University of Exeter is the latest institution accused of being overzealous with content warnings
Warning: this news item contains discussion of trigger warnings, which some find problematic.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has long been a staple of university courses.
Mark Twain’s classic novel has been secure in its position as one of the most seminal works of literature in American history, despite well-publicised problematic elements such as its use of racial slurs.
Now the University of Exeter has come under fire for warning students about this potentially contentious content, adding to the long-running debate over so-called ‘trigger warnings’.
A report in the Times on 25 August said the university had now slapped a “trigger warning” on Twain.
Trigger warnings do not mean that books or other resources are removed from university courses. Rather, they are intended to give those students advance warning of potentially upsetting or controversial content.
Classic but contentious
The University of Exeter declined to comment on the Times story, but did send Research Professional News the full wording of the ‘trigger warning’ in question.
The statement describes the novel as a “classic but contentious work”.
“That the story is told from the boy, Huck Finn’s, perspective can be read as an ingenious way of representing the indoctrination of children into racist ideologies, but it also results in a representation of the slave Jim that is problematic in a number of ways, not least because of Huck’s use of the n-word throughout the novel,” it states. “Please be aware that this novel also features scenes of murder, violence, and child abuse.”
Trigger happy?
Exeter is the latest university to be called out for trigger warnings. In January this year, a Daily Mail article accused the University of Chester of placing a trigger warning on JK Rowling’s children’s novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
That content warning did not relate to the content of book itself.
It stated that “the nature of the theories we apply” to the topics covered within texts “can lead to some difficult conversations about gender, race, sexuality, class and identity”.
A spokesperson for the University of Chester told Research Professional News that those studying literature “should expect to encounter all the issues, challenges and complexity of humankind”.
“As a university, we promote rather than avoid discussion on these,” they added. “We do, of course, include a generic paragraph on our reading lists to draw attention to the opportunity for individual students to talk with tutors if anything is particularly difficult because of its personal relevance.”
Often though, attempts by universities to shape the discussion on triggers warnings have failed.
Politicians have joined the fray alongside some newspapers.
In June Conservative peer Patrick Cormack said in a debate about the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill that he hoped “that one thing that will be a casualty of this Bill is the so-called ‘trigger’ movement”.
He said it had even been suggested, although rejected, that Hansard should be adorned with such warnings.
Then-education secretary Michelle Donelan said the Harry Potter warning was a “disservice” to students.
“There are no trigger warnings every day as you operate. I’ve not met students who have called for these trigger warnings either,” she said at the time.
(While Donelan may not have heard from students in favour of content warnings, a 2022 survey of 1,000 undergraduates found that 86 per cent support trigger warnings—up from 68 per cent in 2016.)
In January, a separate Daily Mail article said the University of Northampton had placed a trigger warning on George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four—describing it as “wokery beyond parody”.
The report said students had been told in advance that the novel contains “explicit material”, which some students may find “offensive and upsetting”.
Despite the ‘warning’, the book remains required reading for the course in question.
A university spokesperson said tutors were permitted to “warn students of graphic depictions in relation to violence, sexual violence, domestic abuse and suicide and that these may be the subject of their discussions when analysing works of literature in depth”.
Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, told Research Professional News that “when used appropriately, trigger warnings can be a way to help usefully shape the conversation to come”.
“I consider myself a vehement defender of free speech but that doesn’t make me think trigger warnings are always wrong,” he said. “No one minds if the BBC prefaces a report from a war zone with a sensitive warning about the harrowing scenes to come, but the same people can get very upset when universities do something similar as part of their teaching.
“Clearly, if people are trigger happy with their trigger warnings or if trigger warnings end up shaping the curriculum, then the whole issue becomes a little absurd and it may be that universities need to do more to guide their staff and students on their rightful use if they do not want to be ridiculed.”