Censorship: The Knot that Binds Power and Knowledge (Communication & Society) [Paperback]

Sue Curry Jansen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 14, 1991 | Series: Communication & Society

Most Americans tend to view censorship as a repressive aspect of other societies or historical eras, one that touches on our lives only in relation to national security or certain cold war considerations. In this provocative history of censorship, Sue Curry Jansen challenges conventional thought with a bold new view: that censorship, an embodiment of the relationship between power and knowledge, is as much a feature of liberal, market societies as it is of totalitarianisms. Building on an analytic tradition laid out by such thinkers as Marcuse and Foucault, Jansen addresses the notion of "market censorship" and shows how the marketplace has become an arena for liberal "power-knowledge." She also analyzes Marx's critique of bourgeois censorship, examines censorship at various levels of Soviet society, and takes an incisive look at economic censorship within our own capitalist nation. The book concludes with a discussion on strategies of resistance to this powerful, and indeed universal, form of social control.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The many faces of censorship, apparent in the constraints of the marketplace as well as in the more commonly recognized controls of church or state, emerge in vivid and often fascinating detail....The book raises and explores matters of great importance in a lively, engaging, and thoroughly stimulating fashion....An important volume for all academic libraries."--Choice

"An intellectual tour de force....A remarkable and intellectually challenging confrontation with ideas that have guided traditional writing about freedom and control of words, media, and our understanding of reality."--Journal of Communication

"It is forcefully, even brilliantly written, as well as thought provoking."--Contemporary Sociology

"An important book that should be read by those students of communications and cultural studies who intend to build a critical theory of meaning, censorship, and the media in this postmodern period of world history."--American Journal of Sociology

"Jansen offers an incisive and challenging alternative to conventional approaches to censorship. Instead of approaching censorship merely as a restrictive practice, the book addresses censorship as an intrinsic outcome of concentrated power. The author frees her subject matter from its often partisan depiction, and roots it firmly as an issue of contemporary life."--Stuart Ewen, Hunter College

"Jansen has taken on the prodigious task of offering a history of censorship within a theoretical reformulation of the censorship idea. This is an important book."--Vincent Mosco, Queen's University, Ontario

About the Author

Sue Curry Jansen is at Cedar Crest and Muhlenberg Colleges.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (February 14, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195069064
• ISBN-13: 978-0195069068
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #776,348 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An Important Read, If You Care., May 29, 2005

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Grace Everett "Grace" (Vermont) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Censorship: The Knot that Binds Power and Knowledge (Communication & Society) (Paperback)

Jansen is known for being a pioneer in the awareness of censorship in the late twentieth century. In her widely read and referred to text, Censorship, she asserts, "The question is not, `is there censorship', but rather `what kind?'"(25). She then goes on to discuss the underground and less obvious ways that censorship has been practiced since the age of Enlightenment.

What do Capitalist and Socialist societies have in common? They both practice censorship. The fact is, people and profit go together, and where you have discomfort, you have people choosing against it. While Jansen's work is too broad to get to the very heart of the issue, ranging from a look at Marx to a Greek Mythology and to the emergence of the internet, she raises questions that need to be looked at. This book is an important one, that has inspired many in the study of academic freedom and censorship in societies past and current.