New school year, new subject

Welcome to English 2:) This English course includes social studies as well as literature and we aim to look at the importance of literary works in a societal context.

First topic this year is therefore Freedom of Expression and the novel Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. When the book was published in 1988, it sparked outrage among some Muslims, who considered its content to be blasphemous and the Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for the writer’s death in 1989. Many people have been killed or injured because of this, including the Norwegian publisher of the book, William Nygaard. In August of this year, Rushdie was stabbed and seriously injured at a literary event in New York.

So what is the role of writers when it comes to free speech and freedom of expression?

Accordian to the Guardian journalistCRobert McCrum , “Rushdie has again instructed us in a profound lesson: great literarure will always be a matter of life and death”