On Monday, 11 January 2027, Prof. Dr. Corinna Norrick-Rühl and Prof. Dr. Silvia Schultermandl (University of Münster) will give a guest lecture (in English) on the topic “Between Access and Censorship? Book Banning in the 21st Century”. The lecture will take place from 4.15 pm to 6.30 pm at the Philosophikum (Domplatz 23, 48143 Münster), Room 201.
Digital change is impacting literature (and literary criticism) as well as on 21st-century book and reading cultures, creating a tension between access and censorship. On the one hand, reading books and book-related communication via social media (particularly #BookTok) are once again experiencing a significant resurgence, especially amongst younger readers. On the other hand, the digital space is fraught with problems and perpetuates inequalities and biases. Consequently, the digital space also serves to obstruct access to literature, for instance through the deliberate dissemination of misinformation about certain books and media, as well as through organised campaigns against individual books – particularly in the USA.
The digital spaces of negotiation in which these debates are played out also constitute the key difference from historical instances of censorship in the US, whether carried out systematically during the McCarthy era or in the form of isolated reports to the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom. The paradox that literary reading is receiving such intense public attention precisely because of book bans raises key questions for this Centre for Advanced Study: What forms of archiving and access can counteract the current book bans? How are literature and literary reading – as practices of opinion-forming and “worldmaking” – understood by both the proponents of book bans and their opponents? What mechanisms of translation between discursive practices in the digital sphere and the material consequences in the lives of all those involved, caught in the tension between access and censorship, need to be taken into account?
Speakers:
Prof. Dr. Corinna Norrick-Rühl has held the Chair of Book Studies in the English Department at the University of Münster since 2020. Her research interests include book culture (including celebrity book culture), 20th-century publishing history, contemporary publishing, book distribution (esp. book sales clubs) and literary prize culture.
Prof. Dr. Silvia Schultermandl heads the Chair of American Studies in the English Department at the University of Münster since 2021 and conducts research into American fiction and life writing from the 18th century to the present, gender studies and transnationalism, with a particular focus on intersectional and queer-feminist politics in and through literature, film, popular culture and social media.