Literatura in cenzura - Društvo za primerjalno književnost - ZRC SAZU

Censorship in Slovenia after WorldWar II: From the Communist IndexLibrorum Prohibitorumto Abolition of the “Verbal Verbal Offence” OffenceAleš GabričInstitute of Contemporary History, Ljubljanaales.gabric@inz.siThe author presents the most common means of censorship in Slovenia undercommunism. Immediately after 1945, the new regime composed a list of prohibitedworks that were removed from libraries and bookstores. The introduction of “socialmanagement” in cultural institutions in the mid-1950s changed the censorshipprocedure: the (editorial) boards gained a censorship role and performed preliminary(or preventive) censorship. Retroactive censorship was especially applied to importedbooks that were held separately in the “D-Reserves”.Keywords: literature and censorship / Slovene literature / communism / cultural politics /index librorum prohibitorumUDK 821.163.6 (497.12)«1945/1990«:351.751.5Although the subject of censorship under the communist regimein Slovenia could be analysed in a wider context, this paper mainly focuseson the censorship of literary works, to which censorship was most commonlyapplied in the period discussed. However, there were also cases ofthe political regime intervening in other areas of the arts, such as film, theatre,and fine arts. The regime had the final word on which books wouldbe available in Slovenia – not only through censorship, which removed individualworks, but also by controlling the book market itself. This was toensure that only those printed and publicly available works that compliedwith its criteria, or had been previously purged of harmful ideological andpolitical views, were marketed.221Primerjalna književnost (Ljubljana) 31. Special Issue (2008)