An interesting article about the author here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/05/30/andrey-kurkov-is-banned-in-russia-...
The Return of the KGB by Alexander Litvinenko, the ex KGB agent who died of radiation poisoning in the UK in 2006.
Books and movies banned under Russia's LGBT Propaganda Law: https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/03/15/books-removed-and-movies-banned-under-...
In 2021 Russia banned books with "incorrect history." A new law came into force in the country forbidding the "comparison of the actions of the USSR and Germany during the Second World War." This also includes banning of books with a Nazi symbol on the cover. https://www.asianews.it/news-en/Moscow-bans-books-with-incorrect-history-53665.h...
THE UKRAINE Here is a news article about the banning of Russian books in the Ukraine. The article claims some context is needed: https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-has-ukraine-banned-19-million-russian-books-...
SPAIN
All works, Johann Kepler banned by the Spanish Inquisition
All works, Voltaire, banned by the Spanish Inquisition, reaffirmed by the Bourbon Monarchy
Works by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez Banned by the Franco government in 1939.
Mare Nostrum (Our Sea): A Novel.
Blood and Sand: A Novel.
La Bodega
The Blood of the Arena
Woman Triumphant (La Maja Desnuda).
The Last Lion and Other Tales by Published by Edmund R. Brown
The Story of Ferdinand, Munro Leaf a children’s tale. Banned in Francoist Spain in 1939. As an aside, I was trying to get this book from my library consortium because it is on the 1001 Children's Books List and was unable! It wasn't banned, just no copies. It is for sale on Amazon
The Second Sex, by Simone de Beauvoir. Banned in Francoist Spain as being feminist.
The Hive by Camilo José Cela Banned in Francoist Spain, no reason given.
SWITZERLAND
In Jesus Name by Christian Lutz this is a photo book about "power." It was banned in Switzerland because 17/52 people photographed did not agree to have their photo printed. The original ruling came in 2012 and it was upheld in 2013.
YUGOSLAVIA
The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System by Milovan Dilas banned in 1956. Not sure in which language originally published, but translated into 6 different languages. Dilas was at one time part of Tito’s regime, but when Dilas began to push for more “revolutionary” (democratic) reform, he was jailed by Tito. This work was published in the U.S. in 1957 while he was jailed in Yugoslavia.
Curved River (no touchstone) by Živojin Pavlović. Withdrew by the publisher in 1963 by request of the State Security Officials. Written in Serbian. There is a Serbian/English book on Amazon.
VATICAN CITY
Many books were banned by the Catholic Church down through the ages. These books can be found in the Catholic Church’s Prohibited Indexes (Index_Librorum_Prohibitorum ). They can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_authors_and_works_on_the_Index_Librorum_Pr...
6Tess_W
OCEANIA
With the exclusion of Australia and New Zealand, not much information was available.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
All books by Salman Rushdie are banned
With the exclusion of Australia and New Zealand, not much information was available.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
All books by Salman Rushdie are banned
7Tess_W
NORTHERN AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST
All books by Salman Rushdie banned in these countries.
MIDDLE EAST
AFGHANISTAN
The following in a link to the state of writing/publishing in Afghanistan: https://www.fairobserver.com/region/central_south_asia/politics-literary-censors...
The Kite Runner by Khaled Khaled Hosseini Also the movie by the same name is banned.
Earth and Ashes by Atiq Rahimi is banned as well as the movie by the same name.
in September 2021, the Taliban only allowed boys to return to school, preventing most teenage girls from returning to secondary school education, and blocked women in Afghanistan from working in most sectors outside of health and education. It is considering not allowing any female education past the age of 10.
IRAN The following books have been banned since the 1979 revolution:
The Gods Laugh on Mondays (No touchstone) by Reza Khoshnazar. Banned in 1995 after clerics torched the publishing house. The male protagonist was raped by a schoolmate and ponders whether he liked it or not. This book was dedicated to Gregor Samsa, the protagonist in Kafka's Metomorphosis. The author fled to Sweden after the fire and has written 6 more books; including The Prophet with the Head like a Squash in the Shadow of Dead Clock, and The End of Owl.
The Mourners of Bayal: Short Stories by Gholam-Hossein Sa'edi by Gholam-Hossein Sa'edi. This is a series of 8 interrelated short stories set in small Iranian villages where people express their fear, hopes, and desperations.
Fear and Trembling by Gholam-Hossein Sa'edi
Censoring an Iranian Love Story by Shahriar Mandanipour
Memories of my Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
23 Years by Ali Dashti Dashti denied the miracles of Mohammad. “Rumor” has it that he was imprisoned and tortured before his death. He also was a supporter of Pahlavi Dynasty and served in the Iranian senate.
ISRAEL
All the Rivers by Dorit Rabinyan This is a love story between a Jewish girl and a Palestinian man.
JORDAN
Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa Banned upon publication in 2010, no reason given. Author believes it is because there is some information about King Abdullah meeting with Golda Meir. Translated into English.
KUWAIT
Mama Hissa’s Mice by Saud Alsanousi was banned from 2016 to 2018 in Kuwait. A novel of rebellion and also speaks to the universal struggle of finding one’s identity and a reason to go on, even after the sky has fallen The author brought the court case and won and the ban was lifted in 2018.
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez Was banned in 1982 for a scene in the book where the wife sees her husband naked.
I Saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti Banned by Kuwait in 2003. No reason given Discusses the Palestinian predicament. Spent 36 years in exile. A memoir, according to reviews, some in poetry.
All books by Radwa Ashour, including The Woman From Tantoura
All books by Naguib Mahfouz including Children of Gebelawi for nude scenes. Mahfouz was the first Arabic writer to win the Nobel Prize.
Stray Memories by Abdullah Al Busais Banned in 2014 Tells of Kuwaiti life before and after the 1990 invasion by Iraq. Includes a character who is a member of the Bedoon, or stateless population of Kuwait
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Goat Days by Benyamin Translated into English. Supposedly a tale of a goat herder trying to earn enough money to send back home. However, his pastoral job ends in slavery, loneliness, and alienation. Banned in several other countries such as India and Malaysia.
NORTHERN AFRICA
ALGERIA
Nothing specific on Algeria. But I did find: over 400 books were banned from being presented at a book fair in 2011.
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-400-books-banned-from-algeria-book-fai...
I found 5 titles on this list:
Three books by Hassan Al-Banna There are no touchstones
Islam and Free Thinking
Hidjab
Return to the Koran
Social Justice in Islam by Sayed Kotb This author was executed by the Nasser regime in 1966.
The Destructive Message (no touchstone) by Ibn Taymiyyah Taymiyyah was a medieval historian and theologian. He was incarcerated many times for his extremist views. He issued a fatwah on divorce and imprisonment, which was not well received throughout the Muslim world.
EGYPT
A Banquet for Seaweed (Also called A Feast of Seaweeds) by Haidar Haidar Banned in Egypt and several other Arab States in 1983. It was reprinted in 2002. The clerics issued a fatwa banning the novel, and accused Haidar of heresy and offending Islam. The novel centers on an Iraqi communist revolutionary as he runs away to Algeria, where he meets an old revolutionary during the revolution's collapse. Interesting that I did not find any info on this book being banned in Iran. You can read an interview with this author here: https://arablit.org/2019/10/18/friday-finds-a-talk-with-haidar-haidar/ Here is also an excerpt in English from said book: http://www.interlitq.org/issue20/haidar-haidar/job.php
Metro ( A Story of Cairo) by Magdy El Shafee This graphic novel was banned by the Mubarak government. The publisher was arrested for offending public morals and fined.
Children of the Alley by Naguib Mahfouz banned by the Nasser government for suggesting there may be some other than god “allah.”
