This tragedy may upset you, students told

TRAGIC literature may be too upsetting for modern students, academics have warned.

Students embarking on a literature module covering tragedy at the University of Derby are warned that the genre “obsessed with suffering” could prove “triggering”. The plays under scrutiny span 2,500 years of literature, including the Athenian tragedy Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and Shakespeare’s King Lear, Titus Andronicus and Hamlet.

The reading list for the module has been given a blanket advisory on how the subject matter could be troubling.

The warning states: “Tragedy is a genre obsessed with violence and suffering, often of a sexual or graphic kind, and so some of the content might be triggering for some students. If you feel that your engagement with particular texts or themes is going to present challenges, do speak to me in advance.”

The decision to offer a broad trigger warning for the tragedy module has been criticised by Prof Frank Furedi of the University of Kent. He said: “Tragedy is meant to provoke emotional upheaval and cause upset. If they fail to provoke strong emotions then a tragedy is anything but tragic. There is no such thing as a safe tragedy.”

A spokesman for the University of Derby said: “Many of the plays explicitly engage with themes of violence and trauma, frequently sexual in nature, which we believe students benefit from being made aware of.”