Fury as university puts demeaning and ludicrous trigger warning on Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales because of expressions of Christian faith
A leading university has provoked fury for putting a ludicrous trigger warning on Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales because they contain expressions of Christian faith.
A leading university has provoked fury for putting a ludicrous trigger warning on Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales because they contain expressions of Christian faith.
Critics accused the University of Nottingham of demeaning education for warning students about the religious elements of the works of medieval literature that tell the story of a pilgrimage to one of the most important cathedrals in all of Christendom.
They said teachers were guilty of virtue signalling, adding that anyone studying such a famous collection would not need the Christian references pointed out.
The Mail on Sunday obtained details of the notice issued to students studying a module called Chaucer and His Contemporaries under Freedom of Information laws.
It alerts them to incidences of violence, mental illness and expressions of Christian faith in the works of Chaucer and fellow medieval writers William Langland, John Gower, and Thomas Hoccleve.
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories about characters on a pilgrimage from London to the tomb of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral
English author Geoffrey Chaucer lived from 1343 until 1400 and wrote The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales, written between 1387 and 1400, is a collection of stories about characters on a pilgrimage from London to the tomb of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.
The Canterbury Tales were written by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400
They include the promiscuous Wife of Bath, the drunken miller and the thieving reeve, who delight and shock each other with stories containing explicit references to rape, lust and even anti-Semitism.
However, the universitys warning makes no reference to the anti-Semitism or sexually explicit themes.
Other texts on the universitys module that are covered by the warning include Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a poem full of Christian themes and beliefs.
Another author on the list, Langland, writes about rich ecclesiastical politics and Christian virtue in the classic poem Piers Plowman.
The pressure group Christian Concern said the revelation raised questions over why trigger warnings are needed on classic texts and whether there would be similar warnings for other religious and philosophical beliefs.
Andrea Williams, chief executive of Christian Concern, said: The Bible is foundational to understanding the history of English literature. Without an understanding of the Christian faith there will be no way for students to access the world of Chaucer and his contemporaries.
Characters in the Canterbury Tales include the promiscuous five-times married wife of Bath
Its ludicrous to issue such trigger warnings. From what point in history are we going to censor literary texts, given most are steeped in a Christian worldview?
Trigger warnings for Christian themes in literature are demeaning to the Christian faith and stifle the academic progress of our students.
To censor expressions of the Christian faith is to erase our literary heritage. True education engages and fosters understanding, not avoidance.
Our universities should allow students who have chosen to study some of the greatest works in English literature, the freedom of academic thought to make up their own minds rather than planting loaded warnings about the Christian faith.
Also shocked by the trigger warning was Frank Furedi, emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent, who said: Warning students of Chaucer about Christian expressions of faith is weird.
Since all characters in the stories are immersed in a Christian experience there is bound to be a lot of expressions of faith. The problem is not would-be student readers of Chaucer but virtue-signalling, ignorant academics.
Andrea Williams, chief executive of Christian Concern, said: From what point in history are we going to censor literary texts, given most are steeped in a Christian worldview?
Historian Jeremy Black, author of English Culture, added: It is odd that anybody living in Britain should find it challenging to read works from our literary heritage that include expressions of Christian faith.
Presumably, this Nottingham nonsense is a product of the need to validate courses in accordance with tick- box criteria. It is simultaneously sad, funny, a perversion of intellectual life and a demeaning of education.
And Monsignor Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Anglican Bishop of Rochester, said: The Canterbury Tales are an account of a pilgrimage from London to Canterbury.
If you are going to read a book about a pilgrimage, then the Christian faith will come into it. I cant see how you would make sense of the work without an understanding of the references to Christianity.
He added: I think when people are at university they should engage with difficult topics and make sense of them for their own thinking and living. You cant protect people from difficult subjects.
The University of Nottingham said that even those students who are practising Christians will find aspects of the late-medieval worldview they will encounter in Chaucer and others alienating and strange
That is the whole point of going to university. I dont think students need trigger warnings. What is needed is good teaching so these difficult issues can be given context.
John Sutherland, emeritus professor of modern English literature at University College London, said the warning was not worthy of a university which had educated author DH Lawrence.
He said: There is a point at which timidity becomes censorship. Nottingham University has crossed it. I would have hoped for more bravery from the alma mater of the author of Lady Chatterleys Lover.
But a university spokesperson said: The University of Nottingham champions diversity, and its student body is made up of people of all faiths and none.
This content notice does not assume that all our students come from a Christian background, but even those students who are practising Christians will find aspects of the late-medieval worldview they will encounter in Chaucer and others alienating and strange.
Monsignor Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Anglican Bishop of Rochester, said: If you are going to read a book about a pilgrimage, then the Christian faith will come into it
It comes after the Mail On Sunday revealed in February 2022 that Leeds University chiefs had slapped content warnings on dozens of works studied by undergraduates on its English courses – including Tarzan, Black Beauty and Robinson Crusoe.
Edgar Rice Burroughss 1912 classic Tarzan Of The Apes came with a warning that the story of an orphaned boy raised by primates contains expressions of racism.
Students were also warned that Anna Sewells 1877 novel Black Beauty contains depictions of cruelty to animals. And Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe was also flagged up because it discusses race and slavery as well as attitudes typical of its time.
Previous examples of content warnings applied to books also include Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre, Charles Dickenss Oliver Twist and Great Expectations, and – in a move described as beyond parody – George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four.
In August 2022, The Times reported how universities had applied trigger warnings to more than 1,000 books, and were removing some from reading lists in an attempt to protect students.
