Literary wars: the betrayal of Rushdie and artistic freedom

Recorded at the Battle of Ideas festival 2024 on Sunday 20 October at Church House, Westminster.

ORIGINAL INTRODUCTION

Few areas of society are as riven with free-speech battles as the arts – particularly the world of literature. From sensitivity readers to trigger warnings, banned books and banished authors, censorship has long been an issue for writers and readers alike.

But in the aftermath of the brutal assault on author Salman Rushdie – who was stabbed on stage in 2022 by an Islamist attacker – the literary wars took a vicious turn. While many deemed solidarity with Rushdie in the face of attempted murder to be the bare minimum, some officials in the world of literature disagreed. Penguin, Rushdie’s publisher, was alone in its statement of support: ‘Standing up for the rights of free expression, particularly in the face of threats to one’s life, requires immense – and unimaginable – commitment and courage.’ In contrast, the president of the Royal Society of Literature, Bernadine Evaristo, penned an article stating that the institution ‘cannot take sides in writers’ controversies and issues, but must remain impartial’. Rushdie duly replied on X, ‘just wondering if the Royal Society of Literature is “impartial” about attempted murder’.

The lack of solidarity for Rushdie is symbolic of what many feel is a growing cowardice in literary circles. But he is in no way the only author facing hostility for daring to write what they want. Kate Clanchy was depublished by Picador after accusations of racism in her award-winning book went viral. Such is the cliquey attitude of the literature world that Philip Pullman was forced to resign as president of the Society of Authors after his comments in support of Clanchy’s artistic freedom caused a backlash from the institution.

Even when books do survive the publishing process unscathed by rewrites against the author’s will, the challenges don’t stop there. A recent row broke out in Waterstones, which fired one of its employees for threatening to ‘throw away’ the books of an author she disagreed with on X. A recent report by Index on Censorship revealed that ‘53 per cent of school librarians had been asked to remove books from their shelves… largely around LGBT+ content’. While some have pointed out that censorship in school libraries is not an LGBT+ issue – having affected classics from To Kill a Mockingbird to Huckleberry Finn – the point remains that a defence of the freedom to read seems sorely lacking.

Defenders of literature’s new culture war say that protective measures are needed to shield minority or vulnerable authors and readers from content that might harm. For a long time, the charge against the literary world was that it was too elitist – a fact that doesn’t seem to have changed with a new penchant for finding ‘problems’ with authors’ work.

Is it possible to argue for artistic freedom in literature in a world where authors are literally stabbed for daring to write the ‘wrong thing’? Do we as readers need to argue for a more open and hands-off approach from publishers and printers? And in all the rowing about who and what is allowed to be published, is anything good getting through?

SPEAKERS
Ralph Leonard
author, Unshackling Intimacy: Letters on Liberty; contributor, UnHerd, Quillette, New Statesman and Sublation Magazine

Jenny Lindsay
writer; award-winning performance poet; essayist; contributor, The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht; author, Hounded: Women, harms and the gender wars

Joe Nutt
educational consultant; author, including John Donne: The Poems and An Introduction to Shakespeare’s Late Plays

Gillian Philip
writer and haulage worker

Martin Robinson
director, Trivium 21c Ltd; education consultancy; author, Trivium 21c, Curriculum Revolutions and Curriculum: Athena versus the machine

CHAIR
Ella Whelan
co-convenor, Battle of Ideas festival; journalist; author, What Women Want