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Why was James Joyce's Ulysses banned in the United States?

Ulysses, a novel by Irish writer James Joyce (1882-1941), was banned in the United States for eleven years because it was labeled as obscene and radical by the U.S. Customs Court. At this time, the U.S. Post Office and Customs Service were both free to reject works they considered "obscene." Joyce's use of curse words and radical techniques such as stream-of-consciousness narrative (uninterrupted flow of thoughts and speech) challenged the tradition of U.S. censorship laws. These radical techniques have since earned Joyce high praise as one of the greatest writers of the English language.

Ulysses was originally published in 1922 in Paris, France, by Shakespeare and Company, a bookstore owned by Sylvia Beach, an American ex-patriot (someone who has left his or her country to live in another). Ulysses tells the events of...

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1. Literacy
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   4. Who invented paper?
   5. How old is the oldest illuminated manuscript?
   6. What was the first book?
   7. Why is Johannes Gutenberg considered the pioneer of modern printing?
   8. When was the first newspaper published?
   9. What is muckraking journalism?
2. Education
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3. Literature
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   2. Who were the Brothers Grimm?
   3. What is known about Homer?
   4. Is Virgil's Aeneid really an unfinished work?
   5. Why is Beowulf considered an important work?
   6. Why is The Divine Comedy such an important work, and what role does the character Beatrice play?
   7. What is the importance of Canterbury Tales?
   8. Why is Shakespeare still so widely studied?
   9. What was William Shakespeare's formal education?
   10. What is a poet laureate?
   11. What does the term Machiavellian mean?
   12. What were John Milton's contributions to English literature?
   13. Why was Voltaire exiled from France?
   14. What did Johann Goethe contribute to world literature?
   15. How did a Frenchman become an influential observer of early American democracy?
   16. Which came first, the word "Scrooge" or Charles Dickens' character "Scrooge"?
   17. Who was the first person to write a modern novel?
   18. How did the novel develop?
   19. Why are Jane Austen's novels still so popular today?
   20. What is the greatest American novel?
   21. Why was James Joyce's Ulysses banned in the United States?
   22. What is Marcel Proust's claim to literary fame?
   23. Who was the first distinctively American poet?
   24. What was the Harlem Renaissance?
4. Fine Arts
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   2. Why was the Medici family important to the Renaissance?
   3. Did Michelangelo study anatomy?
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   6. Why is Rembrandt ranked among the first "modern" artists?
   7. What does the term "impressionism" mean?
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5. Architecture
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8. Movies And Television
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   3. What was the Hollywood "Black List"?
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1. Michelangelo