Bowdlerize | Literary Terms and Devices

 

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Bowdlerize is a literary term that refers to the practice of removing or altering content considered inappropriate or offensive from a text. This term originates from the name of Thomas Bowdler, who published a censored version of Shakespeare's works in the early 19th century, aiming to make them more acceptable for family reading. Thomas Bowdler was an English physician known for publishing The Family Shakespeare, an expurgated edition of William Shakespeare's plays edited by his sister Henrietta Maria Bowdler. The purpose of this edited version was to make Shakespeare’s plays more appropriate than the original for 19th-century women and children. Mrs. Harriet Bowdler was an English religious author. She removed anything that seemed irreverent or immoral, deleting about 10% of the original works. The resulting edition was published under the name of her brother, Thomas Bowdler, after whom this type of treatment came to be known as Bowdlerization.

Another term for Bowdlerization is Expurgation or censorship by political correctness. It is a form of censorship that involves purging anything deemed noxious or offensive from an artistic work or other type of writing or media.

The term bowdlerization is often used in the context of the expurgation of lewd material from books. The main purpose of Bowdlerization is to make literature more suitable for certain audiences, especially children or those who might be offended by explicit content. The content to be altered or expurgated may include, sexual content, profanity, violence, and racial or cultural references.

Some editions of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (by NewSouth Books) have altered or removed racial slurs to make the text more palatable.

Agatha Christie’s novel ‘And Then There Were None’ was originally published under the title ‘Ten Little Niggers’ in 1939 and it included a poem by the same title which serves as a major plot element. The title was changed before its publication in America in 1940 to ‘And Then There Were None’ and the poem too was altered as ‘Ten Little Indians.’

Bowdlerization has been heavily criticized again and again. Critics argue that bowdlerization can distort the original meaning and artistic integrity of the work. It raises questions about censorship and the balance between protecting audiences and preserving creative expression. Altering texts can compromise the author's original intent and artistic expression. Original texts, even with challenging content, provide valuable insights into historical contexts, social issues, and human experiences. Some believe that confronting uncomfortable themes is essential for understanding and addressing societal issues. Bowdlerization can lead to a sanitized view of history and culture, potentially perpetuating ignorance. Once the practice of bowdlerization begins, it can lead to increasingly arbitrary or excessive alterations, diminishing the richness of literature.

It should be noted that a student edition of the novel Fahrenheit 451 was expurgated or bowdlerized to remove a variety of content. This was ironic given the subject matter of the novel involves burning books. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury has been censored in multiple ways, including removing words, changing passages, and blacking out words. The novel has also been banned for its depictions of drugs, religious beliefs, and vulgarity. 

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