Writing Correctly?: ‘Political Correctness’ and the Sanitising of Literature | Jay Daniel Thompson

Summary: To Deprave and Corrupt: Forbidden, Hidden and Censored Books | Jay Daniel Thompson In this paper, I address the sanitising of texts that are deemed to contain offensive cultural stereotypes. These include Joseph Conrad’s novel The Nigger of the Narcissus (1897), which was re-titled The N-Word of the Narcissus when it was recently republished by a Netherlands- based company. I argue that such sanitisations are problem for several reasons. They evoke a falsely glowing image of how certain groups (for instance, blacks) have been represented throughout literary history, and (implicitly) absolve authors of blame for perpetuating hurtful ideologies such as racism. Nonetheless, I contend that it is equally problematic to label these sanitisations as examples of “politically correct censorship”. The term ‘politically correct’ has been used by right-wing commentators to describe the supposedly repressive impact of ‘progressive’ politics upon art and culture. I argue that, in using this term to attack the literary sanitisations described above, critics lend support to the theory that lefties are censors. Freedom of artistic expression is at stake here, and the blame lies squarely at the hands of postcolonialists, feminists and liberal humanists. Throughout the paper, I engage with analyses of ‘political correctness’ in literature and culture by theorists such as Richard Feldstein and Teresa Brennan. I engage also with critical responses to the sanitisation of Conrad’s novel, including media articles and blogs. I aim to make a significant contribution to debates about the politics of literary censorship.