Using Life by Ahmed Naji banned in Egypt for violating public and private family morals. The author was sentenced to 2 years in jail. It is a dystopian novel about Cairo before a natural weather destruction.
The Joke in the Arab World (no touchstone) by Khaled Qashtin sarcastic view of Middle Eastern rulers
For Bread Alone by Mohammed Choukri Banned in Egypt, Morocco, and the U.E.A. Graphic descriptions of drug abuse, poverty, and prostitution. Banned 1979-2000. Banned again by Cairo (2017) and removed from the University of Cairo libraries and banned from the International Book Fairs held in various places throughout the Mideast.
LIBYA
Things have been chaotic since the regime change and many authors fear for their lives. Again, rather difficult to find specifics: https://magazine.zenith.me/en/culture/young-writers-speak-their-libya
Please feel free to jump in and add more books to this "collection."
All books by Salman Rushdie banned in these countries.
MIDDLE EAST
AFGHANISTAN
The following in a link to the state of writing/publishing in Afghanistan: https://www.fairobserver.com/region/central_south_asia/politics-literary-censors...
The Kite Runner by Khaled Khaled Hosseini Also the movie by the same name is banned.
Earth and Ashes by Atiq Rahimi is banned as well as the movie by the same name.
in September 2021, the Taliban only allowed boys to return to school, preventing most teenage girls from returning to secondary school education, and blocked women in Afghanistan from working in most sectors outside of health and education. It is considering not allowing any female education past the age of 10.
IRAN The following books have been banned since the 1979 revolution:
The Gods Laugh on Mondays (No touchstone) by Reza Khoshnazar. Banned in 1995 after clerics torched the publishing house. The male protagonist was raped by a schoolmate and ponders whether he liked it or not. This book was dedicated to Gregor Samsa, the protagonist in Kafka's Metomorphosis. The author fled to Sweden after the fire and has written 6 more books; including The Prophet with the Head like a Squash in the Shadow of Dead Clock, and The End of Owl.
The Mourners of Bayal: Short Stories by Gholam-Hossein Sa'edi by Gholam-Hossein Sa'edi. This is a series of 8 interrelated short stories set in small Iranian villages where people express their fear, hopes, and desperations.
Fear and Trembling by Gholam-Hossein Sa'edi
Censoring an Iranian Love Story by Shahriar Mandanipour
Memories of my Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
23 Years by Ali Dashti Dashti denied the miracles of Mohammad. “Rumor” has it that he was imprisoned and tortured before his death. He also was a supporter of Pahlavi Dynasty and served in the Iranian senate.
ISRAEL
All the Rivers by Dorit Rabinyan This is a love story between a Jewish girl and a Palestinian man.
JORDAN
Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa Banned upon publication in 2010, no reason given. Author believes it is because there is some information about King Abdullah meeting with Golda Meir. Translated into English.
KUWAIT
Mama Hissa’s Mice by Saud Alsanousi was banned from 2016 to 2018 in Kuwait. A novel of rebellion and also speaks to the universal struggle of finding one’s identity and a reason to go on, even after the sky has fallen The author brought the court case and won and the ban was lifted in 2018.
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez Was banned in 1982 for a scene in the book where the wife sees her husband naked.
I Saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti Banned by Kuwait in 2003. No reason given Discusses the Palestinian predicament. Spent 36 years in exile. A memoir, according to reviews, some in poetry.
All books by Radwa Ashour, including The Woman From Tantoura
All books by Naguib Mahfouz including Children of Gebelawi for nude scenes. Mahfouz was the first Arabic writer to win the Nobel Prize.
Stray Memories by Abdullah Al Busais Banned in 2014 Tells of Kuwaiti life before and after the 1990 invasion by Iraq. Includes a character who is a member of the Bedoon, or stateless population of Kuwait
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Goat Days by Benyamin Translated into English. Supposedly a tale of a goat herder trying to earn enough money to send back home. However, his pastoral job ends in slavery, loneliness, and alienation. Banned in several other countries such as India and Malaysia.
NORTHERN AFRICA
ALGERIA
Nothing specific on Algeria. But I did find: over 400 books were banned from being presented at a book fair in 2011.
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-400-books-banned-from-algeria-book-fai...
I found 5 titles on this list:
Three books by Hassan Al-Banna There are no touchstones
Islam and Free Thinking
Hidjab
Return to the Koran
Social Justice in Islam by Sayed Kotb This author was executed by the Nasser regime in 1966.
The Destructive Message (no touchstone) by Ibn Taymiyyah Taymiyyah was a medieval historian and theologian. He was incarcerated many times for his extremist views. He issued a fatwah on divorce and imprisonment, which was not well received throughout the Muslim world.
EGYPT
A Banquet for Seaweed (Also called A Feast of Seaweeds) by Haidar Haidar Banned in Egypt and several other Arab States in 1983. It was reprinted in 2002. The clerics issued a fatwa banning the novel, and accused Haidar of heresy and offending Islam. The novel centers on an Iraqi communist revolutionary as he runs away to Algeria, where he meets an old revolutionary during the revolution's collapse. Interesting that I did not find any info on this book being banned in Iran. You can read an interview with this author here: https://arablit.org/2019/10/18/friday-finds-a-talk-with-haidar-haidar/ Here is also an excerpt in English from said book: http://www.interlitq.org/issue20/haidar-haidar/job.php
Metro ( A Story of Cairo) by Magdy El Shafee This graphic novel was banned by the Mubarak government. The publisher was arrested for offending public morals and fined.
Children of the Alley by Naguib Mahfouz banned by the Nasser government for suggesting there may be some other than god “allah.”
Using Life by Ahmed Naji banned in Egypt for violating public and private family morals. The author was sentenced to 2 years in jail. It is a dystopian novel about Cairo before a natural weather destruction.
The Joke in the Arab World (no touchstone) by Khaled Qashtin sarcastic view of Middle Eastern rulers
For Bread Alone by Mohammed Choukri Banned in Egypt, Morocco, and the U.E.A. Graphic descriptions of drug abuse, poverty, and prostitution. Banned 1979-2000. Banned again by Cairo (2017) and removed from the University of Cairo libraries and banned from the International Book Fairs held in various places throughout the Mideast.
LIBYA
Things have been chaotic since the regime change and many authors fear for their lives. Again, rather difficult to find specifics: https://magazine.zenith.me/en/culture/young-writers-speak-their-libya
Please feel free to jump in and add more books to this "collection."
8markon
Latin/South/Central America
Nicaragua
Nicaragua has most recently been in the news (Feb. 2023) for stripping over 100 of the government’s jailed opponents of their citizenship and deporting them.
Sergio Ramirez is a founding member of the 1979 revolution in Nicaragua and served as Vice President of the country 1985-1990, but has since criticized the government’s corruption and repressive tactics. In 2021 he was forced into exile. In February 2023 Ramirez was stripped of Nicaraguan citizenship.
His most recent novel, currently banned but widely read in Nicaragua, is Tongolele no sabía bailar (2021), the conclusion of his Managua trilogy. The trilogy is a noir series following Dolores Morales, a police inspector (at least at the beginning of the first novel.). An English translation of the third novel is due later this year. The first two volumes are El cielo llora por mí (2008)/(The sky weeps for me 2020), Ya nadie llora por mí (2017)/ No one weeps for me now (2022).
Remirez has won many awards, including the Casa de las Américas award (Cuba 2000), became an Officer of France's Arts and Letters (2013, France), Carlos Fuentes International Award for Literary Creation in Spanish Language, (Mexico 2014), Miguel de Cervantes prize (Spain 2017), so if the trilogy doesn’t appear there are other choices.
