Giving Offense: Essays on Censorship
Search in google:
Winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature.J. M. Coetzee presents a coherent, unorthodox 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. He 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, Giving Offense 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."The most impressive feature of Coetzee's essays, besides his ear for language, is his coolheadedness. He can dissect repugnant notions and analyze volatile emotions with enviable poise."—Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle Book Review"Those looking for simple, ringing denunciations of censorship's evils will be disappointed. Coetzee explicitly rejects such noble tritenesses. Instead . . . he pursues censorship's deeper, more fickle meanings and unmeanings."—Kirkus Reviews"These erudite essays form a powerful, bracing criticism of censorship in its many guises."—Publishers Weekly"Giving Offense gets its incisive message across clearly, even when Coetzee is dealing with such murkytheorists as Bakhtin, Lacan, Foucault, and René; Girard. Coetzee has a light, wry sense of humor."—Bill Marx, Hungry Mind Review"An extraordinary collection of essays."—Martha Bayles, New York Times Book Review"A disturbing and illuminating moral expedition."—Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times Book ReviewPublishers WeeklyThe South African writer teases out the implications of cases like Osip Mandelstam's ode to Stalin and Catharine MacKinnon's anti-pornography crusades. (Oct.)
Preface and Acknowledgments1Taking Offense12Emerging from Censorship343Lady Chatterley's Lover: The Taint of the Pornographic484The Harms of Pornography: Catharine MacKinnon615Erasmus: Madness and Rivalry836Osip Mandelstam and the Stalin Ode1047Censorship and Polemic: Solzhenitsyn1178Zbigniew Herbert and the Figure of the Censor1479Apartheid Thinking16310The Work of the Censor: Censorship in South Africa18511The Politics of Dissent: Andre Brink20412Breyten Breytenbach and the Reader in the Mirror215Notes233Works Cited269Index285
