The grotesque in art and literature

Sarah Lucas is one of the greatest artists I know belonging to the generation that rose during the Clinton Nineties. She has a feeling for her materials that quite simply takes your breath away, a formidable command over sculptural form, a knack for the striking composition, juxtaposition or installation, an abiding interest in charged and often politically-incorrect content, a deliciously wicked sense of humor, and ranks among our better wordsmiths.  “What is there not to like?”, one might ask.  A more extensive version of this article is forthcoming.

In 1513 Quentin Massys, a Flemish Artist, finished a painting appropriately titled: “An Old Woman (The Ugly Duchess).” Little did he know, however, that this painting would spark interest, inspiration, and invoke mystery in the centuries to come. The Ugly Duchess, was the inspiration for the illustrations of the characters in Lewis Carol’s Alice in Wonderland. (Edgar Degas Museum) It also was argued over whether Massys had taken the idea of the grotesque woman from Leonardo da Vinci, as a sketch was found of Duchess, in da Vinci’s possessions.  Until recently it was assumed that the idea for Duchess was one Massys had lifted off of da Vinci, but newer evidence suggest that it was da Vinci who was inspired by Massys’ painting, as the two artists were known to have exchanged sketches. (Esaak 12)  This recent attention toward the painting has caused a spike in viewership, and people that view it for the first time often ponder what exactly the painting is saying to her audience. The true meaning of Duchess is more complex than a seemingly undesirable female from the 14th Century, moreover The Ugly Duchess serves as a mirror for her audience, reflecting the inside of each individual whose eyes skim across her canvas.

I have a longstanding interest in John Ruskin’s writings about work and craftsmanship, which influenced Gandhi’s philosophy. In recent years I have been intrigued by Ruskin’s seminal work on the “grotesque.” His ideas fed into the modern arts of caricatures, the sketchiness and rough unfinished quality in modern paintings.  Ruskin recognized the vitality in spontaneous playfully weird images, like gargoyles and cartoons. My interest in C. G. Jung’s and James Hillman’s depth psychology exploring archetypal images also relates to Ruskin’s ideas about fantasies and the fantastic, about dominant imaginative ideas that predate the term “archetype.” Furthermore, Ruskin’s interest in the Gothic in architecture and other areas gave me incentive and curiosity to explore the Gothic style and today’s Goths. I find the scholarship on these topics to be rich and thought-provoking, worth deeper exploration, as my extensive endnotes suggest. I started exploring Ruskin’s ideas on grotesques, and after over four decades the topic continues to attract me. I find that Archetypes can be explored in many ways—in song lyrics and saints’ biographies, in writings about compassion and helping others, in trickster figures, and in grotesque imagery.

On pourra définir l'effet grotesque comme ce vertige particulier qui s'empare du récepteur et le déstabilise –au moins provisoirement– par l'intrusion d'éléments (images, codes linguistiques, éléments habituellement antagonistes et exclusifs les uns des autres, etc.) qui perturbent sa perception normale et les conditions habituelles du sens.

Le grotesque est un effet et non un fait. Partant de ce constat, cette étude se présente comme un essai d'interprétation de cette expérience existentielle que serait le grotesque avant d'être une catégorie esthétique. Rémi Astruc propose de voir dans le grotesque un mécanisme anthropologique fondamental que les sociétés mettent en place pour penser l'altérité et le changement. Le grotesque en art serait ainsi le moyen d'exposer une éthique dans la modernité, indissociable d'une esthétique.

Maîtrise en Études anciennes, concentration littératures anciennes, Maître ès arts (M.A.) Québec, Canada

Sous la direction du professeur Alban Baudou

Perse débute son œuvre en rejetant systématiquement toutes les sources inspiratrices traditionnelles, dont la fontaine d'Hyppocrène, ce qui lui donne l'occasion de traiter Pégase de « canasson ». Alors que les interprétations d'ensemble réalisées par le passé sont faussées par une appréciation minimisant la construction systématique des « Satires », l'objectif de cette étude est de démontrer que leur thème unificateur est la critique de la production / transmission et de la consommation de la littérature à l'époque néronienne.