Brazil
In 2015 the BBC news reported that Brazil had overturned a law which allowed subjects of unauthorized biographies to block publication.
Repressão e resistência: Censura a livros na ditadura militar (Repression and Resistance: Censorship of Books during the Military Dictatorship) by Sandra Reimão is a list of books that were banned under the 1970-1988 dictatorship.
Colombia
House of the spirits by Isabel Allende was banned in Chile during Augusto Pinochet’s regime.
So was Gabriel García Márquez’ book Clandestine in Chile, reportage of film director Miguel Littín’s incognito 1984 trip to his homeland to make a film reporting what life in Chile was like under Pinochet. The documentary, Acta General de Chile, was released in 1986. YouTube link
Márquez’ One hundred years of solitude, published in 1967, was banned in his home country and challenged in many places during the 1980s & 90s on grounds of coarse language and sexual content. The ban in Colombia was relaxed starting in 1982 when he was awarded the Nobel Prize. Solitude has been banned in Kuwait and Iran and attacked by the Russian Orthodox Church in the 21st century though I don’t have specific dates.
El Salvador
One day of life by Manila Argueta was banned on publication in 1980 in El Salvador for its depiction of human rights violations by the government’s paramilitary organization. It portrays one day in the life of a peasant family. Argueta self-exiled to Costa Rica 1972-1993, later served as the Director of the National Library of El Salvador.
Following are links to some articles on censorship in Latin America.
I mention these because book banning is only one type of censorship. I know it’s not part of our focus, but censorship and intimidation of journalists is rife around the world and internet filtering goes on in various ways as well.
Nicaragua
Nicaragua has most recently been in the news (Feb. 2023) for stripping over 100 of the government’s jailed opponents of their citizenship and deporting them.
Sergio Ramirez is a founding member of the 1979 revolution in Nicaragua and served as Vice President of the country 1985-1990, but has since criticized the government’s corruption and repressive tactics. In 2021 he was forced into exile. In February 2023 Ramirez was stripped of Nicaraguan citizenship.
His most recent novel, currently banned but widely read in Nicaragua, is Tongolele no sabía bailar (2021), the conclusion of his Managua trilogy. The trilogy is a noir series following Dolores Morales, a police inspector (at least at the beginning of the first novel.). An English translation of the third novel is due later this year. The first two volumes are El cielo llora por mí (2008)/(The sky weeps for me 2020), Ya nadie llora por mí (2017)/ No one weeps for me now (2022).
Remirez has won many awards, including the Casa de las Américas award (Cuba 2000), became an Officer of France's Arts and Letters (2013, France), Carlos Fuentes International Award for Literary Creation in Spanish Language, (Mexico 2014), Miguel de Cervantes prize (Spain 2017), so if the trilogy doesn’t appear there are other choices.
Brazil
In 2015 the BBC news reported that Brazil had overturned a law which allowed subjects of unauthorized biographies to block publication.
Repressão e resistência: Censura a livros na ditadura militar (Repression and Resistance: Censorship of Books during the Military Dictatorship) by Sandra Reimão is a list of books that were banned under the 1970-1988 dictatorship.
Colombia
House of the spirits by Isabel Allende was banned in Chile during Augusto Pinochet’s regime.
So was Gabriel García Márquez’ book Clandestine in Chile, reportage of film director Miguel Littín’s incognito 1984 trip to his homeland to make a film reporting what life in Chile was like under Pinochet. The documentary, Acta General de Chile, was released in 1986. YouTube link
Márquez’ One hundred years of solitude, published in 1967, was banned in his home country and challenged in many places during the 1980s & 90s on grounds of coarse language and sexual content. The ban in Colombia was relaxed starting in 1982 when he was awarded the Nobel Prize. Solitude has been banned in Kuwait and Iran and attacked by the Russian Orthodox Church in the 21st century though I don’t have specific dates.
El Salvador
One day of life by Manila Argueta was banned on publication in 1980 in El Salvador for its depiction of human rights violations by the government’s paramilitary organization. It portrays one day in the life of a peasant family. Argueta self-exiled to Costa Rica 1972-1993, later served as the Director of the National Library of El Salvador.
Following are links to some articles on censorship in Latin America.
- The price of silence: the growing threat of soft censorship in Latin America (Open Society Justice Initiative, 2008)
- OpenNet Initiative’s report on internet filtering in Latin America
- A Wikipedia article on censorship in Mexico, chronologically tracing periods of censorship starting with the Spanish inquisition through the 20th century.
I mention these because book banning is only one type of censorship. I know it’s not part of our focus, but censorship and intimidation of journalists is rife around the world and internet filtering goes on in various ways as well.
9markon
The lists I've come up with barely scratch the surface. It was difficult to find lists of banned books in countries outside Western Europe and North America. This is partly due to my language constraints. But I wonder if it is also because of cultural differences in how we frame discussions about who writes and gets published. Individualism and “freedom of speech” grew out of the Enlightenment, and not all cultures share this viewpoint.
What I would have loved to run across in my research was a paper or article discussing how various countries or regions of the world view and handle book publication, or how the publishing industry in that country works - who owns, who decides what is published. The article about book censorship in Nigeria was helpful
I know that in addition to outright banning & book burning, in some countries authors have to register with government authorities, publishers have to get permission to publish, and items published outside of the country may be ordered and shipped, but are sometimes seized on arrival.
So, in addition to your contributions of titles that have been restricted in non-English speaking countries, I'm curious about what terms we might use to discuss censorship of authors/books. Suggestions welcome!
What I would have loved to run across in my research was a paper or article discussing how various countries or regions of the world view and handle book publication, or how the publishing industry in that country works - who owns, who decides what is published. The article about book censorship in Nigeria was helpful
I know that in addition to outright banning & book burning, in some countries authors have to register with government authorities, publishers have to get permission to publish, and items published outside of the country may be ordered and shipped, but are sometimes seized on arrival.
So, in addition to your contributions of titles that have been restricted in non-English speaking countries, I'm curious about what terms we might use to discuss censorship of authors/books. Suggestions welcome!
10kidzdoc
Thanks for a great introduction to this theme, Ardene and Tess! I plan to read New Portuguese Letters, along with Nineteen Eighty-Four, which is currently banned in Belarus, as I've wanted to get to both books for quite awhile.
1984 IS BANNED IN BELARUS, BOOKSTORE OWNER DETAINED FOR CARRYING IT
1984 IS BANNED IN BELARUS, BOOKSTORE OWNER DETAINED FOR CARRYING IT
11Tess_W
>10 kidzdoc: Yes, in my research, 1984 was the most banned book in the world. However, we are not including British/American authors so it wasn't included here. Orwell's, Animal Farm was also frequently banned, especially in communist/socialist countries or countries that lean that way.
12kidzdoc
>11 Tess_W: Ah. Thanks for correcting me, Tess.
13markon
>10 kidzdoc:, >12 kidzdoc: If you want something not originally in English, try We by Russian Yevgeny Zamyatin, which supposedly influenced Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave new world.
And here are two more authors I ran across from Russia/the Soviet Union.
Mikhail Bulgakov, both The Master and Margarita and The heart of a dog.
Master and Margarita was written 1928-1940, published in censored version 1966-7 in the Soviet Union; and finally published uncensored in 1973.
Heart of a dog was written in 1925, published in the US in English and Russian posthumously in 1968, and published in the Soviet Union in 1983.
Alexander Pushkin's play Boris Godunov was written in 1825 and a censored version published in 1831. A censored version was approved for performance in 1866 (posthumously), but not performed until 1870. The first recorded performance of the uncensored play was at Princeton University in the US in 2007.
And here are two more authors I ran across from Russia/the Soviet Union.
