Literatura in cenzura - Društvo za primerjalno književnost - ZRC SAZU

Totalitarian and Post-totalitarianCensorship: From Hard to Soft?Marijan DovićInstitute of Slovenian Literature and Literary Studies SRC SASA, Ljubljanamarijan.dovic@zrc-sazu.siThis article deals with the relationships between totalitarian and post-totalitariancensorship, especially regarding the censorship of literary works. A general conceptualoutline for discussing censorship is followed by an analysis of models and patternsof totalitarian – especially communist – censorship. The conclusion deals with someuseful areas to consider with regard to post-totalitarian literary censorship, includingeconomics (the capitalist book market), ethics (political correctness), and legislation.Keywords: literature and censorship / social systems / totalitarianism / post-totalitarianismUDK 82:351.751.582:316.7Like every concept that is really worth considering, censorship evades anultimate definition. It is actually radically problematic. Reducing it to a formal,institutional dimension that would merely encompass legal, political, andhierarchical aspects of the term seems inappropriate because this makes itimpossible to account for the complex effects of totalitarian practices ofcensorship. It is therefore inevitable to include informal, implicit dimensionsof censorship along with their reflections in self-censorship, but perhapsnot to such a degree as to include the self-censorship of an internal, individual“quiet censor”, which seems to operate without clearly identifiableexternal threats. 1 Thus it seems more productive to connect censorship witha certain agent that does not have to be utterly concrete. It can adopt differentkinds and degrees of institutionalization. Rulers and other influentialinterest groups have always tried to control the circulation of ideas in societyand to restrict the influence of those that were potentially harmful to theirinterests. To do so, a variety of procedures have been developed throughthe centuries – from ancient and medieval indexes to monarchic and totalitariancensorships – that can be described by the term censorship.Censorship as a knot that binds power and knowledge (Jansen) hasrecently been more or less successfully coupled with various theoreticalconcepts. Jonathon Green, author of the Encyclopedia of Censorship, con-167Primerjalna književnost (Ljubljana) 31. Special Issue (2008)