Wednesday 27 August 2008

The Lady Chatterley trial

Have recently read a splendid article by Mark Roodhouse on the Anglican involvement in the Chatterley trial of 1960, and in particular the role of Mirfield father and literary critic Martin Jarrett-Kerr. It is particularly interesting on the tensions between Christian emphasis on the integrity of the creative act and the perceived need for censorship to avoid harm or scandal both within the church and in wider society. Jarrett-Kerr's 'peculiar vocation' to the literary world, in the eyes of some, forced him to negotiate between the literary reputation of Lawrence and the welfare of souls, as one colleague put it.
It's in the Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 59; 3 (July 2008), 475-500 (available online, by subscription.).

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