Mikhail Bulgakov, both The Master and Margarita and The heart of a dog.
Master and Margarita was written 1928-1940, published in censored version 1966-7 in the Soviet Union; and finally published uncensored in 1973.
Heart of a dog was written in 1925, published in the US in English and Russian posthumously in 1968, and published in the Soviet Union in 1983.
Alexander Pushkin's play Boris Godunov was written in 1825 and a censored version published in 1831. A censored version was approved for performance in 1866 (posthumously), but not performed until 1870. The first recorded performance of the uncensored play was at Princeton University in the US in 2007.
14kidzdoc
>13 markon: Thanks, Ardene. I did read We several years ago, which was pretty good. I'm glad to see that The Master and Margarita and Heart of a Dog are both eligible, as I have both books and have wanted to read them for quite a while.
16markon
>15 pnppl: Thanks! I had heard something about the Ukrainian ban on importing Russian books, but it's interesting that they are limiting what languages books can be printed in within Ukraine.
17Tess_W
I'm excited about this topic. I plan on reading All the Rivers by Dorit Rabinyan as I've not yet read an Israeli author. Then I hope to choose another with a Latin American author.
18labfs39
>15 pnppl: I can certainly see why the Russians would want to ban A Woman in Berlin. It's a horrifying account of the behavior of Soviet soldiers during the occupation of Berlin in WWII.
19LolaWalser
>5 Tess_W:
Bosinia/Herzegovinia
The Mountain Wreath by Petar II Petrović-Njegoš. Written in Serbian, not translated. Banned in 1847, still in place. Drama in verse.
A few corrections...
It's "Bosnia" and "Herzegovina".
The Mountain Wreath, which has been translated into English (if that's the language "not translated" was referring to?), was written in Montenegrin, not Serbian. Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian are close enough to be mutually intelligible, but they are also easily distinguished apart.
I couldn't find anything about it being banned in 1847. It most certainly wasn't banned in Yugoslavia, kingdom and/or the socialist federation. On the contrary, it was widely taught in schools.
I couldn't find any confirmation about a ban in current Bosnia. I think it is possible that they removed it from the curriculum, or plan to do so, but I couldn't find anything definite and official, only gossip and discussions. In any case, such a removal from the curriculum would certainly not constitute nor imply an actual ban.
Bosinia/Herzegovinia
The Mountain Wreath by Petar II Petrović-Njegoš. Written in Serbian, not translated. Banned in 1847, still in place. Drama in verse.
A few corrections...
It's "Bosnia" and "Herzegovina".
The Mountain Wreath, which has been translated into English (if that's the language "not translated" was referring to?), was written in Montenegrin, not Serbian. Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian are close enough to be mutually intelligible, but they are also easily distinguished apart.
I couldn't find anything about it being banned in 1847. It most certainly wasn't banned in Yugoslavia, kingdom and/or the socialist federation. On the contrary, it was widely taught in schools.
I couldn't find any confirmation about a ban in current Bosnia. I think it is possible that they removed it from the curriculum, or plan to do so, but I couldn't find anything definite and official, only gossip and discussions. In any case, such a removal from the curriculum would certainly not constitute nor imply an actual ban.
20Tess_W
>19 LolaWalser: Have corrected Bosinia AND Herzegovinia
I'm not sure where I obtained the information, but Wikipedia (!?) confirms it was removed from the curriculum in 1937. I usually just typed in Goggle search banned books in _____________ and then tried to make sure it was a fairly reputable site. Thinking I would never need this info again, I did not keep track, specifically, of where I found the information.
I'm not sure where I obtained the information, but Wikipedia (!?) confirms it was removed from the curriculum in 1937. I usually just typed in Goggle search banned books in _____________ and then tried to make sure it was a fairly reputable site. Thinking I would never need this info again, I did not keep track, specifically, of where I found the information.
21LolaWalser
>20 Tess_W:
Wikipedia (!?) confirms it was removed from the curriculum in 1937.
Could you please provide a link for that, the Wikipedia article I read doesn't mention banning (ETA: and similar) at all? In 1937 the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was still extant. I can't think of any reason why this book (by that time a famous classic of long standing) would have been banned. And in post-WWII Socialist Yugoslavia, as I said, it was part of the curriculum apparently universally--for example, it was studied by my generation in Croatia (mid- and later 1980s).
Wikipedia (!?) confirms it was removed from the curriculum in 1937.
Could you please provide a link for that, the Wikipedia article I read doesn't mention banning (ETA: and similar) at all? In 1937 the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was still extant. I can't think of any reason why this book (by that time a famous classic of long standing) would have been banned. And in post-WWII Socialist Yugoslavia, as I said, it was part of the curriculum apparently universally--for example, it was studied by my generation in Croatia (mid- and later 1980s).
22LolaWalser
Incidentally, what a disgusting write-up about the supposed "ideological controversy". (No reflection on you, Tess, this was the first I heard about it.)
I can't say I remember a great deal about the epic nearly forty years later, but I remember how beautiful Njegos's language had seemed, I distinctly remember being surprised by it, and so enchanted that I went on to read "The light of microcosm", his philosophical poem (so way and beyond what was necessary for school).
Calling it a "manual for genocide"!!!-- that's a crime in itself, or ought to be.
This reminds me of similar attacks on La chanson de Roland...
I can't say I remember a great deal about the epic nearly forty years later, but I remember how beautiful Njegos's language had seemed, I distinctly remember being surprised by it, and so enchanted that I went on to read "The light of microcosm", his philosophical poem (so way and beyond what was necessary for school).
Calling it a "manual for genocide"!!!-- that's a crime in itself, or ought to be.
This reminds me of similar attacks on La chanson de Roland...
23Diamondhead
Add this - book banned, author killed for writing it
https://qr.ae/prDkEK
I added the republished version of "Night in Zagreb" in library
https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=d298bc7408344187JmltdHM9MTY4MDU2NjQwMCZpZ...
.
https://qr.ae/prDkEK
I added the republished version of "Night in Zagreb" in library
https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=d298bc7408344187JmltdHM9MTY4MDU2NjQwMCZpZ...
.
24Tess_W
>21 LolaWalser: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_banned_by_governments
P.S. I used the (!?) when citing Wikipedia, because I do not allow my students to use Wikipedia as I have found incorrect info more than once. And after checking, there is a note "Citation needed." If you think I should remove this book from the list, I will be glad to do so.
P.S. I used the (!?) when citing Wikipedia, because I do not allow my students to use Wikipedia as I have found incorrect info more than once. And after checking, there is a note "Citation needed." If you think I should remove this book from the list, I will be glad to do so.
25LolaWalser
>24 Tess_W:
Thanks; so, this refers to the independent (post-1996) Bosnia, not the republic as was under Yugoslavia (either kingdom or the SFRJ). If it is still in order, it would nevertheless seem to address only the curriculum, not general availability to the public (this also as per recent chatter I could find, on Reddit etc.)
So I guess it's up to you to decide whether that is enough to say a book is banned for the purposes of the thread? On the one hand, if applied generally, that would make a lot more books eligible (since almost everywhere restricts what is taught compared to what is available to adults). But on the other, if the purpose is mostly to explore controversies, then for countries like Bosnia there may not be enough material available in English. Your call...
Thanks; so, this refers to the independent (post-1996) Bosnia, not the republic as was under Yugoslavia (either kingdom or the SFRJ). If it is still in order, it would nevertheless seem to address only the curriculum, not general availability to the public (this also as per recent chatter I could find, on Reddit etc.)
So I guess it's up to you to decide whether that is enough to say a book is banned for the purposes of the thread? On the one hand, if applied generally, that would make a lot more books eligible (since almost everywhere restricts what is taught compared to what is available to adults). But on the other, if the purpose is mostly to explore controversies, then for countries like Bosnia there may not be enough material available in English. Your call...
