Harold Nicolson, Ulysses, Reithianism: censorship on BBC Radio, 1931

Journal article

In late 1931, Harold Nicolson’s plan to discuss James Joyce’s Ulysses on BBC radio was quashed at the last minute. Some weeks later, this edict was lifted and Nicolson was permitted to speak, subject to certain restrictions. This very public controversy has received scant critical attention, and is usually understood simply as an example of censorship: a conflict between progressive broadcaster and conservative bureaucracy. This article contends that the reality was far more nuanced. Tracing the development of these talks through the diaries of Nicolson and John Reith, I suggest that Nicolson and the management of the BBC sought to negotiate a permissible way to discuss modernism on state radio. When the talks aired in late 1931, Nicolson insisted on the importance of modernist literature in broadcasts that remained fundamentally in line with the corporation’s educational, Reithian programme. Recent work in modernist studies has paid much attention to public media technologies such as radio, and to the public censorship of modernism; in this case, the two are intertwined. Drawing on these developments, I argue that broadcaster and censor should not simply be placed in opposition, but that it was possible both to discuss modernism and accommodate the censorial demands of the BBC. Nicolson’s critical independence may have been compromised, but the same is true of the Reithian BBC, an organization that on 8 December 1931 played host to a subtly radical discussion of James Joyce.

Authors: Dawkins, C

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Journal: Review of English Studies
• Volume: 67
• Issue: 280
• Pages: 558-578
• Publication date: 2016-04-20
• Acceptance date: 2015-07-04
• DOI: 10.1093/res/hgv063
• EISSN: 1471-6968
• ISSN: 0034-6551
• Keywords: SBTMR