Dans le premier chapitre, en démontrant l'omniprésence des processus d'imitation et d'émulation dans le texte, puis en mettant au jour leur complexité et leur richesse sémantique, nous exposons la métatextualité des « Satires », confirmant notre hypothèse de départ. L’analyse des « Satires » dans le cadre théorique du grotesque bakhtinien conduit dans un deuxième temps à révéler que le vice et la vertu y sont appariés respectivement à la mauvaise et à la bonne littérature et que Perse vise à détruire la première grâce à la philosophie. Par l'analyse de ce message subversif sous-jacent, nous expliquons quels sont les effets négatifs de la mauvaise littérature et les façons dont il faut s'y prendre pour la contrer. Dans le troisième chapitre enfin, grâce aux énoncés programmatiques et à diverses analyses stylistiques, nous donnons à connaître la cible de Perse: les poètes urbains philhellènes, cancres littéraires avides et présomptueux. Le style de Perse, en revanche, se distingue par son audace, son aspect « mordax », sa modestie et sa romanité issue du « mos maiorum ». 

Grâce à notre étude, la cohérence des « Satires », trop souvent tenues pour composites, apparaît nettement.

ENTRO la cultura figurativa del Quattrocento, che consacra e diffonde l'idea della bellezza, della rappresentazione armonica ed equilibrata delle forme e dei sentimenti, servendosi del canone classico, recupera-to in forma idealizzante e selettiva, si dipana anche un filone sotterraneo ed alternativo, non apollineo, ma dionisiaco, eccessivo, inaspettato, quasi umorale. Il filone del Grottesco sembra serpeggiare come un'inquietante attitu-dine tipicamente toscana che si risolve nell'evocazione di un immaginario ambiguo, che sottopone a stravolgimenti e forzature irrazionali la realtà. Il substrato culturale fiorentino Una serie di fattori in sinergia tra loro rende l'area fiorentina un terreno assai fertile per l'emergere del filone del Grottesco sia nelle arti figurative sia nelle opere di letteratura. Tra queste attitudini, l'innata predisposizione ideologica e culturale delineatasi a Firenze durante tutto il Trecento dove il 'brutto' era simbolicamente connesso con la personificazione del male morale in opposizione, per contrasto, all'identificazione classica della 'bellezza' come kalokagathìa (καλοκαγαθία) ovvero dell'ideale di perfezione fisica e morale. A questa si aggiunga la seduzione del valore apotropaico e magico del 'brutto' o del 'fantastico' acquisito in eredità dal gotico e che portato all'affermazio-ne di un filone sotterraneo che nelle sue massime realizzazioni si esprime-va con la vena espressionistica della Maddalena penitente di Donatello, con le fantastiche visioni di battaglie di Paolo Uccello e con il realismo esasperato di marca fiamminga di Andrea del Castagno. Su queste basi si spiega anche l'arrivo entusiastico nelle collezioni fiorentine di opere fiamminghe la cui attitudine principale era volta spesso a spingere il realismo fino alla caratterizzazione e allo stravolgimento fisiognomico e fantastico.

Celem niniejszego artykułu jest eksplikacja trudnych do uchwycenia relacji między pojęciami piękna, brzydoty i groteski oraz związanej z nią kategorii ciała groteskowego w poezji Jana Andrzeja Morsztyna. Studium wskazuje m.in. na źródła przedstawień groteskowych, sposoby ich realizacji w jego twórczości, a także kontekstualizuje praktykę literacką Morsztyna w tradycji literackiej. Podstawą teoretyczną moich dociekań są przede wszystkim teksty Wolfganga Kaysera, Michaiła Bachtina i Mieczysława Wallisa.

