Renowned author Enid Blyton’s legacy branded as racist

A cultural foundation has branded the works of renowned British author Enid Blyton as racist.

English Heritage, a charity responsible for installing commemorative blue plaques in front of buildings lived in by significant individuals, relabeled Blyton’s plaque to include references to criticism of her works which brand it as “racist” and “xenophobic”.

Dr Lauren Rosewarne from the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne says it’s about informing people about the context that they were rewritten.

“This move towards relabeling a plaque on Enid Blyton’s house is about putting in context some of the criticisms of her work,” she told Tom Elliott on 3AW Drive.

“It’s just about when you’re commemorating her to understand the context and some of the chatter around the topic.”

Dr Rosewarne said the move is part of a larger cultural push to include criticisms of renowned works.

“Disney has done this with a lot of their older films, they are putting disclaimers at the start where it explains some of the language, some of the representations would be inappropriate by today’s standards,” she said.

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