Freedom of expression and new theories of censorship
Definitions of censorship have changed dramatically over the recent decades. New theories have emerged, overpowering the classic narrative of political liberalism, i.e. that of emancipation launched against oppression, obscurantism, the Victorian spirit, from Enlightenment onward. For liberal theories, censorship is a constraint, an obstacle to expression, a hindrance onto the exercise of a political right. It is imposed from the outside on a speech that would otherwise be free. New conceptions of censorship focus on the implicit structures and multiple forms of social censorship. They present it as an omnipresent element of social reality. One of the features common to these new descriptions is the thesis that censorship is more of an injunction to speak than a ban.
Keywords
- freedom of expression
- Ulysses
- Coetzee
- free speech wars
- new theories of censorship