MASTER THESIS
Die Arbeit versteht sich als eine kulturtheoretische und musikanalytische Bestimmung des Phänomens des Grotesken für den Untersuchungsgegenstand des zeitgenössischen Musiktheaters. Das Groteske wird in der aktuellen Forschungsliteratur, wie auch hier, als interdependentes, relationales Phänomen verstanden, das sich einer klaren Beschreibung oder Abgrenzung zu anderen Phänomenen entzieht. Stark vereinfacht kann das Groteske als ein Verzerrungs - und Verfremdungsprinzip betrachtet werden, das durch die Verbindung heterogener, disparater Elemente entsteht. Dabei werden Erwartungen und Normen enttäuscht bzw. gebrochen und psychologische und philosophische Kategorien wie Angst, Unheimliches, Phantastisches, Tragikomisches, Lächerliches, Burleskes vermischt. Formal äußert sich das Groteske u.a. durch Verzerrung, Entstellung, Übersteigerung und spielerischem wie assoziativem Umgang mit moralischen, logischen oder physischen Gesetzen. Aufgrund der komplexen Relationen, die das Groteske ausmachen, wird es im ersten Abschnitt der Diplomarbeit als abstrakte theoretische Struktur erfasst, welche im zweiten Abschnitt, mit dem Ziel konkrete Merkmale aufzuzeigen, an ausgewählten Musiktheaterwerken der letzten Jahre analytisch überprüft wird. Hierzu wird anhand musik- und literaturwissenschaftlicher Texte eine theoretische, historische und begriffsgeschichtliche Annäherung an das Phänomen ausgebreitet, auf deren Basis die einzelnen Komponenten des Grotesken und deren Beziehungen zueinander als strukturelle Zusammenhänge beschrieben werden. Ausgangsthese für dieses Vorgehen ist die Annahme, dass das Groteske ein in der konkreten Manifestation variables, aber in den formalen und funktionalen Eigenschaften, weitgehend konstantes Phänomen ist, woraus sich auch dessen ausgeprägte Fähigkeit zur Aktualisierbarkeit und Anpassung ableitet, ebenso wie seine schwere Bestimmbarkeit.
Das Groteske war bereits Untersuchungsgegenstand musikwissenschaftlicher Forschung, blieb jedoch bis auf wenige Ausnahmen auf die Musik bis zur europäischen Moderne beschränkt. Erkenntnisse aus diesen Analysen können jedoch nur bedingt auf aktuelles Komponieren angewandt werden. Die theoretische Erarbeitung der Struktur, wie deren analytische Anwendung, dienen so auch einer systematischen Aktualisierung des Phänomens des Grotesken in der Musik. Hier gilt dies spezifisch für das zeitgenössische Musiktheater. Erkenntnisziel war die Erarbeitung konkreter musikalischer, dramaturgischer und formaler Manifestationen des Grotesken im zeitgenössischen Musiktheatergeschehen. Diese werden in der Arbeit ‚Konstruktionskoeffizienten des Grotesken‘ genannt.
Untersuchungsgegenstände sind sieben Musiktheaterwerke aus den letzten 15 Jahren. Dabei werden bewusst unterschiedliche Formen des Musiktheaters, zwischen Oper und szenischem Konzert, in die Analyse miteinbezogen. Untersuchungsmaterial sind dabei das Groteske in der Musik (Instrumentierung, vertikale und horizontale Zusammenhänge, Rhythmik, Form, Ästhetik) sowie das Groteske in der Beziehung zwischen Musik und Text bzw. Inhalt. Die Analyse erfolgt hinsichtlich dreier Ebenen: Im Kontext des zeitgenössischen Musiktheaters, im Kontext des jeweiligen Werks (Dramaturgie des Werks) und im Kontext des konkreten musikalischen Notenmaterials.
Die Konfrontation der theoretischen Struktur mit den Ergebnissen der Analyse trägt schließlich dazu bei, die vagen Konturen des Grotesken im zeitgenössischen Musiktheater etwas zu schärfen.

