Abstract
In his paper, "Western Culture and the Ambiguous Legacies of the Pig," Benton Jay Komins provides a cultural lineage of the pig by the example and reading of Piggies by the Beatles. Komins observes that Piggies enacts the possibilities of the ubiquitous pig in Western culture by juxtaposing swinish antics with interpretations of limitation and heartbreak thereby forcing listeners to blur the distinctions between struggle, unrequited love, and boorishness. Komins continues his discussion by locating this juxtaposition within the Western pantheon of real, metaphorical, and imaginary animals, where the pig is noted to have obsessively endured. Komins argues that through the depictions and representations of the pig, we are able to gain particular insight into Judeo-Christian ambiguities, fixations, and inconsistencies. Komins's observations about the pig in Western culture serve to define and to delineate a boundary between the civilized and the uncivilized, the refined and the unrefined. This real or imagined border is further mapped out in the paper via a consideration of Orwell's Animal Farm, Carter's Nights at the Circus, and Henson's Miss Piggy.
Recommended Citation
Komins, Benton Jay. "Western Culture and the Ambiguous Legacies of the Pig." CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 3.4 (2001): <https://doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.1137>
This text has been double-blind peer reviewed by 2+1 experts in the field.
The above text, published by Purdue University Press ©Purdue University, has been downloaded 7028 times as of 03/26/24. Note: the download counts of the journal's material are since Issue 9.1 (March 2007), since the journal's format in pdf (instead of in html 1999-2007).