26thorold
I was wondering about whether it makes sense to call a book “banned” if publication was suppressed by a court for “personal” reasons such as libel, invasion of privacy, or similar.
But of course, as soon as I thought about it, I remembered cases where that kind of process has been misused to suppress political criticism, like Klaus Mann’s Mephisto, which couldn’t be published in West Germany for a long time because the leading character, an actor who built his career on political opportunism during the Third Reich, was transparently based on Gustaf Gründgens.
But of course, as soon as I thought about it, I remembered cases where that kind of process has been misused to suppress political criticism, like Klaus Mann’s Mephisto, which couldn’t be published in West Germany for a long time because the leading character, an actor who built his career on political opportunism during the Third Reich, was transparently based on Gustaf Gründgens.
27Tess_W
>25 LolaWalser: I left as is and used an * to refer to this discussion.
28labfs39
>25 LolaWalser: it would nevertheless seem to address only the curriculum, not general availability to the public... whether that is enough to say a book is banned for the purposes of the thread
That's an interesting point. In the US, banned books are books that have been restricted in schools, but in other countries, this might be minor in comparison to the banning of publication or burning, etc. That in itself is an interesting question: What do different countries consider banned books?
Edited to fix italics
That's an interesting point. In the US, banned books are books that have been restricted in schools, but in other countries, this might be minor in comparison to the banning of publication or burning, etc. That in itself is an interesting question: What do different countries consider banned books?
Edited to fix italics
29AnnieMod
>28 labfs39: I wonder if the term "removing from the curriculum" is not throwing that conversation off a bit.
Removing something from the curriculum does not mean restricting it in schools (at least not in Bulgaria anyway) - it means that it is not part of the mandatory or recommended list - but it is still available from the libraries (if in print) or from a bookstore. We (Bulgaria that is) had been having a few issues lately with proposals to pull from the curriculum some of the local classics - but noone had ever thought of that as making it unavailable for students or anyone else.
Or maybe it is just me reading too much into the term?
PS: In Bulgaria, a banned book is one that cannot be printed, cannot be sold (in any language), cannot be translated and if you are caught with it, you can end up up with a fine or in jail. There had not been any on the list since 1989 but before that, a few local authors (and a lot of Western ones) had made appearances on the list...
Removing something from the curriculum does not mean restricting it in schools (at least not in Bulgaria anyway) - it means that it is not part of the mandatory or recommended list - but it is still available from the libraries (if in print) or from a bookstore. We (Bulgaria that is) had been having a few issues lately with proposals to pull from the curriculum some of the local classics - but noone had ever thought of that as making it unavailable for students or anyone else.
Or maybe it is just me reading too much into the term?
PS: In Bulgaria, a banned book is one that cannot be printed, cannot be sold (in any language), cannot be translated and if you are caught with it, you can end up up with a fine or in jail. There had not been any on the list since 1989 but before that, a few local authors (and a lot of Western ones) had made appearances on the list...
30LolaWalser
>28 labfs39:
I'm used to thinking of banning as something that prevents from publication and distribution, which would likely exempt most of those examples with schools.
>29 AnnieMod:
Removing something from the curriculum does not mean restricting it in schools
If the schools are expressly forbidden from teaching something, then it's restricted. All the more so as this was done by a Western "minder" of the country and not the educators themselves. At least if the link in Wikipedia is correct, and the order still standing. However, like I said, I couldn't find any evidence that it is actually "banned" in the sense that it can't be printed, sold, bought etc. and at least according to some Bosnians on the internet (I know, they might all be Bob in Toledo, OH), no book is banned in the country.
I'm used to thinking of banning as something that prevents from publication and distribution, which would likely exempt most of those examples with schools.
>29 AnnieMod:
Removing something from the curriculum does not mean restricting it in schools
If the schools are expressly forbidden from teaching something, then it's restricted. All the more so as this was done by a Western "minder" of the country and not the educators themselves. At least if the link in Wikipedia is correct, and the order still standing. However, like I said, I couldn't find any evidence that it is actually "banned" in the sense that it can't be printed, sold, bought etc. and at least according to some Bosnians on the internet (I know, they might all be Bob in Toledo, OH), no book is banned in the country.
31AnnieMod
>30 LolaWalser: Removing from the curriculum does not mean expressly forbidding it the way I understand the term - it simply means it is off the mandatory program. But then that applies in countries where the curriculum is national and all teachers teach that (with extra time left for extra teacher’s choices in most years or just with recommended lists from the teachers) - in a system where the teachers chose on their own, it may mean something more serious.
32LolaWalser
>31 AnnieMod:
Right, but this isn't about some anodyne tweak or change to the curriculum--if you look at the link, the book was, for political reasons, expressly forbidden from being taught. Banned in schools. That obviously amounts to (or is synonym with) "being restricted".
Right, but this isn't about some anodyne tweak or change to the curriculum--if you look at the link, the book was, for political reasons, expressly forbidden from being taught. Banned in schools. That obviously amounts to (or is synonym with) "being restricted".
33LolaWalser
>31 AnnieMod:
P.S. teachers aren't anywhere in the world given a carte blanche to teach whatever; they still have to choose from a limited selection. This was the case when I was in school too. For courses on language and literature we typically used textbooks and anthologies offering far more material than we ended up covering.
P.S. teachers aren't anywhere in the world given a carte blanche to teach whatever; they still have to choose from a limited selection. This was the case when I was in school too. For courses on language and literature we typically used textbooks and anthologies offering far more material than we ended up covering.
34AnnieMod
>32 LolaWalser: I was talking about the term in general, not for the specific book. If it is forbidden to be taught, it is banned from schools - no argument on that. :)
35AnnieMod
>33 LolaWalser: Oh, I understand that. But there is a difference between a system that says that a Shakespeare play need to be taught or a selection from a list of novels and a system such as the Bulgarian one where the mandatory curriculum needs to be taught to everyone and it is specific. Pulling a text out in such cases also have different meaning - they have to pull something to add new stuff in Bulgaria for example - the number of weeks don’t increase so if you want new books to be taught, something needs to go. :)
36LolaWalser
>34 AnnieMod:
I was talking about this case and/or similar--books being "banned in schools" means that it's forbidden to teach them, which means they are restricted. Sort of how porn is restricted in schools but may be legal anywhere else.
I was talking about this case and/or similar--books being "banned in schools" means that it's forbidden to teach them, which means they are restricted. Sort of how porn is restricted in schools but may be legal anywhere else.
37markon
Interesting discussion. I think we need a broader framework than discussing banning. Perhaps restriction of information in books?
I think there are many ways people are prevented from accessing books.
And schools are probably a special but important case, since what is taught in schools shapes citizens’ world views.
Edited to add bullets.
I think there are many ways people are prevented from accessing books.
- Government restriction of what is published/printed and/or sold/distributed.
- Government prevention of imported titles/seizing or interdicting titles that come into the country.
- Government registration of authors/titles, licensing of publishers.
- Religiously or socially motivated groups that organize to prevent material being sold or taught in schools.
- Physical destruction of books (by government or private groups.)
And schools are probably a special but important case, since what is taught in schools shapes citizens’ world views.
- Who chooses textbooks for a curriculum?
- Who creates a list of books that can or should be taught as supplementary material? Is this done countrywide? Statewide? By school district?
- Can books be taught that aren’t on the list?
- Who advocates for books to be removed from library shelves or that they be removed from the list of what can be taught or added to a list of items that can’t be taught?
Edited to add bullets.
