Neutralizing the political: language ideology as censorship in Esperanto youth media during the Cold War

Guilherme Moreira Fians*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This article takes a magazine for Esperanto youth as an entryway to explore the links between language ideologies and censorial practices. During the Cold War, Esperanto print media sought a connection with the Third World to present Esperanto as an alternative to US-led English and USSR-led Russian. With anti-imperialism gaining ground in these magazines, their editors struggled to adhere to the ideology that posits Esperanto as a neutral and international language. Analyzing the editorial work behind the magazine Kontakto, I explore how partly silencing anti-colonial perspectives worked to safeguard Esperanto's neutrality, ultimately asking: how can language ideologies act as mechanisms of censorship?
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)200-219
Number of pages20
JournalJournal of Linguistic Anthropology
Volume34
Issue number2
Early online date29 Apr 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 Aug 2024

Keywords

  • Censorship
  • Cold War
  • Esperanto
  • Language ideology
  • Silence

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