Roald Dahl: The fierce debate over rewriting children's classics
BBCRoald Dahl: The fierce debate over rewriting children's classics Javier Hirschfeld / Alamy Recent revisions made to Roald Dahl's children's novels sparked a controversy over censorship. Alamy The Telegraph newspaper found that several of Roald Dahl's titles, including The Witches, had words removed In the New York Times, Suzanne Nossel, the chief executive of the free speech charity, PEN America, was quoted as saying: "You want to think about the precedent that you're setting, and what would happen if someone of a different predisposition or ideology were to pick up the pen and start crossing things out." Regarding a historic text, the author of which is dead, even if it is offensive, I think we still have to let it stand because otherwise you are lying about the past – Amanda Craig "The culture war position that 'it's woke Stasi stuff' was sort of nonsense because children's stories are quite robust," Leith tells BBC Culture. "Children's authors are very, very cowed and very anxious not to upset readers," she tells BBC Culture. Introductions are a great tool for adding context to older texts… can open up valuable discussions without changing the author's words – Emma Kantor The debate will no doubt continue as will, in all likelihood, the practice of revising classic books although after the fierce debate over the Dahl changes, Puffin announced that the works would also be reissued in their uncensored form so readers could choose which version they preferred.
History of this topic
Children’s author Judy Blume condemns books censorship in the US
The Independent
'Absurd Censorship': Why Edits to Roald Dahl, Ian Fleming Books Have Sparked Row
The Quint
Penguin will also publish Roald Dahl originals after spat
Hindustan Times
Camilla forces U-turn in Roald Dahl censorship row
The Independent
I’m a ‘sensitivity reader’ – this is what Puffin failed to grasp on Roald Dahl
The Independent
Philip Pullman suggests Roald Dahl books should go ‘out of print’ amid edits controversy
The Independent
Rushdie, Sunak Condemn Rewriting Roald Dahl; What Is The Fuss About?
News 18
What kind of witless weeds want ‘sensitivity rewrites’ on Roald Dahl?
The IndependentNew editions of Roald Dahl books, including Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, criticised by writers
ABC
Salman Rushdie condemns ‘absurd censorship’ after Roald Dahl’s books rewritten
The Independent
Critics reject changes to Roald Dahl books as censorship
The Independent
Roald Dahl books rewritten to remove controversial language
The Independent
Roald Dahl’s books edited to remove potentially offensive language – reports
The IndependentRoald Dahl's family apologises for late children author's anti-Semitic remarks
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