Censorship of Literature in Austria, 1751-1848

Norbert Bachleitner is a Professor emeritus of Comparative Literature at the University of Vienna, Austria. He was visiting professor at various universities including the Sorbonne nouvelle in Paris and is a member of the Academia Europaea. His fields of interest include the reception of English and French literature in the German speaking area; literary translation and transfer studies; social history of literature; censorship; literature in periodicals; intertextuality, and digital literature. His most recent book publications are (ed., together with Achim Hölter and John A. McCarthy) Taking Stock – Twenty-Five Years of Comparative Literary Research (Leiden, Boston: Brill 2020); (ed.) Literary Translation, Reception, and Transfer (Proceedings of the ICLA Conference in Vienna 2016, vol. 2, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter 2020); and (ed., together with Juliane Werner) Popular Music and the Poetics of Self in Contemporary Fiction (Leiden, Boston: Brill 2022).

• Author’s ForewordList of Illustrations1 Introduction1 On the Theory of Censorship Research: “Old” or “New” Censorship?2 The Historical-Sociological Definition of Censorship: Exercise of Political Power versus the Autonomy of Literature3 Modalities of Censorship over Time4 How Dangerous Is Literature?2 In the Service of the Enlightenment: Censorship between 1751 and 17911 What Went Before: Censorship in the Early Modern Period2 The Censorship Commission under Maria Theresa3 The Josephinian-Leopoldinian Era4 Commented Statistics of Prohibition Activity between 1754 and 17913 Censorship as an Instrument of Repression: The Era of Napoleon and the Vormärz Period (1792–1848)1 Between the French Revolution and Student Unrest: Censorship from 1792 to 18202 Censorship in the Pre-march Period (1821–1848)3 Commented Statistics of Prohibition Activity between 1792 and 18484 A Look at the Crown Lands1 The Kingdom of Bohemia (1750–1848) (by Petr Píša and Michael Wögerbauer)2 The Italian-Speaking Territories of the Habsburg Monarchy (1768–1848) (by Daniel Syrovy)5 The Censorship of Theater1 Theater Censorship in the Name of the Enlightenment under Maria Theresa and Joseph II (1770–1790)2 Theater Censorship under Francis II/I and Ferdinand I (1792–1848)6 Case Studies1 Periodicals2 Chroniques scandaleuses3 The Theme of Suicide in Forbidden Literature4 The Period of Weimar Classicism5 The Romanticists6 The Historical Novel7 English Plays8 French Drama of the July Monarchy7 OutlookAppendixBibliographyIndex of Named PersonsIndex of Publishers and BooksellersIndex of Periodicals

"Although Censorship of Literature in Austria is destined for a specialized audience, it is a landmark capstone to Professor Bachleitner’s career and looks set to become required reading for anyone interested in nineteenth-century European censorship."- Robert Justin Goldstein, Oakland University, USA, European History Quarterly 53(4), pgs.705-707