“Diana and Callisto” based on Ovid by Pietro Liberi from the seventeenth century
Image: Picture Alliance
A look at antiquity shows that art and morality cannot always be separated as clearly as is demanded in the discussion about literature that appears offensive. A guest post.
Literature is increasingly viewed through morally sharpened lenses. In the summer of 2022, for example, Ravensburger Verlag removed two children's books about the young chief Winnetou from its program. Before that, there was a storm of outrage against the publisher on social media. According to the critics, the books, like the film of the same name, followed a colonialist perspective and resorted to racist stereotypes.
The advocates of wokeness are by no means alone in their concern for the moral quality of literature. In the United States, evangelicals and other conservatives are increasingly successful in removing literature they find offensive from public libraries and school curricula. The hook is usually the depiction of sex and violence, but in many cases it is also about ways of life that do not correspond to one's own ideas. For example, the Pennridge School District in Pennsylvania removed all copies of the children's book “Heather Has Two Mummies” from school libraries.
#Art #Morality #Limits #Autonomy
