The following paper will present the key outcome of the research anthology project Forbidden Literature – Case Studies on Censorship, slated for publication in 2019. Through a number of case studies dealing with censorship’s past and present, in liberal democracies as well as in totalitarian regimes, the project reveals an historical continuum in which literature constantly appears as a phenomenon in need of regulation. Short reports of two case studies will be presented, exploring decisive aspects of the relationship between literature and society, the social and aesthetic function of literature and their transformations.

The first case study deals with forms of literary analysis taking place in the courtroom, exemplified by an obscenity trial against a Swedish avant-garde comic magazine in 1989. The second study analyses cases in which Swedish city libraries have refused to acquire, or provide clients with, certain non-fiction works – highlighting an increasingly common conflict between public cultural policies and constitutional principles such as the freedom of speech.

Together, the two studies show how the historical mode of visibility of literary texts is formed and transformed along with our understanding of what literature is and what it is able to do.