And the infantilization of western civilization continues apace
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no expectations for class of ‘24
They have been celebrated as classics of English literature for more than 150 years, enjoyed by generations of children as young as eight.
But university students have now been given a 'trigger warning' that Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and Charles Dickens's Great Expectations both contain passages they might find 'distressing'.
Published in 1861, Great Expectations describes orphan Pip's adventures with characters including the fugitive Abel Magwitch, the eccentric Miss Havisham and the beautiful but cruel Estella – and includes vivid imagery of poverty, prison ships and fights to the death.
Meanwhile Jane Eyre, written in 1847, charts the romance between Bronte's titular heroine and the troubled Mr Rochester, but also describes her unhappy childhood as an abandoned orphan.
The warnings accompany a reading list given to students on Salford's BA English literature course, and have been revealed in response to a Freedom of Information request.
The university warns undergraduates: 'There are scenes and discussions of violence and sexual violence in several of the primary texts studied on this module. Some students may find the content of the following texts distressing.'
