Mirror of Justice

A blog dedicated to the development of Catholic legal theory.
Affiliated with the Program on Church, State & Society at Notre Dame Law School.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

What is the object of "human rights"?

To make liberal education sanitary for students.  Dante’s DivineHell-bent---a-Gustave-Dor-007 Comedy appears to be on the chopping block, even at universities.  From the story:

The classic work should be removed from school curricula, according to Gherush 92, a human rights organisation which acts as a consultant to UN bodies on racism and discrimination.

Dante’s epic is “offensive and discriminatory” and has no place in a modern classroom, said Valentina Sereni, the group’s president . . . .

It represents Islam as a heresy and Mohammed as a schismatic and refers to Jews as greedy, scheming moneylenders and traitors, Miss Sereni told the Adnkronos news agency.

“The Prophet Mohammed was subjected to a horrific punishment – his body was split from end to end so that his entrails dangled out, an image that offends Islamic culture,” she said.

Homosexuals are damned by the work as being “against nature” and condemned to an eternal rain of fire in Hell.

“We do not advocate censorship or the burning of books, but we would like it acknowledged, clearly and unambiguously, that in the Divine Comedy there is racist, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic content. Art cannot be above criticism,” Miss Sereni said.

The concession about not burning books is truly magnanimous.  Maybe Ms. Sereni may have missed the exquisite pain previewed for Popes Clement V and Boniface VIII in the Eighth Circle.  It's the only explanation for the lack of anti-Catholicism outrage.  But Boniface probably deserved a bit of hell, given his pretensions to temporal power.  Perhaps Dante and Ms. Sereni agree on the issue of simony.  Or the separation of church and state? 

No matter –Dante was banished in his own time, so it is fitting that some right-thinking folks wish to banish him today.  Still, if I could offer a little legal advice to Messrs. Chaucer, Boccaccio, Cervantes, and Shakespeare -- keep your heads down.

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DeGirolami, Marc | Permalink

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This does sound a bit crazy, but what if a *modern* writer writes something of unquestionable merit that contains anti-Semitic or anti-Catholic content? Is it going to be taught in high schools and universities?

Certainly Miss Sereni is correct in saying, "Art cannot be above criticism."

I remember Dick Cavett once asked Glenda Jackson if she would be willing to act in a great fascist play. As I recall, she had a very difficult time deciding, but decided if a play was great, she would act in it. (To the best of my knowledge, there are no great fascist plays, however.)

I remember when I was younger some truly great films were "condemned" by the Legion of Decency:

Black Narcissus
Miracle on 34th Street
Some Like it Hot
Psycho
The Pawnbroker
Spartacus
A Clockwork Orange