Banned in Boston: Burned, Bowdlerized, Censored, and Silenced in the United States of America
LIT1-10-Mon3
Lois Ambash
This course will take place virtually on Zoom. Participation requires a device (ideally a computer or tablet, rather than a cell phone) with a camera and microphone in good working order and basic familiarity with using Zoom and accessing email.
September 9 - November 18
(No Class October 14)
“I would rather be banned in Boston than read anywhere else, because when you are banned in Boston, you are read everywhere else." When muckraking novelist Upton Sinclair wrote these words in 1928, seventy books had been banned in the city within the previous year alone, thanks to the powerful Watch and Ward—formerly, the New England Society for the Prevention of Vice. The Watch and Ward made Boston the center of American censorship and "banned in Boston" a sobriquet authors and publishers coveted for its guaranteed sales-boosting potential. Among the cultural elite, Boston became a laughingstock.
Today, "banned in Boston" is shorthand for censorship anywhere and everywhere. The phrase lingers mostly in humorous contexts. But it's no joke. And it's not a thing of the past.
Censorship efforts are proliferating, in libraries, schools, colleges, and governmental agencies—at the behest of both the left and the right. To better understand them, we'll discuss the history and politics of literary censorship, in Boston and throughout America. We'll consider the gatekeepers and their shifting rationales. We'll read four key texts: Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451; Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird; Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir Fun Home; and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, in text or graphic format. We'll view Paula Vogel's play Indecent, about the controversial play The God of Vengeance, and Inherit the Wind, a film based on the Scopes "monkey" trial. We'll discuss fairy tales, poetry, children's books, and textbooks, and consider cancel culture and free speech on campus.
Roughly the same amount of lecture and discussion.
Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel, The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood (text or graphic format —student's choice). Optional: Additional adult or children's book of the student's choice, from a list provided with the welcome letter. Indecent can be viewed free with trial of BroadwayHD, on its site or on its Amazon Prime Video channel. Inherit the Wind can be viewed on Hoopla, free with Minuteman, Boston Public Library, and most other library cards. Supplementary materials provided by email.
1 to 4 hours (50 to 200 pages, or equivalent viewing time)
Note: Longer and shorter assignments will be alternated, to give people flexibility in planning their time.
Lois Ambash has been a reference librarian, a dean, a professor, and an educational consultant. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English, master’s degrees in public policy and library science, and an interdisciplinary PhD in American culture. Her most fulfilling professional endeavors have involved working with adult learners, whether college students, new speakers of English, or colleagues here at BOLLI.