LONG regarded as a literary jewel, the tale of orphan Oliver Twist is among a raft of historic works given a ‘trigger warning’ in case students reading it for the first time get upset, while across the Atlantic, book bans rise.

 

A trigger warning for what?

The Royal Holloway, the University of London, has added a content note to Charles Dickens’ classic tale of poor orphaned Oliver, advising readers of its themes of “domestic violence”, “racial prejudice” and “child abuse”.

 

Why?

Staff say it is in case the themes and overall content sparks “anxiety” or “distress”, as readers follow the sad life of Oliver, born into a workhouse and sold into apprenticeship with an undertaker, before meeting the "Artful Dodger" - a juvenile pickpocket - on the streets of London.

 

It’s a classic?

Dickens' second novel was published as a serial from 1837 to 1839 and then a book in 1838, going on to become the subject of an array of famous adaptations, including a 1968 movie and a hugely successful musical, Oliver!, with music and lyrics by Lionel Bart.

 

There are some very sad scenes?

The most memorable scene sees Oliver - “desperate with hunger and reckless with misery” darling to ask, “Please sir, I want some more” gruel, only to be hit with a ladle by the master of the workhouse.

 

Hence the warning?

The content warning on the Victorian Literature, Art and Culture MA course came to light after a Freedom of Information (FoI) request by The Mail on Sunday. A Royal Holloway, University of London spokesman said: “We recognise our responsibility to support the mental health and wellbeing of our students and content warnings are part of this. Their use is a standard and accepted practice within academia, and they exist to educate and inform students in advance around potentially sensitive topics which could cause them anxiety or distress, perhaps as a consequence of past experience.”

 

It’s not the only novel impacted?

The FoI found the University of Northampton has also issued a trigger warning for George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, which at its core warns of the dangers of censorship, saying it contains “explicit material" which some students could find “offensive and upsetting”.

 

Meanwhile?

Salford University has issued content trigger warnings for Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and Dickens's Great Expectations, advising both works contain passages readers might find “distressing”.

 

Is this a global issue?

Book bans are a huge issue in the United States at the moment where a Seattle school board last month voted to remove Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird from student reading, with a board member saying "it's a very difficult book" with "a lot of thorny subjects”, days after a Tennessee district banned the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the holocaust, “Maus,” from its curriculum.

 

Any others?

In Polk County, Florida, public school libraries have removed 16 books for "review" this week after campaigning by a local group, "County Citizens Defending Freedom".  They include The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, about a Muslim boy from Afghanistan recalling traumatic incidents from childhood that include violence and sexual assault, and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, about a young black girl growing up during the depression.