Imagine a world where everything you see, hear,
and touch has passed through a filter.
Music, literature, art, motion pictures, and news media have all been
stripped of ideas, images, or words that are objectionable or offensive to the
status quo. This is your world.
Despite the protection allotted by the 1st
Amendment for the individual freedoms of religion, speech, and the press,
ongoing censorship issues in art, politics, religion, science, and popular
culture consistently challenge individual freedoms. Who should decide what books we read, what
movies we watch, and what music we listen to?
Should politically rebellious literature be censored? Does the government have the right to conceal
environmental data from the public? What
are the motivations behind those who censor?
In this course, we will follow the trail of
censorship throughout U.S. history by analyzing banned and censored
materials. Arguments for and against
censorship will be identified and discussed as we read banned texts (both
literature and comic books), view racy pre-production code films, and explore
the controversial issues surrounding art and pornography, wartime photography,
as well as music and video game censorship.
Throughout the course we will ruminate on whether or not censorship is
ever defensible.
