Censorium: Cinema and the Open Edge of Mass Publicity

by William Mazzarella

In the world of globalized media, provocative images trigger culture wars between traditionalists and cosmopolitans, between censors and defenders of free expression. But are images censored because of what they mean, what they do, or what they might become? And must audiences be protected because of what they understand, what they feel, or what they might imagine? At the intersection of anthropology, media studies, and critical theory, Censorium is a pathbreaking analysis of Indian film censorship. The book encompasses two moments of moral the consolidation of the cinema in the 1910s and 1920s, and the global avalanche of images unleashed by liberalization since the early 1990s. Exploring breaks and continuities in film censorship across colonial and postcolonial moments, William Mazzarella argues that the censors' obsessive focus on the unacceptable content of certain images and the unruly behavior of particular audiences displaces a problem that they constantly confront yet cannot directly the volatile relation between mass affect and collective meaning. Grounded in a close analysis of cinema regulation in the world's largest democracy, Censorium ultimately brings light to the elusive foundations of political and cultural sovereignty in mass-mediated societies.

Genres: Anthropology

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Aakash · Rating 5 out of 5]

The organization of historical and ethnographic data along with related theoretical arguments makes it a very convenient read. The treatment of the material is never polemic and always balanced and objective. The author almost disappears as the reader immerses in the book and only appears when absolutely necessary. The description of interviews etc is real-life like.

Rich in ethnography and highly analytic about its theoretical implications. Through analysis of controversies generated by films and the cinema in general through colonial until the post colonial times of 1990s in an Indian context, the book is ultimately talking about about the State's struggle in sustaining sovereignty as it is presented with the open edge of mass publicity.

For the Indian reader aware of the context, the book will be a very useful resource to make sense of her historical context. For the reader not aware of it, the book is ultimately about an anthropology of the State and the State's interaction with mass media and thus is an important resource for anyone trying to make sense of the sovereignty of the State and the interplay of this struggle for sovereignty in the age of mass media.

A must read.

[Nayana Renukumar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cinema in India has an enviable ‘reach, cultural influence and affective resonance’, at once integrating the mechanical mass production potential of Print and the performative energy of Theatre. It is therefore not surprising that Mazzarella chose an ethnographic analysis of film censorship in India to explore the uncomfortable relationship between mass publicity and political authority. In a work that examines the
genealogy of censorship from colonial times to its present form, Mazarella analyses the problems associated with film censorship as a means to reveal basic issues in the grounding of political and cultural authority in mass-mediated societies. His exploration is structured thematically across five chapters.

Mazzarella’s characterization of film censorship as a governance technology that ‘proliferates normalized understandings of subjectivity, sexuality and citizenship’ offers a highly useful framework that helps us
understand the recent controversies surrounding the ban of BBC documentary on ‘India’s daughter’ and many more similar episodes to come in future.