Book bans have long posed a threat to democracy in the U.S. – not just since Trump. American Studies scholar Heike Schäfer examines artistic forms of resistance against the cultural backlash.
Shortly after taking office, Donald Trump dominated global headlines with his numerous executive orders. Many of them, legal experts suggest, may not stand the test of time – but a climate of fear and uncertainty has taken hold, especially in the cultural and educational sectors of the U.S. Far-right forces appear emboldened to attack liberal-progressive values and undermine protections for minorities. Professor Heike Schäfer, an American Studies scholar and literary theorist at Goethe University Frankfurt, has been closely observing the “culture war” waged by Trump and his allies. Among their favored tactics: banning books to influence literature education in schools. “Right-wing conservative campaigns for book bans began intensifying at the end of Trump’s first term. Since 2021, bans in public libraries and school libraries have skyrocketed. For the 2023/24 school year alone, the writers’ association PEN America recorded over 10,000 censorship cases and the banning of over 4,200 individual titles. That’s alarming,” Schäfer says. “What’s especially troubling is that these bans rarely arise from individual complaints – they’re driven by right-wing conservative lobbying groups like Moms for Liberty, who in a single petition often demand the censorship of hundreds of books. According to the American Library Association [ALA], 72% of all censorship cases are now initiated by these pressure groups. This is highly coordinated. Conservative review websites even provide downloadable material advising how best to file such challenges. ALA found that all 120 titles most frequently targeted for censorship last year appeared on these websites,” she notes. Book bans are now occurring in at least 29 U.S. states, with conservative strongholds like Texas and Florida leading the charge. “The dangerous part is this: often, as soon as a complaint is filed, books are pulled from circulation until the process concludes – meaning they become unavailable to readers for months or even years. Even cases that don’t end in an actual ban restrict access. Another goal clearly is also to intimidate librarians into avoiding controversial books preemptively.”
Ultraconservative Hatred of Queer Literature
So, which books are being targeted by these pressure groups? Primarily young adult literature: stories about queer or non-white protagonists, experiences of racism and exclusion, sexuality, violence, or mental health. “Anything that’s deemed too ‘woke’ by the ultraconservatives – anything that deviates from heteronormativity or centers queer people or people of color – is fair game, “Schäfer explains. Some of the first targets were autobiographical works like Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe and All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson, which depict queer identity and coming-of-age stories. Conservatives argue that such literature corrupts young readers. But Schäfer says it’s really about undoing the democratizing effects of the civil rights movements of the 1950s and ’60s, as well as later social movements. “These book bans align with broader right-wing legislative attempts to influence curricula and teaching materials. Their backlash against diversity and inclusion aims to secure cultural dominance and preserve privilege. A well-known example is Florida’s 2022 ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law, which bans discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has not only dismantled state diversity and equity programs – it has also ordered the dissolution of the Institute of Museum and Library Services and furloughed its staff. That’s cut off public libraries and museums from one of their major funding sources, severely impairing their educational work. Although ALA has filed a lawsuit,” Schäfer continues, “the strategy on the other side is to push the boundaries and see how far they can go before the courts intervene.” A judge has now blocked the administration’s order, but the legal battle continues.
Those affected – parents, students, and literary organizations – are fighting back with protests, curated “banned book displays” in bookstores, and the national Banned Books Week. “These efforts spark vital conversations about artistic and expressive freedom,” Schäfer says. “Book bans don’t just raise questions about free speech – who can say what, where, and who decides they can – they also concern cultural participation. At their core, they ask: who belongs to the societal majority, and who is excluded?”
What about the claim that left-liberal cultural politics have also imposed forms of censorship – and that the right’s “culture war” is a reaction to that? “You could certainly interpret this as a backlash,” Schäfer acknowledges. “But it’s not about ensuring pluralistic discourse – it’s about systematically excluding entire perspectives. What we’re seeing is a strategic attack on freedom of expression that once again pushes already marginalized groups to the fringes, attempting to erase them from cultural memory in favor of a right-wing nationalist identity.“”
Artistic Resistance
A very different form of protest is emerging where free expression is under fire: in literature, through the technique known as erasures. “Erasures are literary texts created by deleting parts of an existing text. An author takes a source, crosses out sections, and the remaining words plus the marks of deletion form a new composition. It has roots in 1950s conceptual art, but as a literary form, erasures have flourished since Trump’s first term,” Schäfer explains. “Back then, writers began circulating editorially ‘erased’ versions of Trump’s speeches and executive orders. The form has now entered the mainstream. Examples include Tracy K. Smith’s poetry collection Wade in the Water – who was U.S. Poet Laureate at the time – and Justin Torres’ queer novel Blackouts, which won the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction. I find this form fascinating because it reclaims a tool of censorship – redaction – to create resistance literature. Not all erasures are politically motivated, of course; the technique is adaptable for many aesthetic purposes. But right now, many authors use it to confront discrimination and social exclusion – addressing issues like slavery, persecution, police brutality, and torture. The blanks in the text often symbolize silenced or erased voices in the public discourse. These gaps draw attention to what’s missing – on the page and in our collective memory – and make that absence both imaginable and aesthetically tangible.” A striking example is the poem “Declaration” by African American poet Tracy K. Smith, in which she transforms the Declaration of Independence. In the original, British colonists declare the injustices they’ve suffered under the English king and justify their revolution. In her erasure, Smith reveals the racism of those very revolutionaries and instead gives voice to the enslaved people they oppressed. “This makes visible how slavery and racism were foundational to the development of American democracy,” Schäfer explains.
As a literary scholar and member of the research group “Democratic Vistas”, Heike Schäfer asks how Western societies can once again come to view democracy as a living cultural practice: “What practices do we need to make everyday life more autonomous, equitable, cooperative, and free from repression?” That’s why she’s also interested in practices of dissent in research and teaching. “Originally, though, my interest in erasures came from elsewhere. I’ve long studied how the material and media forms of literature shape authors’ modes of expression and readers’ interpretations. Erasures are particularly intriguing in this regard – as physical and conceptual literary objects.”
This semester, Schäfer is also teaching a seminar on erasures, where students not only analyze literary deletions, but create their own. “In the first session, we used a 19th-century etiquette book prescribing strict behavior rules for women as the source text. The students immediately enjoyed the idea of striking things out,” she says with a laugh.
