PWR 1CWA: Ban that Book! Rhetorics of Free Speech and Censorship
As state legislatures from Florida to Texas enact sweeping bans on books addressing race, gender, and sexuality—and grassroots activists livestream the burning of Harry Potter in protest—America’s culture wars have ignited over who gets to read what and why. In this seminar, we interrogate the rhetoric, legal precedents, and cultural stakes of censorship amid today’s polarized political landscape. We’ll trace how the First Amendment and Miller v. California shape obscenity and morality standards and explore ALA’s Banned Books Week tradition and map some of the most-challenged book titles alongside recent bills targeting specific texts and authors. Through case studies—like the posthumous editing of Anne Frank’s diary, sensitivity-reader controversies, and the bipartisan Harry Potter boycott—we’ll analyze how lawmakers, publishers, and young activists fight for influence over culture and the classroom. We’ll also examine broader rhetoric and arguments about censorship and free speech, including the work of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), an organization that litigates to protect student and professors' rights to expression, and consider how digital censorship debates around Tik Tok mirror broader free-speech conflicts in America. In the process, you will learn to read, evaluate, and write persuasively about the rhetorical strategies and biases surrounding censorship discourse in the global fight for free expression.
Examples of Research Topics
Students develop questions around motivations and consequences for book bans, historical or contemporary. Projects might be grounded in a specific event - say, the rationale and consequences of book bans in Nazi Germany during WWII or debates over content in compulsory textbooks in primary schools in various states. Or, students might develop lines of inquiry around a specific book or author of their choosing, possibly one banned in their own schools or during a time in their primary education: Alice Walker’s Color Purple, Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, George Orwell’s 1984, Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer, and even…Captain Underpants? Why, for example, are certain types of books and authors banned more than others? What political or social pressures give rise to banning books generally or certain books or authors specifically?
Major Assignments
Rhetorical Analysis
(1200-1500 words; 4-5 pages) A 1500 word essay that analyzes how rhetorical strategies (e.g., ethos, pathos, kairos) are used in discourse on censorship and book bans.
Texts in Conversation
(1800-2400 words; 6-8 pages) Students curate and analyze 5–7 secondary sources (scholarly, legal, activist, journalistic) representing different positions on a single censorship flashpoint: literary, social, digital, or academic - such as the dual-front Harry Potter boycott, bills targeting DEI authors, TikTok-ban legislation, or the government’s recent overreach regarding speech at universities. The paper presents the flashpoint as a “case file” with sections summarizing each viewpoint, followed by a synthesis section identifying points of overlap, tension, and rhetorical strategy.
Research-based Argument
(3000-3600 words; 10-12 pages) For this assignment, you’ll build on the work you began with the Texts in Conversation assignment and integrate a variety of sources (primary and secondary; scholarly and non-academic) to produce a complex, provocative argument about your topic.