38Tess_W
>37 markon: I can only answer for the school situation of which I have 30 years experience; and then only to that situation in Ohio. The State of Ohio has State Standards that each grade much accomplish. How that is accomplished is largely up to the teacher and the department (English, History, etc.) For example, the State Standard might be: students will define irony and be able to identify instances in literature. The teacher is then free to choose what literature they will use to accomplish that purpose. If there are multiple teachers teaching the same thing in the building, they will get together and collectively decide what literature to use. If the teacher uses a textbook anthology, then that book has already been approved by the State. When I taught literature, I did not use an anthology and chose what I thought: 1) taught situational irony 2) was a superior work of literature. I never had a complaint. However, when I was teaching non-fiction, I used Elie Wiesel's Night, which had what the Midwest would consider some vulgar words. I just whited them out on all the copies of the books the school purchased. It made everybody happy--again, no complaints!* In Ohio, books are usually removed from school curriculum due to parental complaints. Most of the time the complaints are concerning explicit sexuality. IMHO, those can be avoided in grades K-12 with other works.
*"Inquisitive" students did scratch off that white-out to find was beneath!
Edited to add*
*"Inquisitive" students did scratch off that white-out to find was beneath!
Edited to add*
39markon
Thanks Tess. I would have hated whiting out text, but then I haven't taught in high schools and had parental ire directed toward a text. And there are much bigger issues in Wiesel's Night than vulgar language.
40Tess_W
>39 markon: I agree about the importance of the issues....that's why I "compromised" about the "vulgar" words. If I had not, we could not have read the book.
41MissBrangwen
Lithuania
Žemaitė was the pen name of Julija Beniuševičiūtė-Žymantienė, a Lithuanian writer born in 1845. This story was first published in 1897, and not in Lithuania, but in the US. Lithuanian books had to be smuggled into Lithuania because it was a part of the Tsar's empire at the time and works written in Lithuanian were forbidden.
This edition was published by Paper and Ink, the text was translated by Violeta Kelertas.
"Tofylis, or The Marriage of Zosė" by Žemaitė
Original Title: Topylis
First published in 1897
Rating: 4 stars - ****
I cannot really say that I enjoyed this story, the reason being that it is very gloomy and depressing. Nevertheless, it is interesting and worth reading. It is a short tale about a young peasant woman called Zosė, who works as a maid on an estate. She is caught up in a web of miseries. At first she is deeply in love with Tofylis, the dazzling huntsman, but when he finally marries her, the marriage is a deeply unhappy one. In addition, Zosė is pursued by her employer and her mother blames her instead of supporting her.
The story is mainly told in inner monologues and dialogues, which makes it a bit constructed at times and hems the reading flow a bit. On the other hand, like this Zosė's pain and loss of hope is presented in a direct, unembellished style. She is caught within the constraints of her class and her gender, and the author makes this clear in an unmediated way.
Žemaitė was the pen name of Julija Beniuševičiūtė-Žymantienė, a Lithuanian writer born in 1845. This story was first published in 1897, and not in Lithuania, but in the US. Lithuanian books had to be smuggled into Lithuania because it was a part of the Tsar's empire at the time and works written in Lithuanian were forbidden.
This edition was published by Paper and Ink, the text was translated by Violeta Kelertas.
"Tofylis, or The Marriage of Zosė" by Žemaitė
Original Title: Topylis
First published in 1897
Rating: 4 stars - ****
I cannot really say that I enjoyed this story, the reason being that it is very gloomy and depressing. Nevertheless, it is interesting and worth reading. It is a short tale about a young peasant woman called Zosė, who works as a maid on an estate. She is caught up in a web of miseries. At first she is deeply in love with Tofylis, the dazzling huntsman, but when he finally marries her, the marriage is a deeply unhappy one. In addition, Zosė is pursued by her employer and her mother blames her instead of supporting her.
The story is mainly told in inner monologues and dialogues, which makes it a bit constructed at times and hems the reading flow a bit. On the other hand, like this Zosė's pain and loss of hope is presented in a direct, unembellished style. She is caught within the constraints of her class and her gender, and the author makes this clear in an unmediated way.
42Tess_W
Israel/Palestine
All the Rivers is the story of "Bazi", a young Jewish woman from Tel Aviv, who spends the summer as an intern in New York City. Hilmi is a young Palestinian artist who is trying to make it in NYC. They have a chance meeting and a stormy relationship ensues. The main problem in their relationship is each's stance on the occupied Gaza Territory. They both return to their homeland.
The author does a good job showcasing how those with opposing dogmatic beliefs, no matter how sincere, may not ride into the sunset together. I'm not sure if it was the translation or not, but I did not find the passion in this book that I had thought would exist. It is my understanding from the note on the last page of the book, that this book was removed from the curriculum of high schools in Israel. Perhaps it was written for that age? If so, that may be why I find a lack of depth in the characters. Published in 2017.
Translated by Jessica Cohen
The author, Dorit Rabinyan, was born in Israel to Persian parents. Her first book was the Persian Brides, which established her as an international author. Her second book won the Eshkol Prize, Strand of a Thousand Pearls. She lives in Tel Aviv.
Poignant quote, “The land is the same land,” Hilmi reminds Liat. “In the end all the rivers flow into the same sea.”
All the Rivers is the story of "Bazi", a young Jewish woman from Tel Aviv, who spends the summer as an intern in New York City. Hilmi is a young Palestinian artist who is trying to make it in NYC. They have a chance meeting and a stormy relationship ensues. The main problem in their relationship is each's stance on the occupied Gaza Territory. They both return to their homeland.
The author does a good job showcasing how those with opposing dogmatic beliefs, no matter how sincere, may not ride into the sunset together. I'm not sure if it was the translation or not, but I did not find the passion in this book that I had thought would exist. It is my understanding from the note on the last page of the book, that this book was removed from the curriculum of high schools in Israel. Perhaps it was written for that age? If so, that may be why I find a lack of depth in the characters. Published in 2017.
Translated by Jessica Cohen
The author, Dorit Rabinyan, was born in Israel to Persian parents. Her first book was the Persian Brides, which established her as an international author. Her second book won the Eshkol Prize, Strand of a Thousand Pearls. She lives in Tel Aviv.
Poignant quote, “The land is the same land,” Hilmi reminds Liat. “In the end all the rivers flow into the same sea.”
43markon
Another wrinkle: translation of a banned book.
Soviet/Russian author Ludmila Oulitskaïa was a geneticist with a chair at the Nikolai Vavilov Institute of Genetics. Per Wikipedia, she was stripped of her scientific credentials for assisting writers of samizdat. According to Library Thing, she became a writer after she lost her scientific credentials in the 1970s for translating a banned book: Leon Uris' Exodus. She has won several writing awards in France, Germany, and Korea, and moved to Berlin, Germany in 2022.
ETA - *Thanks to Beth (BLBera) of Club Read for writing a review of one of Oulitskaïa's books that led me to look her up.
Soviet/Russian author Ludmila Oulitskaïa was a geneticist with a chair at the Nikolai Vavilov Institute of Genetics. Per Wikipedia, she was stripped of her scientific credentials for assisting writers of samizdat. According to Library Thing, she became a writer after she lost her scientific credentials in the 1970s for translating a banned book: Leon Uris' Exodus. She has won several writing awards in France, Germany, and Korea, and moved to Berlin, Germany in 2022.
ETA - *Thanks to Beth (BLBera) of Club Read for writing a review of one of Oulitskaïa's books that led me to look her up.
44thorold
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/may/01/the-big-idea-what-if-censoring-boo...
Emma Smith in the Guardian writing about how censorship often has the effect of raising the visibility of controversial books.
Emma Smith in the Guardian writing about how censorship often has the effect of raising the visibility of controversial books.
