Censorship+Issue+-+Rachelle+S.

=﻿﻿Censorship and Huckleberry Finn =

[[image:http://www.gutenberg.org/files/76/76-h/images/frontispiece.jpg width="207" height="263" align="left"]]
I n a senior level English class it would be interesting to discuss the subject of censorship in relation to the recent focus on //Huckleberry Finn//. In January of this year an American publisher decided to delete all offensive racial language, and more specifically all uses of the "n-word" from their new edition of the classic text. A link to one of many reports on this issue follows: []

It would be effective to tackle this issue in conjunction with another text that deals more in depth with the issue of censorship like Fahrenheit 451 or Nineteen Eighty Four. I would suggest broaching this topic in a senior class, only because it entails a clear understanding of critical thought and the ability to consider controversial topics with tact, maturity and objectivity.

__**Some debate / discussion topics: **__ //Do you think that art should be censored? If so, when and when not? Is censoring a novel the same as censoring a painting or a film? Why is it important to understand the language and psychology of the past? Do outsiders have the right to alter works of art? How should contemporary, critical readers approach controversial texts? //

__**Possible Activity: **__ This issue would be an excellent topic for argumentative essay practice or even for a debate activity. Another interesting activity would be to have students analyse another novel, play, or poem that is either controversial or contains culturally or temporally specific language or themes that are not considered appropriate today. Their assignment might be to consider how this text might be altered to be deemed "safe" and "unobjectionable" by today's standards. Where would the changes be? What would the final text look like?

Also: See the CBS 60 minutes segment on this topic:

[|Huckleberry Finn and the N-word]