CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2023
| Author | Leitner, Lili |
|---|---|
| Title | The Politics of Censorship in the USA: A Critical Analysis of the Case of The Handmaid's Tale |
| Summary | This thesis explores the connection between politics and book censorship in today’s USA by analyzing the dynamics and power relations around censorship, and its subsequent effect on everyday people. It achieves this by viewing the issue from the everyday politics of knowledge framework, and inspecting one frequently banned novel, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. First, I perform a cultural analysis on the contents of the novel, showing the important relevance of the book for audiences. Building on this, I then examine the struggles and dynamics around the book, and aim to expand the political and everyday implications of censorship. The main purpose of this thesis is therefore to signify the dire consequences of knowledge control by power holders, and to contribute to existing literature by adding an International Relations perspective to the subject. The key finding of this thesis is that censoring books like The Handmaid’s Tale is not only an attempt by state officials for knowledge control, but also an action detrimental for audiences, who are unable to access important, transformative ideas and subjects through these books. |
| Supervisor | Strausz, Erzsébet |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2023/leitner_lili.pdf |
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