45Tess_W
I read 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez This book is all over the place, so it is very difficult for me to review. Firstly, I needed a family history chart to read the book. Many male children had the same exact name as their father, for generations. I started out listening to this on audio, but had to also get the book to follow along as just listening was not enough to keep my thoughts organized. Yes, Marquez won the Pulitzer Prize for this book. But is it readable? Is it enjoyable? Both negatives for me! I guess at the core of my dislike is the magical realism. Magical realism is inane to me; I can't take it seriously. It is a very pessimistic book set in the "fictional" town of Maconda for 100 years. Maconda is both desolate and also a very busy town with the banana plantation and the uprising of the slaves. The theme of this book, according to Tess, is the futility of life. If you are upset by pedophilia, incest, child abuse, rape, prostitution, and bestiality, senseless violence and killing, just to name a few, this book is not for you! This book is banned in Kuwait and Iran.
Marquez was a native Colombian who later in life lived in Mexico. He claims he was influenced by Hemingway and Dostoyevsky, amongst others. Before his first novel, (100 Years of Solitude) he wrote non-fiction works and short stories. He is "credited" with the magical realism genre, however, according to what I have read, it was done before. He died in 2015 and the president of Colombia said, "He was the greatest Colombian who ever lived." He is the most translated Spanish-language author (2017).
Marquez was a native Colombian who later in life lived in Mexico. He claims he was influenced by Hemingway and Dostoyevsky, amongst others. Before his first novel, (100 Years of Solitude) he wrote non-fiction works and short stories. He is "credited" with the magical realism genre, however, according to what I have read, it was done before. He died in 2015 and the president of Colombia said, "He was the greatest Colombian who ever lived." He is the most translated Spanish-language author (2017).
46thorold
I came across this passage in Forbidden territory, the first part of Juan Goytisolo’s autobiography. He’s talking about the banned books he read as a student in Spain in the late forties and early fifties.
The difficulty of approaching the work of intellectuals who had taken sides against Franco transformed the act of reading into an amazing adventure. Italo Calvino's paradoxical statement that repressive, authoritarian regimes are the only ones that take literature seriously by granting it subversive power that it unfortunately does not have and by trying naively to prevent it being read contains in my view a great deal of truth. The best readers of a work, yesterday in Spain, today in the USSR and Soviet bloc countries, have been, will be, the surreptitious ones: those who take a huge risk to get at the work and yet accept the challenge and gradually exorcise their fear. Compared to an experience of this order, the facilities enjoyed by readers in open societies inevitably lower the intensity of the lived feeling: it is in no way the same thing to creep furtively into a religious or pagan harem excited by the idea of a plot hedged with dangers as to choose without any kind of pressure from among the dozens of consenting wards in a brothel. At the cost of upsetting some-one, I maintain and have always maintained that my most intense, fertile reads belong to my youth, either due to the vague sense of engaging in a criminal act, or the certain enjoyment of disturbing desecration.
47markon
>46 thorold: Ahhh - wonderful quote. Thanks for sharing.
48LolaWalser
>46 thorold:
my most intense, fertile reads belong to my youth
I think this is true in general and has nothing to do with politics or censorship. Every reading child and youth has the ability to turn dross into diamonds. If I could put on my childhood's spectacles again, Karl May would read like Tolstoy.
I'm also not at all sure that "the best readers" are those taking political risks to access literature. For one thing, literature of any sort can be (and was) forbidden. I don't think it matters who was "the best reader" of Harold Robbins in Saudi Arabia. There are examples like that galore. Just because the evangelicals hate Harry Potter doesn't mean that Harry Potter isn't stereotypical, derivative pablum.
Second, the notion of "subversion" is typically so strong that it overwhelms the critical faculties. Witness the disappearance from the scene of practically all of "dissident" literature. Various people risked (even lost!) well-being and lives over it, so why aren't the masses reading it today? Such art as there was in it surely still exists.
Which brings me to the third point--the tendentiousness of reading that intrudes when "subversion" is basically all that matters. I've come across so many sublimely stupid readings of non-Western literature (which is not to say that the opposite doesn't exist too) because of the dominance of the notion of "subversion" combined with a lack of knowledge of the context.
my most intense, fertile reads belong to my youth
I think this is true in general and has nothing to do with politics or censorship. Every reading child and youth has the ability to turn dross into diamonds. If I could put on my childhood's spectacles again, Karl May would read like Tolstoy.
I'm also not at all sure that "the best readers" are those taking political risks to access literature. For one thing, literature of any sort can be (and was) forbidden. I don't think it matters who was "the best reader" of Harold Robbins in Saudi Arabia. There are examples like that galore. Just because the evangelicals hate Harry Potter doesn't mean that Harry Potter isn't stereotypical, derivative pablum.
Second, the notion of "subversion" is typically so strong that it overwhelms the critical faculties. Witness the disappearance from the scene of practically all of "dissident" literature. Various people risked (even lost!) well-being and lives over it, so why aren't the masses reading it today? Such art as there was in it surely still exists.
Which brings me to the third point--the tendentiousness of reading that intrudes when "subversion" is basically all that matters. I've come across so many sublimely stupid readings of non-Western literature (which is not to say that the opposite doesn't exist too) because of the dominance of the notion of "subversion" combined with a lack of knowledge of the context.
49thorold
>48 LolaWalser: Yes, I think this starts out as a sensible argument about the self-defeating nature of censorship, but all too easily morphed into the old “things were tougher when we were young” line that every generation since the Stone Age has used at some point.
Interesting too that this is Goytisolo saying it, a writer who essentially disowned everything he’d published before the age of 35. What applies for reading obviously doesn’t apply for writing.
Interesting too that this is Goytisolo saying it, a writer who essentially disowned everything he’d published before the age of 35. What applies for reading obviously doesn’t apply for writing.
50LolaWalser
>49 thorold:
Did he now?! I have a bunch of his books; must look up the dates...
And I was going to say, not every reader is Goytisolo either... just like the mass of censorship isn't terribly nuanced or clever or insightful but a banal bureaucratic pre-emption of expectation of the most vulgar propaganda.
Did he now?! I have a bunch of his books; must look up the dates...
And I was going to say, not every reader is Goytisolo either... just like the mass of censorship isn't terribly nuanced or clever or insightful but a banal bureaucratic pre-emption of expectation of the most vulgar propaganda.
51thorold
>50 LolaWalser: Señas de identidad seems to have been the first book where he worked out what it really was he wanted to say and found a distinctive way of saying it. I knew there were a few books before that, but I never knew quite how many: he started publishing when he was still a student.
By his account the Franco censorship was pretty much what you say: haphazard, bureaucratic, and (at least in Barcelona at that time) easy enough to circumvent via secondhand pre-war books and Latin American imports. Gide and Sartre are about the most sensational of the forbidden authors he reads, but he’s also getting Faulkner and Dos Passos in translation from Buenos Aires.
The publisher of Goytisolo’s first novel reports that the minister responsible for authorising publication had told him that a novel was only acceptable “if husband and wife, joined in legitimate matrimony, could read it to each other without mutually blushing and especially without being aroused”. Goytisolo has fun imagining the minister and his wife performing the experiment…
By his account the Franco censorship was pretty much what you say: haphazard, bureaucratic, and (at least in Barcelona at that time) easy enough to circumvent via secondhand pre-war books and Latin American imports. Gide and Sartre are about the most sensational of the forbidden authors he reads, but he’s also getting Faulkner and Dos Passos in translation from Buenos Aires.
