Censorship in Czech and Hungarian Academic Publishing, 1969–89: Snakes and Ladders

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How did writers convey ideas under the politically repressive conditions of state socialism? Did the perennial strategies to outwit the censors foster creativity or did unintentional self-censorship lead to the detriment of thought? Drawing on oral history and primary source material from the Editorial Board of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and state science policy documents, Libora Oates-Indruchová explores to what extent scholarly publishing in state-socialist Czechoslovakia and Hungary was affected by censorship and how writers responded to intellectual un-freedom. Divided into four main parts looking at the institutional context of censorship, the full trajectory of a manuscript from idea to publication, the author and their relationship to the text and language, this book provides a fascinating insight into the ambivalent beneficial and detrimental effects of censorship on scholarly work from the Prague Spring of 1968 to the Velvet Revolution of 1989. Censorship in Czech and Hungarian Academic Publishing, 1969-89 also brings the historical censorship of state-socialism into the present, reflecting on the cultural significance of scholarly publishing in the light of current debates on the neoliberal academia and the future of the humanities. Title Page Copyright Page Contents Illustrations Colour images Figure Boxes Acknowledgements Note on the translation Chapter 1: Introduction Censorship in the Eastern Bloc Theories of censorship The people and the institutions Imagined conversations: A primary text on censorship in Czech and Hungarian academic publishing under state socialism, 1969–89 The outcome: Snakes and ladders Organization of the book Chapter 2: The limits: Regulation of Czechoslovak scholarly The intellectual community in 1968: An irritant in the eye of normalization The first year of normalization: In sweeping strides or faltering steps? Advanced normalization: Reaching further into the rank and file Four Sheets of Stories: A visual metanarrative. ‘The beginnings’ Dramatis personae Chapter 3: People and institutions: Surviving in normalized academia I II III Chapter 4: The work: ‘Driving’ a manuscript on the highways and byways I II III IV V VI Chapter 5: The author: Censoring and authoring under state socialism I II Chapter 6: The language: Research topics, vocabulary, writing in code I II III Chapter 7: The review: Loss of memory, the ghosts of academia past I II Four Sheets of Stories: A visual metanarrative. ‘The ends’ Chapter 8: Snakes and ladders: A theory of state-socialist censorship Institutional personnel strategies and personal strategies of professional survival The highway code for getting published Acts of censorship, authors and their texts Politicization of research subjects, ideologized language and text coding The ghosts of academia past, their spectres haunting the present Conclusion Chapter 9: Coda Bibliography Archives References Index