{"product_id":"triggered-literature-cancellation-stealth-censorship-and-cultural-warfare-9781785908170","title":"Triggered Literature: Cancellation, Stealth Censorship and Cultural Warfare","description":"'Triggering'. When and where did the usage\u003cbr\u003eoriginate? No one is sure. There is, however, clear connection with the\u003cbr\u003epsychiatric term 'trauma trigger' - stimuli which can detonate unhealed wounds.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe concept of triggering took off in\u003cbr\u003efeminist magazines and social media 'chat' around 2010. Around 2013\/14 it moved, \u003cbr\u003ewholesale, into higher education. In May 2014, the\u003ci\u003e New York Times \u003c\/i\u003ereported\u003cbr\u003ethat at scores of institutions student bodies were demanding trigger warnings\u003cbr\u003ein their courses for canonical texts. It reached a floodmark with a survey by\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e of London in August 2022 which found that British universities\u003cbr\u003ehad covertly added trigger warnings to over a thousand texts, including the\u003cbr\u003eworks of literary greats such as Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, Jane\u003cbr\u003eAusten, Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens and Agatha Christie.  \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ePoliticians in the US, UK and Australia\u003cbr\u003evilifies triggering with the sarcasms 'wokery' and 'snowflakery'. What is\u003cbr\u003eoverlooked in the heat of the argument is that triggering is categorically\u003cbr\u003edifferent from traditional institutional controls on literature. Triggering, \u003cbr\u003edone responsibly, honours the fact that great literature is great because it\u003cbr\u003eis, as Kafka says, powerful.  \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this extraordinary polemic, John\u003cbr\u003eSutherland - former Visiting Professor of Literature at the\u003cbr\u003eCalifornia Institute of Technology - takes a wide-ranging and characteristically\u003cbr\u003enuanced look at the history of triggering and censorship in literature and\u003cbr\u003eshows how it has become a theatre of culture warfare. Politicians in the great\u003cbr\u003esectors of the English-speaking world have taken up arms in that conflict.\u003cbr\u003eJonathan Swift's 'Battle of the Books' has flared up again. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn Sutherland\u003c\/b\u003e is Emeritus Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English\u003cbr\u003eLiterature at University College London and previously taught at the California\u003cbr\u003eInstitute of Technology. He writes regularly for \u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e and the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e and is the author of\u003cbr\u003emany books, including \u003ci\u003eCuriosities of\u003cbr\u003eLiterature\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eHenry V, War Criminal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e?\u003c\/i\u003e (with Cedric\u003cbr\u003eWatts); biographies of Walter Scott, Stephen Spender and the Victorian elephant\u003cbr\u003eJumbo; and \u003ci\u003eThe Boy Who Loved Books\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003cbr\u003ea memoir. He is currently editing \u003ci\u003eThe Oxford Companion to Popular Fiction\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Biteback Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50458004586770,"sku":"9781785908170","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_8ee20711-47ed-45b6-8f25-da1dd8842b99.jpg?v=1729949131","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/triggered-literature-cancellation-stealth-censorship-and-cultural-warfare-9781785908170","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}