How to Read a Censored Book
- Event type
- Workshop
- Contact
- digitalhumanities@sas.ac.uk
- Is event online?
- No
- Accessibility features
- Accessible toilets, Assistance dogs welcome, Pushchair/pram friendly, Seating, Step-free access, Wheelchair accessible
- Accessibility information
- There will be a 30 minute break halfway through the workshop. Please contact the organiser regarding specific access requirements.
- Accessibility links
- Accessibility at Senate House Library
- Region/country
- London
- Address
-
Dr Seng Tee Lee Seminar Room, Senate House Library
Senate House, Malet Street
London
WC1E 7HU
- Booking required
- Yes
Scheduled dates
In the early 1980s, officers from HM Customs raided Gay’s the Word bookshop, Bloomsbury, seizing over 140 titles and charging staff with conspiracy to import so-called ‘indecent or obscene’ material. Using the Haud Nominandum collection at Senate House Library -- the personal library of Gay’s the Word director Jonathan Cutbill -- this workshop invites participants to take a closer look at a selection of these seized books and to consider some of the many different ways they might be read today.
Participants will be invited to take part in a handling session using copies of the books seized in the raids, followed by a participatory exercise on using oral history as a method to gather histories of reading. The workshop will close with a gentle introduction to reading these texts with digital tools.