Banned art is contraband and automatically becomes more attractive when people or organisations have warned against it. Literature, music and other works banned from public access are a reflection of authoritative control – and it might not be surprising that the most banned book is George Orwell’s novel about big brother government, 1984.
According to the University of Cape Town (UCT), the Apartheid Censorship Commission banned 26 000 books between 1950 and 1990. Modern bans are alarming, such as the 2024 Utah state-wide ban of 13 books from school libraries citing LGBTQI+ references.
Alex J Coyne paged through the history of banned literature to the present time to find out what people don’t want others to read and why.
A view of early banned works
Thomas Morton’s satirical New English Canaan, originally published in Amsterdam in 1637, became one of the first works banned by the Puritans. Uncle Tom’s cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe is also notable; this was an anti-slavery novel published in 1852 and quickly banned in the southern United States.
However, censorship has earlier examples, as found in The Roman index of banned books. The index was instituted in 1559 by Pope Paul IV, and the list of banned works was discontinued by Pope Paul VI only in 1966. This was the same year as the release of “Paint it black” and “Yellow submarine”, if anyone wants to put the timeline into proper perspective with their playlist. This list banned plays, religious works and novels that were deemed dangerous or controversial for the church. Authors on the list include Niccolo Machiavelli, Voltaire, John Milton, Immanuel Kant and Anatole France. That’s a lot of the good stuff.
Banned works contain something that’s threatening to someone, usually someone in a powerful position who can obscure, censor or ban these works. Society should be more worried when media is successfully banned or censored. Seek it out with care, and judge it for yourself.
Should anyone be listening to Die Antwoord, Lil2Hood, Dookoom or, I daresay, the Beatles and Nirvana? If you want to live in a free society where your vote counts, then yes, everyone should have the choice of what to read or listen to, instead of having that choice made for them. Once they’ve censored your music or books, they can also censor your own voice.
Dr Jonker, I presume: The Apartheid Censorship Commission
Apartheid gives us one of the worst modern examples of mass censorship in history so far. Other than the word poes, the most common Afrikaans word learned by non-speakers is probably the word apartheid. An estimated 26 000 books were banned until 1990. Anything considered dangerous or threatening to the strict, authoritarian government made the list.
Classic poetess Ingrid Jonker’s father headed the censorship board, personally adding works to the list. “Dr Abraham Jonker was instrumental in implementing censorship laws on art, publications and entertainment,” according to Poetry International. According to the Sunday Times Heritage Project, Ingrid was among a group of creatives who protested against National Party censorship in 1963. Ironically, Abraham Jonker also translated the Rubaiyat into Afrikaans – this was a collection of poetry that certainly would have qualified for a ban.
The first Afrikaans-language work banned was Kennis van die aand or Looking on darkness (1973) by André P Brink. Later works included Nadine Gordimer’s novel The late bourgeois world (1976), which was banned for ten years. If historical governmental bans achieved anything, it was only to give people a list of the things they should be reading, instead of what they shouldn’t be seeing. Why should anyone think modern literature bans are any different?
Stephen speaks: The dead zone, The tommyknockers and Rage
Censorship isn’t always from the outside, and some authors have chosen to pull their own works from circulation – technically, this stops only new copies of the book from being printed and sold. One of the most notable examples comes from the master of horror, who pulled the novel Rage from publication after it was found in a teenage school shooter’s locker at Heath High School in 1997.
However, King is against mass censorship for clear reasons, as stated in this essay. King has been the subject of library bans many times, including with the removal of The dead zone and The tommyknockers from Florida libraries during the nineties. The author has specific advice for readers confronting the barbed wire between them and banned literature. King’s advice from the essay says: “Do not argue with them, do not protest, do not organise or attend rallies to have the books put back on their shelves.” He continues: “Instead, hustle down to your public library, where these frightened people’s reach must fall short in a democracy, or to your local bookstore, and get a copy of what has been banned.” King advises readers to “read it carefully and discover what it is your elders don’t want you to know.” The essay says, correctly so, that most readers will wonder what the fuss was about – though they also might discover vital information about the human condition from banned literature. Banned works will fall into two categories once you’ve seen them for yourself: shocking and horrifying, or not what you expected and with something potentially important.
Modern book bans sound the alarm
Banning literature from popular view is more dangerous than the banned works themselves. Literature bans aren’t something of the past, but a current affairs issue that provides horrifyingly recent results if you just visit a search engine and observe.
In 2001, the Gauteng Provincial Department of Education convened to ban the 1981 novel July’s people (Nadine Gordimer), alongside Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Somehow, a panel decided that July’s people was racist, while Hamlet was potentially irrelevant and too European for the school curriculum. This was the same year as the songs “Chop suey” (System of a Down) and “Clint Eastwood” (Gorillaz), if anyone needed perspective. Government, in the form of minister Kader Asmal, soon assured authors that works wouldn’t be scrapped from the provincial or national school curriculum. It was a false alarm, though it should stick out as a clear, modern example of how alarming modern censorship can be.
National literature bans have also crawled from the underworld’s depths into the spotlight throughout the United States. Authors Michael Connelly, Nikki Grimes and Judy Blume protested the removal of their books from the curriculum as recently as October 2023. In 2024, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported Utah banning a selection of 13 books, which included The bluest eye (Toni Morrison) and the autobiography Gender queer (Maia Kobabe). Modern book bans sound an important moral smoke alarm, which readers and authors should always hear with clarity.
Freedom is seeing and judging
Bans are almost always a terrible idea. Firstly, they make these works more attractive instead of limiting their reach. Secondly, bans and censorship impact everyone’s right to choose what they’re allowed to do. Once literature is successfully banned, the authoritarian power soon extends to the ability to restrict something else: your haircut, your clothes, your opinion, your beliefs and your voice.
Carnegie Mellon University and George Mason University found that banning books only increased their circulation in areas where the ban didn’t apply. More research tells us that banning also has a negative effect on mental health, narrowing perception, limiting perspective or promoting exclusion.
UCT notably held an exhibition of once-banned works during the 2018 Banned Books Week. Reading celebrates freedom, and anything you might encounter will teach you something about the world – and after observing, you have the right to decide for yourself. Banned or censored works should be seen and judged individually; on the contrary, anyone should worry when they no longer have the choice to read something.