106-047 Art/Pornography/Blasphemy/Propaganda

Note

Credit Points

HECS Band

Coordinator

Prerequisites

Usually 25 points of First Year English, see Prerequisites

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

This subject provides an introduction to the history and politics of censorship of the arts in the West during the 20th century. It examines the contested boundaries between Art and its presumed 'others' - pornography, blasphemy and propaganda - by focusing on certain celebrated cases of censorship of literary texts, visual art and films. Students completing the subject should gain an understanding of the processes by which censorship operates; its role in defining 'artistic merit'; and some of the ways in which the concept of 'aesthetic value' has been employed to defend cultural artefacts against charges of obscenity, blasphemy and/or propaganda over the past century.

Assessment

Written work totalling 4000 words.

Prescribed Texts

A subject reader will be available. Any edition of the following texts:

• A Dworkin, Mercy.
• B E Ellis, American Psycho.
• M Kundera, Unbearable Lightness of Being.
• D H Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover.
• S Rushdie, Satanic Verses.
• P Reage, Story of O (Part 1).
• A Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the life of Ivan Denisovich.
• O Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray.
• Films, The Last Temptation of Christ.
• Blue Velvet.