Institutional Censorship of Academic Humanities Publishing in Communist Poland. Preliminary Findings and Research Perspectives

This article discusses the censorship of scholarly publications in the humanities in Poland in the years 1944–1990, with a particular focus on literary studies. It explores the censorship of scientific texts in the field of literary studies, mainly academic textbooks, dissertations and studies devoted to Polish literature. The first part reconstructs the model of censorship of academic publishing by the Main Office for the Control Press Publications and Performances, taking into account the chronology and the division according to the person of the author of the scientific publication, the subject, the reporting institution and the intended audience. The second part of the article presents case studies that provide a detailed discussion of several instances of censorship reconstructed on the basis of archival documents not only from the censorship office, but also from authors (egodocuments) and from scientific institutions. Building on the author’s previous research into censorship of literary fiction the article also compares the ways in which fiction and scientific literature were censored. The article concludes with suggestions for further research, including a comparative perspective

Academic freedom · Censorship · Communism · Institution · Literary criticism · Publishing · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · Language and Culture · Polish Historical and Cultural Studies

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