Throughout its long history, the grotesque has been mostly been discussed for the various, even opposing, types of representation it has been depicted and traced through. As an aesthetic category of art and literature, it has constantly given rise to critical studies of both diverse and complementary nature about a mode which is very often taken to be incomprehensible, misunderstood, absurd, or appalling. While a considerable amount of misunderstanding is related to the definition of the mode, the inherent confusion has to do with different categories of the grotesque as well as overlaps with similar modes and genres. As such, the grotesque has been debated not only in relation to other modes and genres but also with regard its own varying types of representation. Reviewing some of the relevant works and key notions, I initially focus on the definition of the grotesque by reviewing major elements of the mode and then make a proposition regarding the categories of the grotesque. Sketching out earlier studies, I discuss the grotesque with regard to certain distinguishing features which help to categorise its varying types and situate it among neighbouring modes.

An analysis and discussion of the various sources that served as inspiration for my visual art installation entitled The Disobedient Dollhouse. These sources include the literary fiction of the 19th-century Gothic novelists, gothic horror films, the Surrealists, and the grotesquery of Victorian art. Terms relating to the ‘Gothic’ aesthetic, namely ‘the abject’, ‘the grotesque’, and ‘the uncanny,’ are also explained and examined.

The study seeks to analyze Jeff Vander Meer’s ‘Borne’ (2017) and ‘Dead Astronauts’ (2019) to describe how
the shaping power of monstrosity, weirdness, complexity, and grotesquery in a post-apocalyptic setting can
best be appreciated once one applies certain religious tropes for the analysis of the unfolding of the events in
the novel. In post-apocalyptic settings of the novels mentioned above, Biblical tropes can help connect the
present situation to a past that otherwise exists as a dead and desolate wasteland devoid of any meaning. For
the purpose of formulating the theoretical framework, the study employs Foucault’s and Negri’s ideas of
monstrosity and Bakhtin’s idea of grotesque as its mainstay

A review of The Dark Side of G. K. Chesterton by John C. Tibbetts, Gilbert 25:2 (November/December 2021): 32-33.  This is a review of a book about Chesterton's depiction of the grotesque and even evil in his fiction. It covers also his influence on important figures such as John Dickson Carr and Jorge Luis Borges.

Utilizing an analytic philosophy of the history of anarchism and its relation to subsequent artists and thinkers, from the Verists to the Dadaists and beyond, this work critically investigates the first half of the career of firebrand filmmaker Marco Ferreri and his so-called "physiological cinema." By linking this concept to the anarchist theory of the "propaganda of the deed," we explore the potentiality of film to be anything more than epiphenomenon, a concept with which Ferreri himself struggles. Early career social satire soon evolves into outright provocation, using symbology often to undermine meaning and place, and ultimately we find that Ferreri's task as a filmmaker is not so much with whether or not his film can be yielded like a political weapon in his pursuit of utopia, but whether or not utopia should be pursued by man at all, either in reality or onscreen. Middlebury SCHOOL IN ITALY

The review essay discusses Kajetan Mojsak’s book Groteska w polskiej prozie narracyjnej 1945–1968 (Grotesque in Polish fiction 1945–1968, Warsaw: Instytut Badań Literackich, 2014) against a broader background of Polish and world context and the changes of the grotesque in literature of the last half-century.

