Your handbook deals with censorship from an interdisciplinary and transhistorical perspective. What new findings and insights does your book offer compared to previous works on censorship research and how do the contributions from the various disciplines contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon?
“Our handbook brings together the current state of knowledge on censorship – something that has never been done before. We analyse censorship in its temporal and spatial scope, from its beginnings to the present day and in its global dimension. Such a challenge can only be tackled in an interdisciplinary way: with censorship experts from history, sociology and theology, from philology, political science, law and media studies. Time and again, synergy effects emerge, so that the sum of the combined knowledge is more than the individual parts. For example, a comparative look at censorship on all continents reveals similarities (e.g. the connection between colonialism and censorship) and differences: formal state censorship in autocracies and dictatorships contrasts with informal, non-state forms of communication control in democratic constitutional states.”
Your handbook also emphasises the current relevance of censorship in the context of global crises and political change. How can the academic examination of historical and current forms of censorship contribute to better understanding and combating modern censorship practices and their effects?
The answer must be twofold: “Understanding censorship better”: The handbook can undoubtedly contribute to this. It offers a comprehensive overview of the players and those affected, institutions and practices, means and motives, function and effect of censorship. One learns to distinguish between formal and informal forms of censorship. You will understand, for example, which forms of censorship are prohibited by our constitution – namely only prior state control – and which are not – such as restrictive interference in communication by private companies. It is easier to distinguish between real censorship phenomena and simple censorship polemics in politics and the media.
“Fighting censorship”? Whether this handbook can achieve this remains to be seen. It perhaps takes a first step by scientifically analysing political and social phenomena of control and restriction of communication and thereby making them visible. Especially when censorship measures such as imprisonment, torture, expulsion and murder are described, such documentation alone can have an activist and therefore activating effect.
The handbook is aimed at both specialist audiences and advanced students. What methodological and content-related approaches does the book offer that are particularly useful for academic teaching and academic further education?
The phenomenon of ‘censorship’ is a chameleon. It has so many facets – and is understood and defined very differently depending on the perspective and interest in knowledge. Does ‘censorship’ primarily mean the institutional pre-screening of texts, which are checked and sorted out using an index? Is it also understood to mean broader social, political or economic mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion? What do we learn from past and present disputes about the (in)freedom of speech?
There are various ways of approaching these questions. There are social-historical, empirical-historical, psychoanalytical, discourse-analytical or field-theoretical approaches to the topic of censorship. Our handbook also contains a broad spectrum of methodological and content-related approaches to researching censorship. All of these approaches can be utilised in research and studies: They sharpen the focus on one of the greatest challenges of our time: the struggle for freedom of expression.
