Behind the Headlines | REWRITES: Necessity or travesty?

Recorded April 5, 2023 Panelists: Dr Jane Suzanne Carroll (TCD), Dr
David Kenny (TCD), Dr Martina Devlin, and Dr Nicholas Johnson
(TCD). With the recent news that publishers Puffin and the Roald
Dahl Story Company have decided to rewrite potentially sensitive or
offensive elements of the popular children’s books, our Behind the
Headlines panel considers whether languages, images, and texts
should be altered to suit the times, and what else is ‘subject to
change’?  While some may argue that rewriting books amounts to a
threat to literary expression—a throwback to ‘book banning’ or even
censorship—others will point to the fact that works of fiction are
being adapted all the time, based on the norms of the moment. And
children’s books are not the only texts that are under revision; we
expand our discussion to constitutional law and to the world of
theatre as our panel considers how we can protect the integrity of
a text throughout the ages. Learn more at:
https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/