Editor's Introduction: A Call to Arms!
When it was determined at the beginning of the fall term that this
issue would focus on censorship, I knew the topic was a timely one.
The proliferation of digital media is occasioning unprecedented
opportunities for disseminating information. Last year in Iran,
Twitter was crucial in contesting the disputed elections when heavy
government censorship shut down media and messaging services including
Facebook and YouTube. [Read about it here]. Closer to home,
the Vancouver Winter Olympics were dogged by questions of corporate
domination and the resultant threats to freedom of expression,
especially within the artistic community.
Ongoing debates about Facebook in China continue to raise a host of
questions about the role new media will play in an increasingly
digitized, globalized world.
Given Transverse's debut as an entirely web-based publication, it was
only fitting to study the contours of its new home. Some of the
articles in this edition are similarly inclined, while others
interrogate the manifestations of censorship throughout history and
across a variety of media including novels, magazines, visual arts,
and folk songs, to name a few. The articles explore many facets of a
theme that is pertinent across disciplines.
At the time of publication, certain events within the University of
Toronto have made the theme of censorship even more urgent on a
personal level. With practically no advance notice and an unsettling
lack of transparency, the Strategic Planning Committee has decided to
cancel the the University of Toronto's Comparative Literature
programme and disband the department by 2011. East Asian Studies is
likewise under siege, and most of U of T's language departments are
slated to be merged under a single umbrella within a proposed School
of Language and Literature. Had students been consulted, we would have
been united in decrying these cuts from the beginning; now that plans
are underway to carry out this plan, we must speak with even more
force. It is already difficult to do interdisciplinary study at the
University of Toronto, and the proposed changes would make it
virtually impossible to undertake the research that has resulted in
the acclaim of our students and faculty. If these changes go ahead,
this will be the last issue of Transverse; sadly, this is only the
beginning of a list of entities that will cease to exist. Several
websites have been set up in solidarity with our efforts to fight the
university's decision, and I invite you to find them on the links
page. Please spread the word about the plight of comparative
literature departments across the country and around the world. We
must affirm the value of studying literature for itself. We must
resist its being commodified into a dollars and cents equation in
which it inevitably comes up short. It is our hope that electronic
media will help us spread our message in what is truly a time of
crisis for the Centre for Comparative Literature, as for the
university community at large.
Thanks for your readership and support.
Myra Bloom,
Editor-in-chief
