The book presents a selection of theoretical and historical studies on the topic of literary censorship, which has significantly influenced the international discussion on this interdisciplinary phenomenon since the 1980s. The aim of the volume is to capture the substantial transformation that the study of censorship in the humanities and social sciences has undergone in recent decades and to highlight the possibilities of utilizing new approaches (not only) in the field of literary historiography. The selected texts come from various linguistic areas and scientific cultures (English, French, German, Polish, Russian). The volume begins with studies by Aleida and Jan Assmann, who examine censorship in the context of cultural anthropology, and Pierre Bourdieu, who seeks it in the fundamental structures of language and discourse. His insights, along with the thinking of Michel Foucault, influenced proponents of the 'new censorship,' who presented their approaches in the programmatic collections Administration of Aesthetics (1994) and Censorship and Silencing (1998). This direction is represented in the present book by studies from Richard Burt, Judith Butler, Brook Thomas, and Michael Holquist, but the volume also includes reflections from authors who critically engage with the prompts of the 'new censorship.'