The publisher of Goytisolo’s first novel reports that the minister responsible for authorising publication had told him that a novel was only acceptable “if husband and wife, joined in legitimate matrimony, could read it to each other without mutually blushing and especially without being aroused”. Goytisolo has fun imagining the minister and his wife performing the experiment…
52markon
Here's a title by Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin (Sudan, living in Australia since 2012). The Jungo, stakes of the earth, ©2009, won the Al-Tayeb Salih Prize for Creative Writing in 2011. The author's fiction has often been banned or restricted in Sudan. Translation into English by Adil Babikir, Africa World Press, 2015 This may be one you have to find in a thrift store if you're interested.
Link to LitHub post about fiction in Sudan here.
Link to LitHub post about fiction in Sudan here.
53Tess_W
To finish up this category of banned books, I re-read Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. This book touched my heart when I was in my early 20’s, and now that I am aware of the history behind the book and of the USSR/Russia from 1905-WWII, it means even more. I’m not going to review the particulars because I’m sure everyone is aware of them. I think this is a novel that has withstood the test of time and imparts place and time very succinctly. I will probably re-read again if I am still on planet earth in 20 years!
54thorold
Goytisolo again: this counts as a "banned book" because he couldn't publish it in Spain during Franco's lifetime, although several of his early novels did manage to get through the censorship.
Para vivir aquí (1960) by Juan Goytisolo (Spain, 1931-2017)
Originally published in Buenos Aires in 1960, this short story collection didn't appear in Spain until after the death of Franco: Goytisolo put his fingers on rather too many of the sore points of the nationalist state for it to get past the censors. You just have to look at the opening story "Cara y cruz" to see why: two young men go out for a jolly evening in Barcelona, only to find that the police have swept the streets clean in preparation for a prestigious Catholic conference in the city. The ladies of the night have all been bussed out to Gerona, it turns out, so they set off in pursuit and find that it is indeed party time in that normally quiet town, with hundreds of displaced prostitutes all looking for work...
The seven short stories and one longer piece are all drawn from Goytisolo's experiences in Spain in the late fifties, as a student in Barcelona, doing military service, and travelling in the South with a companion presumably based on Monique Lange ("El viaje"). There's a lot of material that appears here as fiction but was re-used in a slightly different form twenty years later in the author's memoirs. In particular, the story "Otoño, en el puerto, cuando llovizina", describing the narrator's waterfront idyll with a fisherman called Raimundo, comes back pretty much in the same words in Forbidden territory.
The content of the final, longer piece, "Aqui abajo", doesn't come back in the memoirs. It describes the experiences of a university graduate doing military service in an obscure garrison town where there is essentially nothing for the army to do, and an awful lot of officers and men pretending to be doing something useful for the glory of Spain. In the narrator's case, his work mostly involves pointlessly copying lists of names from one ledger to another for a couple of hours a day. Goytisolo makes a point of telling us about the excessive drinking and whoring of the officers, about the (grass-) widows on the prowl for young men, and about the disgraceful poverty and illiteracy of the young recruits from Andalucia, all of whom are determined to do whatever it might take to avoid ever having to go back to their villages.
Interesting to see Goytisolo before he went all experimental, writing what is essentially social-realist fiction.
Para vivir aquí (1960) by Juan Goytisolo (Spain, 1931-2017)
Originally published in Buenos Aires in 1960, this short story collection didn't appear in Spain until after the death of Franco: Goytisolo put his fingers on rather too many of the sore points of the nationalist state for it to get past the censors. You just have to look at the opening story "Cara y cruz" to see why: two young men go out for a jolly evening in Barcelona, only to find that the police have swept the streets clean in preparation for a prestigious Catholic conference in the city. The ladies of the night have all been bussed out to Gerona, it turns out, so they set off in pursuit and find that it is indeed party time in that normally quiet town, with hundreds of displaced prostitutes all looking for work...
The seven short stories and one longer piece are all drawn from Goytisolo's experiences in Spain in the late fifties, as a student in Barcelona, doing military service, and travelling in the South with a companion presumably based on Monique Lange ("El viaje"). There's a lot of material that appears here as fiction but was re-used in a slightly different form twenty years later in the author's memoirs. In particular, the story "Otoño, en el puerto, cuando llovizina", describing the narrator's waterfront idyll with a fisherman called Raimundo, comes back pretty much in the same words in Forbidden territory.
The content of the final, longer piece, "Aqui abajo", doesn't come back in the memoirs. It describes the experiences of a university graduate doing military service in an obscure garrison town where there is essentially nothing for the army to do, and an awful lot of officers and men pretending to be doing something useful for the glory of Spain. In the narrator's case, his work mostly involves pointlessly copying lists of names from one ledger to another for a couple of hours a day. Goytisolo makes a point of telling us about the excessive drinking and whoring of the officers, about the (grass-) widows on the prowl for young men, and about the disgraceful poverty and illiteracy of the young recruits from Andalucia, all of whom are determined to do whatever it might take to avoid ever having to go back to their villages.
Interesting to see Goytisolo before he went all experimental, writing what is essentially social-realist fiction.
55thorold
It's a shame that this theme seems to have dried up rather, but there are a couple of days left in Q2 if you still want to add to it.
I've put up the starter post for the Q3 thread, Reading around the Black Sea here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/351845 — this is a slightly rough draft and will probably still get tweaked a bit before 1 July as more ideas drop into my reach...
I've put up the starter post for the Q3 thread, Reading around the Black Sea here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/351845 — this is a slightly rough draft and will probably still get tweaked a bit before 1 July as more ideas drop into my reach...
56cindydavid4
I never posted here , coz I couldn't think of a banned book that I havent already read and I was juggling othre books at the time. then this happened
Yesterday I was at our used book store where they were having a banned 'save this book' sale. Banned books are wrapped, with the reasons for the ban written on the front. you pick the one you want to buy, then unwrap it to see your prize. The one that caught my eye? "Promoting disobedience, violence,cannibalism (?!), satanism, suicide and supernatural themes. Describes death" The book was one I frequently read to my students the light in the attic which means Im probably going to hell. I am now going through it to find the poem about cannabilsm. No this is not funny but sometimes you gotta just laugh while we fight
I found the poem, dont remember it but it is very funny
"ladies first"
pamela purse screamed Ladies First
when we went off on our jungle trip
pamala purse said her thirst was worse
and guzzled our water every sip
and when we got grabbed by that wild savage band
who tied us together and made us all stand
in a long line in front of the king of the land
a cannibal known as Fry Em Up Dan
who sat on his throne ina bib so grand
with a lick on his lips and a fork in his hand
as he tried to decide whod be first in the pan
from the back of the line, in that shrill voice of hers
pamela purse yelled "ladies first!"
sigh
I know this isn't global but I thought it worth the post
Yesterday I was at our used book store where they were having a banned 'save this book' sale. Banned books are wrapped, with the reasons for the ban written on the front. you pick the one you want to buy, then unwrap it to see your prize. The one that caught my eye? "Promoting disobedience, violence,cannibalism (?!), satanism, suicide and supernatural themes. Describes death" The book was one I frequently read to my students the light in the attic which means Im probably going to hell. I am now going through it to find the poem about cannabilsm. No this is not funny but sometimes you gotta just laugh while we fight
I found the poem, dont remember it but it is very funny
"ladies first"
pamela purse screamed Ladies First
when we went off on our jungle trip
pamala purse said her thirst was worse
and guzzled our water every sip
and when we got grabbed by that wild savage band
who tied us together and made us all stand
in a long line in front of the king of the land
a cannibal known as Fry Em Up Dan
who sat on his throne ina bib so grand
with a lick on his lips and a fork in his hand
as he tried to decide whod be first in the pan
from the back of the line, in that shrill voice of hers
pamela purse yelled "ladies first!"
sigh
I know this isn't global but I thought it worth the post
