Freedom of Expression Archives

How do we teach classic literature if we cannot discuss offensive words?

September 2, 2019 • by Laurie Sheck

Since the spring of 2016, I have taught a seminar in the New School’s MFA program on writing and literature as radical questioning. As I put the syllabus together, I sought out texts that would challenge our most basic assumptions (for instance, that a novel has a plot; an author’s work must ...

Feature

In the Shadow of the Swastika

A Reply to Lindsay Parkhowell’s ‘Irony and Historical Detachment’

August 8, 2018 • by Max L. Feldman

It all started with a Facebook post. Upon arrival at London Gatwick airport, professor and Public Seminar editor Michael Weinman saw an advertisement on which someone had drawn a Swastika. Shocked, he uploaded a hastily taken photograph. One commenter argued that the Swastika should not be shocking because it is an ancient ...