Wyndham Lewis and the Different Forms of Censorship

Abstract

Wyndham Lewis (1882-1957), a contemporary of T. S. Eliot, Pound and Joyce, made his name in a particularly fruitful period for Literature written in English. Before he became an implacable critic who dissected his society with his satirical novels, his essays and two volumes of memoirs, Blasting and Bombardiering (1937) and Rude Assignment (1950), Lewis was a painter and a draughtsman, published short stories, poems and even two plays; edited three magazines and managed to become an insightful cultural historian of the time through his fictional and non-fictional work. However, his sharp critiques, the violent language of his avant-garde writings and his personal enmities with influential writers and editors of his time triggered continuous threats of litigation, which many times led to censorship-more or less visible-of his writings and paintings. This article not only analyses these conflicts during his lifetime but it also examines the repercussion of his polemics to this day.