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Literary notes about Censor (AI summary)

The word “censor” in literature has been employed with a fascinating duality. On one hand, classical texts use it to denote an official role imbued with dignity and responsibility, as seen in ancient Rome where figures like Cato and other censors were celebrated for upholding public morality and order ([1], [2], [3], [4]). On the other hand, modern works and critical essays have expanded its meaning beyond the literal—using “censor” metaphorically to signify the suppression of expression or even the repression within the mind itself. For example, Freud’s concept of the "dream censor" illustrates a psychological mechanism that filters and transforms our subconscious material ([5], [6], [7], [8], [9]), while literary critics and playwrights depict the office as a force either safeguarding societal virtue or stifling creative freedom ([10], [11], [12]). Thus, across historical and psychoanalytic texts alike, the term “censor” serves as a multifaceted symbol of both regulation and repression.
  1. The judgment of the censor inflicts scarcely anything more than a blush on the man whom he condemns.
    — from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations by Marcus Tullius Cicero
  2. 157 Nasica Scipio, the censor, is said to have been the first who made a water-clock in Rome.
    — from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations by Marcus Tullius Cicero
  3. The first omen of impending evil was the death of Julius the Censor; for the Romans reverence the office of censor, and account it sacred.
    — from Plutarch's Lives, Volume 1 (of 4) by Plutarch
  4. Cato the Censor.
    — from Helps to Latin Translation at Sight by Edmund Luce
  5. We actually speak of a dream censor to which we may ascribe a contributing part in the dream distortion.
    — from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud
  6. For the present, the term "dream censor" is no more than a very convenient phrase for a dynamic relationship.
    — from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud
  7. For the dream censor has only then accomplished its purpose, when it has made the path of return from the allusion to the original undiscoverable.
    — from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud
  8. The Dream Censor 110 X. Symbolism in the Dream 122 XI.
    — from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud
  9. Now we know that the element "too soon, premature" is eliminated from the dream by the censor.
    — from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud
  10. Ex-Censor Suard, Ex-Censor, for we have freedom of the Press; he may be seen there; impartial, even neutral.
    — from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle
  11. Written in French in 1892 it was in full rehearsal by Madame Bernhardt at the Palace Theatre when it was prohibited by the Censor.
    — from Salomé: A Tragedy in One Act by Oscar Wilde
  12. First, the veto of the Censor, which put the supporters of the play on their mettle.
    — from Mrs. Warren's Profession by Bernard Shaw

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