Giving Offense: Essays on Censorship

Giving Offense: Essays on Censorship

by JCoetzee (Author)

Synopsis

This is an analysis of censorship from the perspective of one who has lived and worked under its shadow. The essays collected here attempt to understand the passion that plays itself out in acts of silencing and censoring. Coetzee argues that a destructive dynamic of belligerence and escalation tends to overtake the rivals in any field ruled by censorship. From Osip Mandelstam commanded to compose an ode in praise of Stalin, to Breyten Breytenbach writing poems under and for the eyes of his prison guards, to Aleksander Solzhenitsyn engaging in a trial of wits with the organs of the Soviet state, the book focuses on the ways authors have historically responded to censorship. It also analyzes the arguments of Catharine MacKinnon for the suppression of pornography and traces the operations of the old South African censorship system.

$28.10

Quantity

20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 297
Edition: New edition
Publisher: Chicago University Press
Published: 04 Dec 1997

ISBN 10: 0226111768
ISBN 13: 9780226111766

Author Bio
J.M. Coetzee is a South African novelist, essayist, linguist, translator and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. His published works include In the Heart of the Country, Waiting for the Barbarians, Life & Times of Michael K, and Disgrace.