#MeToo, Section 377 and more: Bangalore Literature Festival promises charged debates

The Nobel-Prize-winning author is no stranger to censorship. Her novel 'The Bluest Eye' (1970) was ranked as the second most banned book in the United States by the American Library Association.

The book has been attacked for its ‘pornographic language’ and ‘inappropriate content’. A part of reading lists in schools across the US, it was banned after several parents’ association protested against its inclusion in the syllabus. Despite explicit sex scenes describing incest, rape, and pedophilia, the book is held as a thought-provoking literary work.

Set in 1941, it centres around the life of an African-American girl named Pecola. Morrison’s other works, 'Beloved' (1987) and 'Song of Solomon' (1977), have also met with calls to be removed from school libraries and reading lists.

In 1929, Norah James wrote her 'stream-of-consciousness' novel about two lovers who form a suicide pact.

Deemed obscene because of expressions such as 'b***s', 'bloody' and 'For Christ's sake give me a drink', the British Home secretary Sir William Joyson-Hicks prompted a raid on the premises of Scholartis Press, the publishing house owned by the New Zealander Eric Partridge. Copies were seized and then destroyed after the final judgement was made that the novel suggested 'thoughts of the most impure character.'

However, a clandestine French edition, published by Jack Kahane of Obelisk Press, made it to bookshelves.

This 1857 masterpiece by the French writer caused public outcry over its sexualised content and themes of adultery when La Reveau, a French magazine, released some of its excerpts.

While Flaubert and his publishers agreed to remove certain passages, it wasn’t enough and Flaubert was charged with offending public morality. At the trial, Imperial Advocate Ernest Pinard famously said, “No gauze for him, no veils — he gives us nature in all her nudity and crudity.”

While the public opinion remained that Flaubert's work would inevitably lead to the decay of public decency, the jury acquitted him and 'Madame Bovary' was republished in its entirety and sold 15,000 copies in two months.

The controversial English writer’s tryst with censorship goes beyond the hotly debated Lady Chatterley’s Lover. With 'Women In Love', Lawrence once again shot to infamy, sparking controversy over its sexual content.

The book, published privately in 1920, examines the ill effects of industrialisation on the human psyche through intensity and passion.

The book was banned during Lawrence’s lifetime and after years of misunderstandings, accusations of duplicity, and hurried letters, Thomas Seltzer finally published the first edition of 'Women in Love' in New York City, on November 9, 1920.

This had come after three drawn out years of delays and revisions.

Ever since J D Salinger’s 'The Catcher in the Rye' was published in 1951, it attracted the attention of the censors.

One of the earliest works of fiction exploring male teenage consciousness, the book is narrated in the first person by Holden Caulfield, who struggles with feelings of alienation and anxiety.

During 1965 to 1975, it was the most frequently banned book in American schools, with the common complaint being of obscene language and the portrayal of inappropriate adolescent behaviour.

Although challenged many times, the book remains on many reading lists, and is constantly reprinted.