expurgation

Definition of expurgation

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

expurgation (plural expurgations)

1. The act of expurgating, purging, or cleansing; purification from anything noxious, offensive, sinful, or erroneous.

Further reading

Expurgation is a form of censorship which involves purging anything deemed noxious or offensive, usually from an artistic work.

This has also been called bowdlerization, especially for books, after Thomas Bowdler, who in 1818 published an expurgated edition of William Shakespeare's work that he considered to be more appropriate for women and children. He similarly edited Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

A work that has been subjected to expurgation is sometimes called a fig-leaf edition, a figurative extension from the older practice of strategically placing fig leaves to hide the groin or breasts of nudes in paintings or statuary.

Examples

• In 1264, Clement IV ordered the Jews of Aragon to submit their books to Dominican censors for expurgation.[1]
• Montaigne's Essays translated by George B. Ives was published by Harvard University Press in 1925 without the essays pertaining to sex. Called a fig-leaf edition.[2]
• Oil! by Upton Sinclair: A 150-copy fig-leaf edition was prepared for Boston with nine pages blacked out.[3][4]
• A recent printing of Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in which the racially charged word "nigger" (used over 200 times) was changed to "slave".[5]

References

1. Popper, William (1889). The Censorship of Hebrew Books. Knickerbocker Press, 13-14.
2. Michael C. Bussacco, Heritage Press Sandglass Companion Book: 1960-1983 (Archbald, PA: Tribute Books, 2009), 252, available online, accessed September 23, 2010
3. Boston Globe: Jack Curtis, "Blood from oil," February 17, 2008, accessed September 23, 2010
4. Mary Craig Sinclair, Southern Belle (NY: Crown Publishers, 1957), 309, available online, accessed September 23, 2010
5. Michael Tomasky, "The new Huck Finn" January 7, 2011