Banned Books - Lev Vygotsky

      

Lev Vygotsky (1896 – 1934)

Close to home, a major writer for students at this university, Vygotsky was banned in the Soviet Union from 1936 until the death of Stalin 1953. In this case the ban was not so significant, because it had ended long before the revival of interest in Vygotsky’s work – an interest still growing.

Banned Books – September 2015

Banned Books Month is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Typically held in September, it highlights the value of free and open access to information. Banned Books Week aims to bring together the entire book community –- librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types –- in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.

The books featured during Banned Books Week have all been targeted with removal or restrictions in libraries and schools. While books have been and continue to be banned, part of the Banned Books Week celebration is the fact that, in a majority of cases, the books have remained available. This happens only thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, students, and community members who stand up and speak out for the freedom to read.

The American Library Association has produced this list of Frequently Challenged Books which may be of interest

http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks

The following posts highlight some “classic” banned books.

Zuleika Dobson (1911) by Max Beerbohm

Zuleika Dobson is a novel with a riotous story and a playful narrative.

It follows the story of Zuleika on a visit to her grandfather, the Warden of the fictitious Judas College in Oxford. Divinely beautiful, every student in Oxford falls madly in love with her (including the hilariously egotistical Duke of Dorset, whose death will be foretold by the hooting of two black owls on the battlements of his family home). However, she rejects them all. Driven to despair, the students go to increasingly strange and amusing lengths to prove their devotion to her.

A facetious satire of Edwardian upper class life, the book is rich in comedy, absurdity, and even the supernatural – in one memorable chapter the narrator unexpectedly introduces a number of ghosts who comment on and attempt to interact with the living characters who are oblivious to them.

Zuleika Dobson makes for an unpredictable and entertaining read by an author who embraced all the playful extravagance of his own imagination in both story and style.

The book is available on Project Gutenberg via the Library Catalogue.

Review by Gwent Kent