Now Leading Scots University Issues a Trigger Warning – For Harry Potter
By CHRIS HASTINGS
They are obviously made of sterner stuff at Hogwarts.
One of Britain’s top universities is facing ridicule for warning students that classic works of children’s literature including Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone feature ‘outdated attitudes and abuse’.
Critics say the University of Glasgow’s decision to issue the warning to undergraduates taking a module called British Children’s Literature is proof of a ‘triggering epidemic’.
The caution obtained under freedom of information laws informs students the course ‘explores outdated attitudes, abuse, and language in children’s texts’.
The reading list includes Lewis Carroll’s perennial classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland first published in 1865, Malorie Blackman’s dystopian 2001 novel Noughts & Crosses, and JK Rowling’s first outing for the world’s most famous boy wizard.
Enid Blyton’s 1946 offering First Term at Malory Towers, which spawned a best-selling series set in a girls’ boarding school, and E Nesbit’s 1899 novel The Story of The Treasure Seekers, which introduced the enterprising Bastable children and their attempts to restore their family’s once great fortune, are also on the list.
The University’s warning applies to the module of nine set texts and does not highlight the content of any particular novel.
But the first of the Harry Potter novels touches upon some dark themes.
Students have been warned that works including Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone feature ‘outdated attitudes and abuse’
The University of Glasgow has been criticised over the trigger warning
When readers first meet Harry, he is living with his abusive aunt and uncle Vernon and Petunia Dursley and their bullying son Dudley.
The eleven-year-old Harry subsequently learns that his parents were murdered by the evil wizard Lord Voldemort.
Harry swaps his under-the-stairs sleeping spot to become a boarder at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The novel ends with the boy wizard’s first terrifying encounter with the man who murdered his parents.
The book which has sold an astonishing 120 million copies was universally acclaimed on its release.
In recent years, other children’s authors, including Blyton, have been criticised for sexism and racism in their books.
Critics last night lambasted the University – pointing out children enjoy the books without any warning.
Novelist Dame Margaret Drabble said: ‘Poor, poor students! Exposing themselves at their age to Lewis Carroll and E. Nesbit and all those ghastly outdated stories glorifying public school! How they must suffer! They will need counselling from all the children who have survived these terrible tales and enjoyed them so much.’
Professor John Sutherland, emeritus professor of Modern English Literature at University College London, said: ‘In the olden days the British Library used to have a PC shelf mark – Poison Cabinet – for books judged dangerous to readers. It was large cabinet-sized. Nowadays, with the triggering epidemic, the Triggered Lit cabinet would be the size of next-door King’s Cross Station.’
Historian Jeremy Black, author of English Culture, said: ‘Glasgow University’s wish to warn that the values of the past are dangerous and disturbing offers a hilarious commentary on its present mindedness. All such trigger warnings do is provide a form of confirmation bias for the follies of the present.’
A University of Glasgow spokesperson said: ‘Content advisories in a university setting help students prepare for critical discussion. Unlike children reading for pleasure, undergraduates analyse these texts in depth, which can highlight outdated attitudes around childhood, race or gender.
‘We believe that content advisories have an important role to play in an educational setting, allowing lecturers and students to engage in a positive learning and teaching experience on issues across the whole range of human experience and history. They also ensure we can engage with course content in as sensitive and respectful a way as possible.’
Original source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15361763/Now-leading-Scots-university-issues-trigger-warning-Harry-Potter.html