By Sophie Aires
Books provide us with literary freedom and the ability to convey different opinions and ideas without censorship. The removal of certain books in recent years, a problem particularly in the United States, represses freedom of speech and literary autonomy. As PEN America (who track all book bans in libraries and classrooms across the US) state, “Books are under profound attack in the United States. They are disappearing from library shelves, being challenged in droves, being decreed off limits by school boards, legislators, and prison authorities.”
In recent years, book banning in the United States has reached unprecedented levels. In the 2022–23 school year, PEN recorded 3,362 instances of book bans in United States’ public school classrooms and libraries. Authors whose books were targeted were most frequently female, people of Colour and/or LGBTQIA+ individuals. This erasure of literature within schools is something which PEN suggests comes as a result of pressure from state legislation.
Kamala Harris has recently condemned the censorship of books in her campaign in the run- up to the presidential elections. In a recent address to the American Federation of Teachers union in Houston, Harris stated, “We want to ban assault weapons, and they want to ban books.” Harris refers to the controversy surrounding Republican action towards the censorship of books which has been found to be more common in Republican-run states. According to PEN “seven districts in Texas were responsible for 438 instances of individual book bans, and 13 districts in Florida were responsible for 357 bans.”
While the erasure of literature in schools is prevalent in the United States, the concept of book banning has also been an issue all too close to home. Research carried out by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) found that a third of librarians had been asked by members of the public to censor or remove books, the subjects of which often involved empire, race and LGBTQIA+ themes.
This highlights an even bigger issue of prejudice still prevalent within society today, one in which the freedom to share and challenge ideas through literature remains important. As CILIP suggests in their right to intellectual freedom policy, “The right to intellectual freedom is a foundation of a strong and representative democracy, and of a society in which everyone can contribute to, participate in and benefit from the intellectual, creative and cultural life of their community,” with intellectual freedom meaning, “freedom of access to information and freedom of expression.”
As Thomas Lyster described poignantly in 1889, as President of the Library Association, “In a great library all things, good and evil, fall into their places, are seen in the just light and proportion, and the totality of the record of human thought and feeling is a witness for what is wholesome, true and good.”
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