So, What’s This Banned Books Course About?
People have actually banned books in the US. That’s censorship. What about the 1st Amendment? And who are they to tell us what we can read? We are going to read some of those books and learn about why books have been banned or challenged and by whom. Books are often challenged or banned due to an individual or group of individuals considering the book to be controversial, immoral, inappropriate, sexually explicit, divisive, corrupt, vulgar, violent, or even wicked. Unfortunately, challenged and banned books are often valuable, classic works of literature. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton are just a few of the many books that have been challenged or banned.
We will read literature dealing with issues of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, religion, and political perspective. But the best part about this class is we get to read interesting books and we get to talk about them publicly. We also get to make a stance about our positions on freedom of speech and intellectual freedom.
*This course satisfies the humanities credit and the Cultural Awareness requirement for the AA degree.
| 1. | Explain the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as it relates to literature and other printed materials. (I) |
| 2. | Identify and explain factors that motivate people and organizations to challenge and/or ban books. (I) |
| 3. | Identify and describe the effects of censorship on readers, writers, publishers, educators, and librarians. (I) |
| 4. | Explain and exemplify uses of censorship by a dominant culture to suppress minority voices. (II) |
| 5. | Read and analyze examples of banned or challenged literature dealing with issues of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, religion, and political perspective. (II, III) |
| 6. | Analyze and present results of independent reading of a text chosen from the American Library Association’s list of Most Challenged Books, 1990-2000. (II, III) |
| 7. | Work as part of a team to compose arguments for and against banning or challenging a selected text with a controversial history. (IV) |
| 8. | Articulate a personal position on the issue of censorship of printed materials, and identify national organizations that promote or oppose censorship. (IV) |
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