GDRI CNRS “LITERATURE AND DEMOCRACY (19 th - 21 st CENTURIES): THEORETICAL, HISTORICAL AND COMPARATIVE APPROACHES” INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM Literary “freedom of expression” and democratic regimes Censorship and self-censorship today 20-21 April 2017 Salle Athéna Maison de la recherche de l’Université Paris Sorbonne nouvelle 4 rue des Irlandais 75005 Paris Freedom of expression and democracy are two distinct, albeit related, concepts. Under the prevailing liberal definition of democracy, however, they would appear to have merged. Ideas and texts should be allowed to circulate without constraint - this is the narrative which Liberalism has developed since the European Enlightenment. Even though censorship did affect "classic" works, the struggle against censorship has typically featured at the heart of the glorified story of modernism to describe the fates of works such as those by Sade, Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, Céline or William Burroughs… It is ...