LA STRETTA correlazione tra le teste grottesche e gli studi anatomici fu sottolineata inizialmente da Léon Lagrange nel 1862 - «Les prétendues charges de Léonard sont, à proprement parler, des études naturalistes» - e poi da Carlo De Blasis nel 1872 - «Fece migliaia di teste caricate imitate dal vero, la cui scelta mostrava quanto egli fosse osservatore anche delle forme più bizzarre, perché tutte aventi un'espressione, indicando il carattere, le inclinazioni, le passioni che alle volte la capricciosa natura informa in quei ridicoli e quasi storpi corpi». Entrambi recuperano la posizione già chiarita da Vasari per cui i disegni grotteschi fossero in realtà studi naturalistici che permettevano a Leonardo di rappresentare ciò che fino a quel momento era stato occultato ma che faceva parte del mondo. Fu soprattutto Champfleury che nel 1879 colse la complementarietà tra gli studi anatomici e le ricerche fisionomiche: «Peintre de beau, il ne craignit pas de descendre dans l'antre du laid, et c'est pourquoi l'ar-tiste étudia complaisamment l'avilissement de la physionomie humaine, même quand elle n'est pas relevée par un rayon de l'âme. […] Leonard de Vinci doit être innocenté de sa curiosité anatomique de nerfs grimaçants: au public de son temps il ne montrait que le beau, il gardait comme dans un laboratoire secret ces monstruosités, et il a fallu la curiosité des modernes pour les en tire» 2. Per lo studioso queste immagini non sarebbero altro che illustrazioni grafiche della teratologia, ovvero della scienza che studia le anomalie. Infatti, Eugène Müntz nel 1899 classificava i disegni grotteschi come sinceri studi e manifestazioni grafiche dell'interesse scientifico leonardesco per le forme organiche tanto da considerarli «frammenti giganti» del perduto trattato sulla Fisionomica 3. Indiscutibilmente la vecchiaia-o meglio il procedimento dell'invecchiare-interessa Leonardo. Lomazzo lo conferma nel Sesto Ragionamento del Libro dei Sogni, facendo dire a Leonardo «Piacevami sopra ogni altra cosa il far vecchi, «molte teste di Vecchi».

Il libretto de "Il diavolo nel campanile" è una riscrittura del celebre racconto di Edgar Allan Poe. Adriano Lualdi rielaborò i materiali narrativi dell’autore americano, ispirandosi al teatro simultaneo futurista. L’articolo analizza le coordinate estetiche del melodramma, con riferimento alla ‘teoria del grottesco’ di Gino Gori.

The libretto of "Il diavolo nel campanile" is a rewrite of the famous story by Edgar Allan Poe. Adriano Lualdi reworked the narrative materials of the American writer, drawing inspiration from the Futurist simultaneous theater. The short essay analyzes the aesthetic coordinates of the melodramma, with reference to Gino Gori's 'theory of the grotesque'.

The study seeks to analyze Jeff Vander Meer’s ‘Borne’ (2017) and ‘Dead Astronauts’ (2019) to describe how the shaping power of monstrosity, weirdness, complexity, and grotesquery in a post-apocalyptic setting can best be appreciated once one applies certain religious tropes for the analysis of the unfolding of the events in the novel. In post-apocalyptic settings of the novels mentioned above, Biblical tropes can help connect the present situation to a past that otherwise exists as a dead and desolate wasteland devoid of any meaning. For the purpose of formulating the theoretical framework, the study employs Foucault’s and Negri’s ideas of monstrosity and Bakhtin’s idea of grotesque as its mainstay.

This essay considers the function of the grotesque mode in Rawi Hage’s novels Cockroach (2008) and Carnival (2012). The grotesque is a provocative tool with which Hage draws attention to the predicament of the class of poor and disadvantaged new immigrants in contemporary Montreal. He offers a male immigrant’s unsettling perspective on the Canadian multicultural ideal that proclaims the acceptance of ethnic and racial difference.

Formal aspects that generate a grotesque effect include the first-person narrator’s self-image, his disruptive discourse of resistance, his disorienting view of urban reality, and spatial metaphors in the context of the protagonist’s social alienation and marginalisation. Julia Kristeva’s theory of abjection throws light on the sense of fear and repulsion felt towards the urban poor, and on the protagonist’s deliberate identification with vermin in the context of his discourse of resistance.

Even though the underprivileged migrant is able to answer back, Hage’s novels are devoid of true regenerative and liberating power. The literary texts give prominence to the migrant’s isolation and socio-economic outsider position. Nonetheless, the grotesque mode also functions as a powerful tool with which the author depicts the recent immigrant as someone with a resilient and mobile identity.

Die zur Veröffentlichung überarbeitete Fassung meiner Dissertationsschrift erscheint am 6.12.2021 bei Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht in der Reihe "Historische Semantik". Das Inhaltsverzeichnis des Buches können Sie hier einsehen.

