Out from Underground: Censorship and the Arts

Saturday 5 December 2009
2pm-5.30pm

Venue: Conference Room, National Library of Australia

Supported by the Research School of Humanities, ANU, the English Program, School of Humanities, ANU, the Australian-American Fulbright Commission, and the Faculty of Arts, Macquarie University.

Poster

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Much has been said and written about the aims and faults of censorship, but still little is known about its effects. Before liberalisation in the early 1970s, Australia witnessed decades of strict censorship and exactly what was targetted is still being uncovered. The impact of censorship on culture and the arts as well as on the country’s relations with the rest of the world has remained relatively obscure.

This half-day seminar brings together new research on the hidden objects of censorship, including the history of underground cinema, the anarchic responses of the art world, and the banning of infamous books. From Lady Chatterley’s Lover to Deep Throat, the paintings of artists like Richard Larter and the five state court cases involving Portnoy’s Complaint, censorship both hid culture from view and caused enormous public scandals. What exactly was it that disturbed the censors? What difference did restrictions make? Would such literature, art and film be assessed differently now?  Join our speakers on some revealing excursions into what it was that we weren’t allowed to know.

SPEAKERS:

Professor Jill Julius Matthews, Australian National University
Ms Deborah Clark, Canberra Museum and Art Gallery
Professor Nancy Paxton, 2009 Fulbright Senior Scholar, Australian National University,
Dr Nicole Moore, Visiting Fellow, Research School of the Humanities, Australian
National University

CONVENORS:

Dr Nicole Moore, Macquarie University
Professor Nancy Paxton, Northern Arizona University
Nicole.Moore@mq.edu.au, Nancy.Paxton@nau.edu

ADMISSION FREE