Parsons School of Design
BFA Communication Design
Thesis 2018

Parsons School of Design
BFA Communication Design
Thesis 2018

Contraband Library
Madeline Cericola

It’s hard to feel concerned about censorship at a time when endless information is accessible to us via the Internet. The idea of “banned books” can feel especially archaic. The phrase itself calls to mind something from a past era or a different culture. While the federal government does not have the power to ban any book outright, books are routinely banned on a local level. Hundreds of titles are challenged each year by individual communities. As a result, many of these books are removed from schools and libraries, quietly shaping the education of those affected.

Contraband Library is a study of the practice of banning books in the United States. It illustrates the history of banned books while also exploring the current state of this form of censorship. I gathered chapters from classic American novels that have been banned repeatedly between the time they were published and the present day. I chose acclaimed works of fiction that have shaped the American literary landscape, all of which have at one time been required reading for secondary education. With each excerpt, I included notes from the American Library Association detailing where and when the book had been banned or challenged, and the reasoning behind this. Books are banned when they offend the morals or values of the community in which they are challenged. Therefore, the contents of these books can teach us a lot about what is considered controversial or unacceptable in a given time and place.

Maxine Joy Almendra

Daniela Al-Saleh

Amon Dario Appelt

Shruti Ashok

Whitney Badge

Jaire Berkel

Ingrid Bonetti

Victoria Boyd

Madison Bozinoff

Malulani Bria

Kaylin Brown

Rachel Brownjohn

Olive Burd

Germán Castellanos Reyes

Madeline Cericola

Vicky Chau

Amber Chen

Victor Chen

Wendy Ching

Connie Chu

Channon Chung

Leonardo Cilmi

Emma T. Conway

Nicole Corso

Qamile Dani

Magdalena de la Torre Suárez

Amanda Ericson

Dan Feldman

Anna Feng

Natalia Flores

Peter Frasco

Lucia Garza

Mariana Gaviria

Mikey Hefez

Adrianna Hinsey

Avinash Hirdaramani

Marielle Holland

Grace Hong

Surkho Shane Hong

Pauline Hotelier

Dylan Hughes

Jiyoung Hwang

Sonali Jain

Andrea S. Jassir

Christina Jenkins

Maria Jessica

Erin Johnston

Javarius Jones

Yea Ji Jung

Rachel Kahn

Anastasia Kharchenko

Jonathan Haojaq Kho

Alexa Kim

Cindy Dawon Kim

Sang Dennis Kim

Somin Kim

Yoonji Kim

Kyungmin Ko

Sidney Law

Kevin Lee

Jane Lee

Matheus Dal Santo Lewis Sage Smith

Kristiana Marcon

Hannah Marshall

Kruti Mehta

Gabriel Mester

Charlotte Miller

Mintra Morrison

Tamir Moses

Kaisha Murzamadiyeva

Thomas Nghia Nguyen

Lanie Nowak

Satoe Onizuka

Steven Orts

Owen Pace

Tatyana Palacios

Herin Park

Olga Pavlova

Luli Peralta-Esquivel

Lindsay Petricca

Constanza Pinto

Shreya Razak

Costanza Reiser

Vincent Riportella

Bateel Saber

Ahana Seth

Cristina Soberon

Rebecca Speiser

Natalia Spotts

Sabrina Steck

JD Stephenson Jr.

Richard Supriano

Eden Tartour

Jissaura Taveras Hernandez

Nathalia Tello Arias

Liz Tsai

Altyn Turdukulova

Amena Tyebji

Gabriela Vieira

Juan Diego Villegas

Yige Wang

Evelyn Wu

Jessie Yao

Crystal Yin

Rebecca Jiayi Zhou