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Between Censorship and Reconciliation
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In my presentation I explore the grey area between censorship in terms of banning books, and reconciliation. I will be using the children’s novel The King’s Daughter by Suzanne Martel as a case study. The King’s Daughter was published in 1981 and is the story of a French orphan who chooses to become a Fille du Roy and is shipped off to New France to help populate the colony. What follows is a lively, though quite racist romp through the wilderness in what is now southern Quebec. A decade into its life, the book was challenged and banned in Saskatchewan. In response, the publisher released a new version, which had been censored without any input from Martel. Unfortunately, the second edition manages to do the nearly impossible and is more racist than the first.
My presentation will focus primarily on the ways that libraries deal with challenged books, particularly those that lean in a racist sort of direction. I will draw on documents from various libraries, the American Library Association, the United Nations, the Truth and Reconciliation Committee, and my own feelings on the matter.
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- Date created
- 2017-02-03
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- Type of Item
- Conference/Workshop Presentation