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Literary notes about Prohibition (AI summary)

The term “prohibition” in literature is utilized in a remarkably diverse range of contexts—from legal restrictions and state policies to cultural taboos and psychological constraints. In sociological and historical texts, for instance, authors discuss prohibition as a legal or societal measure enacted to control behavior, as seen in works examining societal reforms and temperance movements ([1], [2], [3]). At the same time, prohibition is rendered as a cultural or religious injunction—one that colors interpersonal relationships and ritual conduct—as explored by Durkheim and Freud, who examine prohibitions ranging from incest taboos to the restrictions on contact with totems ([4], [5], [6]). Moreover, in novels and narratives, prohibition often emerges as an obstacle or a character’s counterpoint to authority, whether through overt bans or more subtly imposed limits on behavior and desire ([7], [8], [9]). Thus, across genres and disciplines, “prohibition” functions as a symbol of both societal control and the inherent tension between individual impulses and collective norms.
  1. (24) Cherrington, Ernest H. The Evolution of Prohibition in the United States of America.
    — from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park
  2. Is the national prohibition of the liquor traffic an economic necessity?
    — from The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie and J. Berg Esenwein
  3. All these phenomena may be observed, for example, in the Prohibition Movement.
    — from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park
  4. However, it is probable that the prohibition of marriage between members of a single totem is international.
    — from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim
  5. [Pg 132] To this prohibition of eating is frequently added that of killing the totem, or picking it, when it is a plant.
    — from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim
  6. Taboo is a very primitive prohibition imposed from without (by an authority) and directed against the strongest desires of man.
    — from Totem and Taboo by Sigmund Freud
  7. “Of course it would be a great relief to me to ask you several questions, sir; but I remember your prohibition.”
    — from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
  8. Nor had he, since prohibition, known any one to be casual about drinking.
    — from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
  9. Twice he caught the reek of prohibition-time whisky, but then, it was only twice— Dr. Howard Littlefield lumbered in.
    — from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis

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