The table of contents of my upcoming book (publication date December 6th 2021)

Cross-dressing is a pivotal element in John Donne’s “Elegy 16”, specifically his use of the page-disguise motif. This paper explores its nature and significance within the poem and the broader context of early modern English literature. By carefully reading the elegy in terms of the technical aspects and implications of Donne’s conception of disguise, it is argued that its non-normative translucence chiefly rests on his own personal politics of power and certainty. Therefore, the resultant realistic deviation, along with his concomitant articulation of the grotesque, are claimed to assume a paradigmatic quality in his poetry when bringing into final artistic shape his vast array of experiential raw material. *  * * * Este artículo explora el motivo del travestismo femenino en el poema del poeta metafísico John Donne, en concreto su uso del disfraz de paje dentro del poema y del contexto más amplio de la literatura inglesa (y europea) de finales del s. XVI y principios del XVII. Se sostiene que la traslucidez del disfraz, que John Donne aleja de la opacidad normativa del motivo, descansa sobre su conjunto de directrices personales sobre las estructuras de poder y certidumbre cognitiva.

Considering its primordial significance in his novels, this book chapter explores critically the rhetoric and aesthetics of the grotesque in the light of Charles Dickens's representations of medicine, doctors and a vast array of literal and metaphoric symptoms and illnesses in the wider socio-cultural context of Victorian Britain. ***** Habida cuenta de su relevancia primordial en sus novelas, en este capítulo de libro se exploran críticamente la estética y retórica de lo grotesco a la luz de las representaciones que Charles Dickens realiza de la medicina, los médicos y un amplio abanico de síntomas y enfermedades en sentido literal y metafórico en el contexto sociocultural de Gran Bretaña en la decimonónica época victoriana.

Published in:
Bates, Catherine, Graham Huggan, Milena Marinkova and Jeffrey Orr, eds. Visions of Canada/Visions du Canada. Canadian Studies in Europe/Études Canadiennes en Europe, 6. Brno (Masaryk Press), 2007. 163-174.

In his plays, George F. Walker depicts the social and moral condition of contemporary Canadian society and of the Western world in general, often by using elements of the grotesque. The grotesque, being an aberration from the desirable norms of harmony, balance and proportion, often creates a comic effect while at the same time highlighting the horror behind it, among which violence plays a crucial role in Walker's plays. Two of his plays will be discussed in the following article, Beyond Mozambique and Risk Everything. Beyond Mozambique is a B-movie adaptation in which violence is presented in the context of the mass media and is depicted as a comically exaggerated form of sheer brutality. Contrary to this, Risk Everything appears to be, at least at first glance, a realistic play in which violence is shown as a concomitant of criminality. However, the unfazed way in which the characters react to situations of extreme danger and brutality can only be described as grotesque. Both plays demonstrate the indifference with which violence is accepted as normal by a society whose everyday life is flooded with representations of brutality and inhumanity. This also represents a metatheatrical comment on the audience itself. This raises the question whether grotesque exaggeration is a necessary means of stirring the conscience of people who have grown so used to and become so dulled by representations of violence that they no longer realize it as such. Résumé Dans ses pièces de théâtre, George F. Walker présente la condition sociale et morale de la société canadienne contemporaine et du monde occidental en général en employant souvent des éléments grotesques. Le grotesque, en tant que déviation des normes désirables d'harmonie, d'équilibre et de proportion, crée un effet comique mais en même temps accentue des abus, parmi lesquels, chez Walker, la violence joue un rôle important. Deux pièces de théâtre seront discutées dans l'article suivant, Beyond Mozambique et Risk Everything. Beyond Mozambique est une adaptation du genre du «B-movie» pour la scène. Dans celle-ci, la violence est présentée dans le contexte des mass média et se montre sous forme d'une brutalité comiquement exagérée. Contrairement à Beyond Mozambique, Risk Everything semble être une pièce de théâtre réaliste, dans laquelle la violence est présentée comme un phénomène complice de la criminalité. Pourtant, les réactions indifférentes des personnages face à des situations de péril extrême peuvent être caractérisées de grotesques. Les deux pièces démontrent l'indifférence avec laquelle la violence est acceptée comme naturelle dans une société qui est submergée par de différentes représentations de brutalité et d'inhumanité dans sa vie quotidienne. Cela est aussi un commentaire metathéâtrale qui s'adresse au public et qui soulève la question de savoir si la représentation grotesque de la violence est un moyen incontournable pour secouer les esprits de moins en moins sensibilisés dans une culture médiatisée où parfois la brutalité peut paraître banale.

