Political Correctness in Enid Blyton’s the Famous Five: Risks and Dangers

“Political correctness” is a movement that mainly aims at implementing overarching linguistic changes in favour of minority groups and historically marginalised people and has become an established phenomenon in several countries throughout the past years. Consequently, literary canons have been revised, and countless dated texts are scrutinised regarding their compatibility with politically correct language and principles. New editions of classics are often informed by contemporising narratives and omissions of offensive terms and expressions. Literature, however, is not where this movement stops. Political correctness reshapes societies and how people interact with each other, just not necessarily in the desired way. This paper is an attempt to shed light on the ramifications of political correctness that are possibly harmful and might, in fact, inhibit the originally desirable aims of the movement. Adverse effects might weigh especially heavy in conjunction with children, which is why this paper focuses on examples from the realm of youth literature, which were written by the English author Enid Blyton, who is both one of the most successful and controversial children’s book authors of all times.