University students got trigger warnings for Dracula novel because of the ‘descriptions of spiders and other insects’
- Students reading Bram Stoker’s 1897 Dracula get ‘trigger warnings’
- Academics warn students about “supernatural” and “misogyny” in the text
Trigger warnings have been issued to college students reading Dracula to prepare them for the “descriptions of spiders and other insects.”
In addition to substantive warnings of creepy crawlies, academics at the University of Greenwich helpfully tell readers to expect “the supernatural” in Bram Stoker’s classic gothic horror about a Transylvanian vampire.
Published in 1897, the novel is one of the most famous works of English literature ever written and has been studied for decades at universities around the world.
But those studying English at Greenwich are now being warned about the “misogyny” in Stoker’s text, which includes both vampire brides and scenes of the titular Count Dracula attacking the female characters, Mina and Lucy.
Renfield’s character, an asylum inmate, dabbles in eating spiders, bugs, and birds — which may be the cause of the university’s “animal cruelty” trigger warning.
Students reading Dracula are given “trigger warnings” to prepare them for the “descriptions of spiders and other insects.” Pictured: Christopher Lee as Dracula in 1972
Documents from Greenwich’s English Department advise readers that a module of Gothic Literature “naturally…contains elements which students may find disturbing.”
The content warning specific to Dracula reads: “Violence, death, murder, kidnapping and death of children, depictions of mental illness, misogyny, the supernatural, imprisonment, references to suicide, cruelty to animals, descriptions of spiders and other insects.”
Similar warnings are believed to have been introduced for other texts studied at Greenwich in 2021 at the request of students.
Papers from the Greenwich English Department advise readers that a module of Gothic literature “naturally … contains elements which students may find disturbing”
Professor Dennis Hayes, an education expert at the University of Derby, told The Daily Telegraph: ‘It’s time to stop this nonsense and recognize that students are adults and can really enjoy horror stories.
“Will nursery rhymes need trigger warnings after this — college students studying early childhood may need to be warned about the horrors of Little Miss Muffet and Incy Wincy Spider?
‘Trigger warnings seem harmless, but they create a climate at universities in which very normal things are perceived as frightening.’
The professor explained that the frequent use of trigger warnings can make students feel that going to college is “a threatening and stressful experience.”
He added: ‘But universities, with their exaggerated concern for well-being, mental health and safety, overprotect and coddle students. This mollycoddling is available at every level.’
The University of Greenwich has previously said: ‘It has been agreed that content warnings should be included in reading lists so that students can take note of them before encountering any text.’