Censorship in Literature and Music Essay -- Censoring Laws Essays

Censorship in Literature and MusicWhat is banishship? An encyclopedia defines censoring as the constraint of what people may say or hear, write or read, or see or do1. There are many reasons why people censor entertainment such as literature and music. Many governments or groups try to preserve their standards of morality by preventing people from learning about or pursuit other standards2, commonly found in the two previously mentioned mediums. There are different ways to censor things. It can be on a local level, such as libraries refusing to carry a controversial book. It can also be on an entirely larger scale. In the 1770s, French power Beaumarchais had two of his plays, The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro, banned by King Louis XVI.2 Back then, these plays were considered outrageous and sometimes blasphemous. To fully understand how our system of censorship works today, we comport to look into history to see how censorship got started. Johann Gutenberg invente d the moveable type printing press and published his first bible sometime around 1450. By 1500, an estimated 20 million books were circulating throughout Europe. The performs monopoly over the written word was destroyed. Responding to this new technology of freedom, the Church developed a number of control mechanisms. The most obvious, and perhaps famous of these was the Index librorum prohibitum (Index of Prohibited Books). The Index listed hundreds of banned authors and books.3 Less famous than the Index but absolutely central to the rise of censorship, was Church and government work of exclusive printing privileges, which granted favored printers a monopoly right to publish books so long as they were approved by official censors4. In Italy, censorship was primarily a response to the spread of printed Protestant propaganda.5 On October 31, 1517, the Day of all Saints, Martin Luther posted his 95 statements, of theses, to the doors of a church. This was revolutionary, because no body ever successfully questioned the Churchs authority. Soon after that, others began to follow his example. Eventually, the Church lost power over peoples daily lives. Their local and national government took its part as the authority leader. As the governments grew, it eventually started monitoring what the public could be exposed to. This included music and books. Eventually, in the 20th c... ...Bibliography Webpage Hunter, Christopher D.. right of first publication and Culture 03 Dec. 2002 An Interview with Alex Domokos Dowse 03 Dec. 2002 http//www.dowse.com/interview-alex-domokos.html Nuzum, Eric. A Brief History of Banned Music in the United States 03 Dec. 2002 http//ericnuzum.com/banned/ Controversial Music The Beat Goes On 03 Dec. 2002 http//teenmusic.about.com/library/weekly/aa022301a.htm The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000 American Library Association. 03 Dec. 2002 http//www.ala.org/bbooks/top100bannedbooks.html Blume, Judy. Judy Blume Talks about Cens orship 09 Dec. 2002 http//www.judyblume.com/censors.html Censorship in the Renaissance 13 Dec. 2002 http//130.238.50.3/ilmh/Ren/bokt-censor.htm entire Amendments 1-10 The Bill of Rights 02 Jan. 2003 http//www.archives.gov/exhibit_hall/charters_of_freedom/bill_of_rights/amendments_1-10.html Anne, Rapin. Beaumarchais 31 Jan. 2003 Books Marsh, Dave. 50 Ways to Fight Censorship & Important Facts to Know About the Censors. New York, NY Thunders Mouth Press, 1991. Encyclopedia Censorship. The World Book Encyclopedia. 1989 ed.