Acknowledgments  vii

Introduction. The Censor's Fist  1

1. Performative Dispensations: The Elementary Forms of Mass Publicity  29

2. Who the Hell Do the Censors Think They Are? Grounds of the Censor's Judgment  76

3. We Are the Law! Censorship Takes to the Streets  115

4. Quotidian Eruptions: Aesthetic Distinction and the Extimate Squirm  156

5. Obscene Tendencies: Censorship and the Public Punctum  190

Notes  223

Bibliography  257

Index  275

"In Censorium, William Mazzarella demonstrates that censorship is integral to the performance of sovereignty and the constitution of 'mass-publics' in socially diverse and mass-mediated societies. His incisive and immensely suggestive book is destined to become a standard reference in film studies, media studies, and the anthropology of the state."—Thomas Blom Hansen, author of Melancholia of Freedom: Social Life in an Indian Township in South Africa

"As a system of regulation behind mass publicity, censorship stands at a scholarly impasse, often arbitrary in its exercise and yet seemingly consensual in its popular outcomes. William Mazzarella fills major lacunae in the existing literature on censorship by his incisive analysis of the cultural forms of censorship across colonial and postcolonial periods. This is an important addition to the anthropology of media and globalization in South Asia."—Arvind Rajagopal, author of Politics after Television: Hindu Nationalism and the Reshaping of the Public in India

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