Pernicious and filthy printed matter

Endeavours for »better« prints before WW1

Abstract

Blaming the novel and other »inappropriate« literature as one of the main factors contributing towards the corruption of Slovenia's youth was a constant amongst the moralists and their efforts to keep the nature of the general public pure. In the second half of the 19th century, printed matter of all genres became far more readily available to the population. The moralists saw this as a potential problem – particularly in the case of penny-dreadfuls and other forms of light reading, which held the fascination of a large number of readers. Their main objection was that such works roused the imagination of the readers far too much and corrupted their morals, as, in their opinion, such literature popularised relationships without any proper objective backgrounds and decent intent. The treatment of delicate moral issues in the works that were accessible to the greater public was also considered undesirable in »serious« literature and elicited a negative response from the majority of the critics – not just the moralists. The moralists appealed to the national authorities to provide them with assistance in controlling the content of all such publications. However, the authorities were concerned primarily with violations of a political nature, and since this was where their primary focus lay, relatively few works that were the subject of such debates can be found amongst the confiscated printed matter kept by the Public Prosecutor's Office.