Ritið : tímarit Hugvísindastofnunar - 01.05.2019, Page 134

„TAuMlAuST BlóðBAð áN liSTRæNS TilgANgS“
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affect of cultural objects is constructed in the process of reception, while also main-
taining that the process of reception is thoroughly shaped by historical discourses,
social class, embedded moral codes and a social system of values, as well as techno-
logical progress. in what amounts to a perfect storm of moralizing, political games-
manship and the sheer panic of a certain segment of the population, the governing
institutions in iceland managed in the span of months to overturn constitutionally
protected rights to free speech and privacy, as well as undermine central principles
of the republic. Two decades would pass before these setbacks were recuperated, and
then only on a legal and institutional level. While analyzing the history of the ice-
landic video nasties, the article also attempts to grapple with and articulate the sym-
bolic register of the ban, how it speaks to the status of cinema in iceland at the close
of the twentieth century, and what ideological strains, morals and/or values were
being put into play and funneled into this particular debate. Then, to close, the role
of the most notorious of the nasties, Cannibal Holocaust (Ruggero Deodato, 1980), is
examined in the context of media coverage and parliamentary debates at the time.
Keywords: icelandic film history, censorship, cinema regulation, video nasties, moral
panic
Björn Þór Vilhjálmsson
lektor í almennri bókmenntafræði og kvikmyndafræði
Íslensku- og menningardeild
Hugvísindasviði Háskóla Íslands
Sæmundargötu 2
iS-101 Reykjavík, Ísland
btv@hi.is