Better Left Unsaid: Victorian Novels, Hays Code Films, and the Benefits of Censorship

The Cultural Lives of Law

by Nora Gilbert

Better Left Unsaid is in the unseemly position of defending censorship from the central allegations that are traditionally leveled against it. Taking two genres generally presumed to have been stymied by the censor's knife—the Victorian novel and classical Hollywood film—this book reveals the varied ways in which censorship, for all its blustery self-righteousness, can actually be good for sex, politics, feminism, and art. As much as Victorianism is equated with such cultural impulses as repression and prudery, few scholars have explored the Victorian novel as a "censored" commodity—thanks, in large part, to the indirectness and intangibility of England's literary censorship process. This indirection stands in sharp contrast to the explicit, detailed formality of Hollywood's infamous Production Code of 1930. In comparing these two versions of censorship, Nora Gilbert explores the paradoxical effects of prohibitive practices. Rather than being ruined by censorship, Victorian novels and Hays Code films were stirred and stimulated by the very forces meant to restrain them.

Genres: Film, History, Theory, Nonfiction

196 pages, Hardcover

First published January 9, 2013

Reviews

[Gina Dalfonzo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author takes a difficult and provocative thesis and does a great job defending it. An intelligent and fascinating piece of literary and film analysis.

[Jennifer DuBose · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really hadn’t thought of censorship in this way before. This was excellent! I am using this as a source in my upcoming conference paper.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating book, but more literary criticism than all that much about the censorship aspect. Not that that's a bad thing, but it's not very helpful for my paper. But that on me.