The reading list for the course - The Age of Oppositions, 1660-1780 - now comes with a trigger warning. Photo / Getty
The reading list for the course - The Age of Oppositions, 1660-1780 - now comes with a trigger warning. Photo / Getty
By Flora Carr
It remains one of the most widely banned books in history, shocking readers with its 'pornographic' content centuries before Lady Chatterley's Lover.
Nearly 270 years on, it seems that modern day students are proving equally squeamish, as Fanny Hill, the first ever erotic novel written in English, has been dropped from the University of London curriculum for fear of offending students.
Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, was first published in 1748. Written while the author was in debtors prison in London, it's the story of an ageing courtesan who looks back with "stark naked truth" on her scandalous life.
London book distributor John Gold with a copy of Fanny Hill after he went to court in 1964 to fight the destruction of the book, which was banned under the Obscene Publication Act. Photo / Getty
The book incensed the British clergy and censors upon its publication. However, heteronormative descriptions in Fanny Hill of "maypole[s] of so enormous a standard" appear to be proving too much for university students.
Judith Hawley, professor of 18th-century literature at Royal Holloway, University of London, said that after decades of teaching the provocative text on various courses, Fanny Hill is being dropped from the latest curriculum following a consultation with students.
Speaking on a Radio 4 discussion on sex and freedom of speech, Dr Hawley said that including pornographic texts on any syllabus risked students "slap[ping her]... with a trigger warning".
"In the 1980s I both protested against the opening of a sex shop in Cambridge and taught Fanny Hill," she said.
Royal Holloway, part of the University of London campus. Photo / 123RF
"Nowadays I'd be afraid of causing offence to my students, both that I can understand why a senior academic imposing a pornographic text on the students would come across as being objectionable and that the students would slap me with a trigger warning [so] that I now self-censor myself."
One of the most heavily censored texts of the English literary canon, Fanny Hill has been removed completely from the course "The Age of Oppositions, 1660-1780", which examines libertine literature.
Following the students' request, the rest of the reading list for the course now comes with a "trigger warning", explaining that Restoration and 18th-century texts "sometimes reflect the unpleasant prejudices of their time, just as they sometimes work to complicate or challenge those attitudes.
"Racism, sexual violence, and self-harm were part of society then, as in different ways they are now."
Students are encouraged to speak to staff if there is a "cause for concern".
Sir Ian McKellen as King Lear in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of the play, which was also the subject of a complaint by students. Photo / Getty
Dr Hawley also confirmed that students had complained about a number of other texts, including Room by Emma Donoghue, the story of a young boy held captive with his abductee mother, and Shakespeare's King Lear.
Speaking to The Times about what concerns the students had about King Lear, Dr Hawley said: "Apart from gouging out of eyes [and] the death of Cordelia? Actually what most offends students is depictions of violence against women and suicide.
"I had some objections to Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, not because it represents the appalling effect British colonialism had on a Nigerian tribe but because one of the characters hits his wife and commits suicide."
She continued: "It is important not to exaggerate claims that students are stifling free speech on campus. We hope we have struck a balance between encouraging discussion of difficult issues without making life difficult for students who might feel coerced by academics."
