Erotic novel
Emmanuelle
Emmanuelle is a erotic novel by Emmanuelle Arsan. Ruled indecent in 1973 and 1987.
Description
About the work
Emmanuelle is a erotic novel by Emmanuelle Arsan. Ruled indecent in 1973 and 1987.
Its interest lies partly in the way literary or informational writing gets collapsed into a public-morality problem. As a erotic novel, it can be read not only for subject matter but for the way form, tone, and circulation make a text feel dangerous, intimate, or politically usable to anxious officials.
It also matters as part of a wider censorship history in New Zealand. The present page is a dossier starter built from source-tracked ban records; the surviving note currently says: Ruled indecent in 1973 and 1987. More publication history, translations, and close reading can be added later.
Overview
Why it was banned
Emmanuelle entered censorship debates as a erotic novel associated with circulation politics, institutional control, morality, print scandal, risk knowledge, and sexuality. In the current dossier, the main state objections cluster around obscenity, public morality, instructional harm, and public order.
The earliest event currently captured here is 1973 in New Zealand, where Indecent Publications Tribunal classified, prohibited, or restricted. Ruled indecent in 1973 and 1987. Ruled indecent in 1973 and 1987.
The record already stretches across New Zealand, Texas, and Virginia, which is why the page should be read as a cross-border censorship trail rather than a single isolated dispute.
This page is intentionally incomplete. The ban history is a starter dataset, not a final census of every jurisdiction or decree.
Counter and critical readings
Context, rebuttals, and criticism
- 100 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature Nicholas J. Karolides, Margaret Bald, and Dawn B. Sova
A compact reference on how censorship systems moved across states, churches, and courts.
- Banned Books: 387 B.C. to 1978 A.D. Anne Lyon Haight
Useful for comparing older obscenity, heresy, and political bans with modern free-speech disputes.
- Banned Books: Literature Suppressed on Sexual Grounds Dawn B. Sova
Surveys the legal and moral language used to suppress books as obscene.
Ban history
Known government actions
| Date | Jurisdiction | Action | Reason | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | New Zealand | classified, prohibited, or restricted | Ruled indecent in 1973 and 1987. | Ruled indecent in 1973 and 1987. |
| 2014-04-23 | Texas | excluded from prison circulation | The Texas prison-ban record treats the book as excluded reading inside state custody, which shows how prison and mailroom censorship function as a government reading regime. The exported reason says: PGS 39 - 45. | The Texas prison-ban record treats the book as excluded reading inside state custody, which shows how prison and mailroom censorship function as a government reading regime. The exported reason says: PGS 39 - 45 CONTAIN INDECENCY WITH A CHILD |
| Date not yet pinned down | Virginia | excluded from prison circulation | The Virginia prison-ban record treats the book as excluded reading inside state custody, which shows how prison and mailroom censorship function as a government reading regime. The exported reason says: A1 | The Virginia prison-ban record treats the book as excluded reading inside state custody, which shows how prison and mailroom censorship function as a government reading regime. The exported reason says: A1 |
Sources
Harvested references for this page
- The Marshall Project: Banned book lists from 18 states database partial
- Wikipedia: List of books banned in New Zealand reference partial
- Wikipedia REST summary API database partial
- 100 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature book partial
- Banned Books: 387 B.C. to 1978 A.D. book partial
- Banned Books: Literature Suppressed on Sexual Grounds book partial