College students received trigger warnings for Dracula novel for its ‘descriptions of spiders and other insects’
- Students reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula from 1897 receive “trigger warnings”
- Academics warn students about the ‘supernatural’ and ‘misogyny’ of the text
College students reading Dracula have been given warnings to prepare them for his ‘descriptions of spiders and other insects’.
In addition to content warnings about creepy crawlies, University of Greenwich academics help readers 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 at universities around the world for decades.
But those studying for English degrees at Greenwich are now warned about ‘misogyny’ in Stoker’s text, which contains vampire brides as well as scenes of the titular Count Dracula attacking the female characters, Mina and Lucy.
Renfield’s character, an inmate in an asylum, deals with eating spiders, insects and birds, which may explain the university’s trigger warning about “animal cruelty”.
Students reading Dracula receive “trigger prompts” to prepare them for his “descriptions of spiders and other insects.” Pictured: Christopher Lee as Dracula in 1972
Documents from the Greenwich English Department warn readers that a Gothic Literature module “by its nature…contains elements that students may find disturbing.”
The Dracula-specific content warning reads: “Violence, death, murder, kidnapping and death of children, depictions of mental illness, misogyny, the supernatural, imprisonment, references to suicide, animal abuse, 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.
Documents from the Greenwich English department inform readers that a Gothic Literature module “by its nature…contains elements that students may find disturbing.”
Professor Dennis Hayes, an education expert at the University of Derby, told The Daily Telegraph: “It is time to stop this nonsense and recognize that students are adults and can really enjoy horror stories.”
‘Will nursery rhymes need trigger warnings next: Students studying early childhood at university might need to be warned about the horrors of Little Miss Muffet and Incy Wincy Spider?
“Trigger warnings seem innocuous, but they create a climate on campus where fairly normal things are seen as anxiety-producing.”
The professor explained that the frequent use of trigger warnings can make students feel that going to university 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 mime is there on all levels.
The University of Greenwich previously said: “It was agreed that content warnings should be included in reading lists so that students can take them into account before encountering each text.”