Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1994. [Vol. 2.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 22)

STUDIES - András Tarnóc: "Who is Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" Reflections of Political Correctness in a Distorted Mirror.

nature-culture, man-woman framework (Holman 125). In TTLP the cultural and ideological awareness of the pigs (culture) defeat the hunger and aggression (nature) of the wolf. In LRRH two females with the help of an animal eliminated Public Enemy No. 1, the (white) male. The characters of the two tales also lend themselves to the Four Senses of Interpretation (Holman 213), a quadri-partite method of analysis distinguishing between literal, allegorical, moral (tropological) and spiritual (anagogical) levels of meaning. Consequently in TTLP the wolf is literally a carnivorous animal, allegorically the white male or the U. S. with colonizing aspirations, tropologically an example of ethnocentrism and colonialism, and anagogically is evil incarnate. His counterparts are literally domestic animals, allegorically minority cultures or nations victimized by cultural and geopolitical imperialism, morally the ideology of defending one's home and culture, and anagogically the incarnation of the good fighting a just war. While LRRH is literally a young girl, allegorically she stands for the women of America. Tropologically she is the embodiment of feminism and presents the liberation of women on the anagogical level. The wolf literally is a predator, allegorically a victimizer and a victim, morally the embodiment of sexism and a victim of specieism, and spiritually he represents the evil consequences of victimization. Hie Grandmother literally is a matriarch, who allegorically stands for the fate of the elderly, morally teaches the well-known lesson of the evil of discrimination, and spiritually the victory of the victim over the victimizer. Finally the lumberjack is a (white) male forest worker, a sexist or specieist person, the chief victimizer, and the embodiment of prejudice and discrimination, respectively. According to James Davison Hunter the current uproar over PC is an example of a cultural conflict, known as "political and social hostility rooted in different systems of moral understanding" (Bush 44). These two tales clearly illustrate the moral understanding of the PC worldview leaving no doubt that in this clash of alleged victim and victimizer the latter cannot hope for a fate better than a self-induced death or the ax of an indignant minority. 139