New trigger warning over the death of ...a PUPPET!
MUSIC students have been issued with a trigger warning over the violent death of a puppet in a Russian ballet.
The University of Aberdeen told them the version they would be analysing of Petrushka – a 1911 ballet and orchestral work by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky – was ‘potentially distressing’.
A key scene features the eponymous Petrushka being killed by a sword – but the university warning then goes on to concede that ‘the character in question is actually a puppet’.
Petrushka is one of three jealous puppets which are brought to life in the ballet, which is set in St Petersburg in the 1830s.
Students on the Ballets Russes music module are also cautioned that the killer puppet Moor is often depicted in blackface, which is ‘stereotyped racial imagery that would today be considered offensive’.
The 1910 ballet Scheherazade – set in a harem and once described as a story of ‘flaming passion’ – also attracted an advisory because it ‘concludes with a murder and a suicide, both by stabbing’.
But the deaths, including the suicide of the Sultan’s favourite wife Zobeide, are not as grisly as they sound as the warning states that ‘the action is implied rather than graphic (there is no blood!)’.
Yesterday Christopher McGovern, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, said the university was guilty of ‘woke ideology’.
He said: ‘Such trigger warnings appear to be aimed at obliterating the best of Western culture.
‘Aberdeen University should come with its own trigger warning that it is committed to woke ideology that may seriously damage students’ mental well-being.
‘It is insulting and denigrating to suppose that young people cannot cope with emotional challenges.’
The university’s content warnings date from the last academic year and are regularly revised to ensure students are aware of any ‘potentially distressing’ subjects.
Last year it was criticised over a trigger warning on the epic poem Beowulf, which is studied on a module where students are told texts ‘contain representations of violence, coercion, animal cruelty or animal death, incest, suicide, explicit sexual content… ableism’.
A University of Aberdeen spokesman said: ‘Students are informed about the content of texts so we can explore controversial topics that could otherwise be difficult to address in an inclusive and supportive environment.
‘Our guidelines on content warnings were developed in collaboration with student representatives and we have never had any complaints about them – students have expressed their admiration for our approach.’
The spokesman added: ‘We are an international university with students from over 130 countries and as such there is a wide range of cultural diversity with students sometimes reading in a second or third language.’
‘Insulting and denigrating’