Literature and Self-Censorship – In a Post-Rushdie World

Abstract

In this thesis I examine the current limitations for literature with respect to freedom of speech and self-censorship. I draw a line from the obscenity trials of James Joyce s Ulysses and D. H. Lawrence s Lady Chatterley s Lover, through the controversies of religion and cultural belonging around Salman Rushdie s The Satanic Verses and Monica Ali s Brick Lane, and up to the more recent court cases of Åsne Seierstad s The Bookseller of Kabul. I demonstrate that there are now essentially two ways in which literature challenges the limits for freedom of expression in the West. The first is literature that is offensive to religion, particularly Islam. I examine how the politics of outrage has led to an increased likelihood that writers will self-censor and avoid religious themes. I then look at the legal limits between freedom of speech and rights of privacy by examining the lawsuit against Seierstad, filed by one of the individuals she portrayed in The Bookseller of Kabul. Although the book is a work of non- fiction, it is written in literary form, and I examine how this begins to erase the border between fiction and non-fiction.