Censorship of Literature in Austria, 1751-1848

Erscheinungsjahr 2022
ISBN: 978-90-04-51927-5
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, 436 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 874 g

The influence of censorship on the intellectual and political life in the Habsburg Monarchy during the period under scrutiny can hardly be overstated. This study examines the institutional foundations, operating principles, and results of the censorial activity through analysis of the prohibition lists and examination of the censors themselves. The effects of censorship on the authors, publishers, and booksellers of the time are illustrated with the help of contemporary documents. Numerous case studies focus on individual works forbidden by the censors: Romanticists like Ludwig Tieck and E. T. A. Hoffmann and even authors of classic German literature like Wieland, Goethe, and Schiller saw their works slashed, as did writers of popular French and English novels and plays. An annex documents the most important regulations along with a selection of censorial reports.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bachleitner, Norbert

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte und Literaturkritik
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literatursoziologie, Gender Studies
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Gewalt Politische Unterdrückung & Verfolgung

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Author’s Foreword

List of Illustrations

1 Introduction

1 On the Theory of Censorship Research: “Old” or “New” Censorship?

2 The Historical-Sociological Definition of Censorship: Exercise of Political Power versus the Autonomy of Literature

3 Modalities of Censorship over Time

4 How Dangerous Is Literature?

2 In the Service of the Enlightenment: Censorship between 1751 and 1791

1 What Went Before: Censorship in the Early Modern Period

2 The Censorship Commission under Maria Theresa

3 The Josephinian-Leopoldinian Era

4 Commented Statistics of Prohibition Activity between 1754 and 1791

3 Censorship as an Instrument of Repression: The Era of Napoleon and the Vormärz Period (1792–1848)

1 Between the French Revolution and Student Unrest: Censorship from 1792 to 1820

2 Censorship in the Pre-march Period (1821–1848)

3 Commented Statistics of Prohibition Activity between 1792 and 1848

4 A Look at the Crown Lands

1 The Kingdom of Bohemia (1750–1848) (by Petr Píša and Michael Wögerbauer)

2 The Italian-Speaking Territories of the Habsburg Monarchy (1768–1848) (by Daniel Syrovy)

5 The Censorship of Theater

1 Theater Censorship in the Name of the Enlightenment under Maria Theresa and Joseph II (1770–1790)

2 Theater Censorship under Francis II/I and Ferdinand I (1792–1848)

6 Case Studies

1 Periodicals

2 Chroniques scandaleuses

3 The Theme of Suicide in Forbidden Literature

4 The Period of Weimar Classicism

5 The Romanticists

6 The Historical Novel

7 English Plays

8 French Drama of the July Monarchy

7 Outlook

Appendix

Bibliography

Index of Named Persons

Index of Publishers and Booksellers

Index of Periodicals

Über Autor(innen)

Norbert Bachleitner is a Professor emeritus of Comparative Literature at the University of Vienna, Austria. He was visiting professor at various universities including the Sorbonne nouvelle in Paris and is a member of the Academia Europaea. His fields of interest include the reception of English and French literature in the German speaking area; literary translation and transfer studies; social history of literature; censorship; literature in periodicals; intertextuality, and digital literature. His most recent book publications are (ed., together with Achim Hölter and John A. McCarthy) Taking Stock – Twenty-Five Years of Comparative Literary Research (Leiden, Boston: Brill 2020); (ed.) Literary Translation, Reception, and Transfer (Proceedings of the ICLA Conference in Vienna 2016, vol. 2, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter 2020); and (ed., together with Juliane Werner) Popular Music and the Poetics of Self in Contemporary Fiction (Leiden, Boston: Brill 2022).