INTRODUCTION
One of the reasons that scholars study literature is that it represents the culture
that produced it. If literature does represent a culture, then the study of literature
might well include not only what gets published and shared but also what is forced
into hiding, what people go out of their way to not talk about. Every culture has
some sense of what is open for comment and portrayal and what is unspeakable,
and these sorts of topics can change significantly over time. While one generation
or geographic location might find that the subject of marital infidelity is so trou-
bling and immoral that it should not be discussed at all, a subsequent generation
might find this topic particularly interesting, resulting in its being covered in a
number of texts in various genres and media.
What this means is that it is very important to view what a culture or society
tries to keep unspoken, because it tells us a good deal about that culture’s values
and ideas. Of course, in the same way that some texts might represent niche or
fringe elements of a culture, the move to censor certain works or topics does not
always represent a general sentiment from a culture. Sometimes, the vocal few
can overpower the reasonable (or even apathetic or unaware) majority. Many
readers will be surprised to see some of the works that have been challenged.
(Where’s Waldo? series tends to surprise many people, for instance.) While this
book series does not ask the reader to judge or to take sides in any debate over
censorship, it will often use hindsight to illuminate the nature of the conflict
between the two sides of the censorship issue, recognizing the difference between
how issues of race or sex were viewed differently during the times of the text’s cre-
ation and how they have been viewed in later years.
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