Mullin, KE (2018) Unmasking The Confessional Unmasked: The 1868 Hicklin Test and the Toleration of Obscenity. ELH: English Literary History, 85 (2). pp. 471-499. ISSN 0013-8304
Abstract
In April 1868, Regina v. Hicklin refined the 1857 Obscene Publications Act by establishing the legal test for obscenity. The case concerned The Confessional Unmasked, until now read as sincere religious controversy. It was in fact flaunting pornography, paradigmatic of the material the 1857 Act prohibited. The story of The Confessional Unmasked and its ineffectual suppression significantly shifts understanding of mid-Victorian practices of censorship. It reveals surprising state tolerance, a decade after the statute passed into law, of a cheap pornographic pamphlet in widespread circulation throughout the United Kingdom for three long and turbulent years.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Johns Hopkins University Press 2018. This is an author produced version of a paper published in ELH: English Literary History. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of English (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 04 Jan 2019 11:00 |
Last Modified: | 29 Nov 2019 12:18 |
Published Version: | https://muse.jhu.edu/article/696237 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Johns Hopkins University Press |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:124465 |