Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan and are among a collection of children’s stories that have been given a trigger warning for ‘white supremacy’.
York St John University warned students the stories may contain ‘colonialist narratives’, with vocabulary and illustrations which may appear ‘racist’.
Bosses put the disclaimer on the website of the Rees-Williams Collection of Children’s Literature, which contains over 3000 historical volumes.
Among these are Peter and Wendy by JM Barrie, and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.
The collection includes fables, fairy tales, adventure stories, religious works, annuals, and historical books.
Most of them are from the 19th and early 20th centuries, but some date back to 1780.
The trigger warning states: ‘Within the 150 years of children’s writing which is represented in the collection, there is a widespread occurrence of colonialist narratives which centre white supremacy, and racist and orientalist methods of both fictional and historical storytelling.
‘As such, it is possible, if not likely, that items consulted from the collection will include language and visual imagery which is racist, and many people may find their contents upsetting and offensive.’
It says that the university aims to explain why such works are kept ‘when their ability to cause damage endures’.
It says that they provide evidence of the ‘racist marginalisation and stereotyping of peoples through children’s literature’.
It adds: ‘Here at York St John University, we unequivocally reject the stereotypes and offensive narratives which are contained within these documents..’
The Peter Pan stories include some references to ‘savages’ inhabiting Neverland.
Some academics have suggested that the hookah-smoking caterpillar in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is an orientalist depiction, which uses stereotypes of an exotic East.
The collection was assembled by James Rees-Williams, who worked as a librarian at York St John in the 1970s.
A spokesman for the university told the Daily Telegraph: ‘As custodians of the Rees-Williams Collection, we have a responsibility to both provide access to historic books, and to inform our students and other users about content in our institutional archives and special collections which many would find offensive and outdated.
‘This guidance has been in place since 2019 and aligns with our ongoing commitment to challenging racism, as a Race Equality Charter Bronze award holder.’
The Daily Mail has attempted to contact the university.
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Eleanor Harding