This paper builds a theoretical bridge between the notions of coloniality and the grotesque. It provides thus an aesthetic interpretative framework for analysing cultural productions in modern contexts from postcolonial approaches. The case study characterises the "esperpento" and its tradition as a particular expression of coloniality in Spanish visual culture, especially from the optics of internal colonialism. It then analyses major recent representations of the writer Cervantes made since 1999 to 2016 by official institutions. It is concluded their use of Cervantes constitutes a clear example of shaping Spanish cultural identity in terms of "esperpento".

The master’s thesis “Mythopoetics in the early plays of Jordan Plevneš” comprises interpretations of the plays of the Macedonian writer Jordan Plevneš, which point out to the mytopoetics system formed in his early creative phase.

In the first part, the pre-apocalyptic predictions in the drama world of Plevneš are presented, as well as his dramaturgical efforts for politically engaged theatre and his poetics in the Balkan theatrical context.

The second part observes the five early plays of Jordan Plevneš: “Erigon”, “Mazedonische Zustände”, “Yu-Antithesis”, “R” and “Free Hunt”, with all of their mythopoetical elements and features. In the analysis of the dramatic pieces, special emphasis is given to the mythopoetic recognition of: the pathos, the double and the shadow, the animalism and the grotesque, the mirror principle, the Hamletian acting, the poetics of dream, the metaphors of birth /death and the symbolism of birds.

The third part consists of insights through which Plevneš’s dramatics, as a continuation of the European postmodernism, enables dialectical modelling of a new, our mythopoetic sphere.

Considering the timeless significance of the dramatic pieces of Jordan Plevneš with open opportunities for staged performances, we hope that this thesis is an appropriate contribution to the study of phenomenology of the new Macedonian dramatic literature.

Penelitian yang berjudul Pandangan Publik Mengenai Seni Grotesko ini dilatarbelakangi oleh keresahan di masyarakat dimana masih sedikit orang yang paham dan mengerti arti dari seni gortesko sehingga penulis termotivasi untuk melakukan penelitian ini. Peneitian ini bertujuan untuk memberikan pemahaman yang lebih jelas mengenai wujud,bentuk dan rupa dari seni gortesko. Masalah utama penelitian ini adalah kurangnya pemahaman dan pengetahuan akan seni grotesko. Data diperoleh dari kajian literatur dan survey kuesioner di lapangan.Data tentang opini dan pendapat masnyarakat umum terhadap seni grotesko tersebut kemudian dianalisis/dibandingkan/diklasifikasikan.  Dari hasil analisis penelitian ini dapat disimpulkan bahwa mayoritas masyarakat belum memahami seni grotesko

Kata kunci : Seni, Grotesko, publik, menjijikan, aneh 


The research is entitled Public View of Art Grotesque is motivated by worry in a society where there are still few people who know and understand the meaning of grotesque art that the writer is motivated to do this research. This study aims to provide a better understanding of the form, shape, and appearance of grotesque art. The main problem of this research is the lack of understanding and knowledge of grotesque art. The data obtained from the literature study and questionnaire survey. The data about ideas and opinions of the common society of grotesque art were analyzed/compared/classified. From the results of this research, analysis can be concluded that the majority of people do not understand the art of grotesque 

Keywords: Art, Grotesque, public, unpleasant, weird

Maîtrise en Études anciennes, concentration littératures anciennes, Maître ès arts (M.A.) Québec, Canada Sous la direction du professeur Alban Baudou Perse débute son œuvre en rejetant systématiquement toutes les sources inspiratrices traditionnelles, dont la fontaine d'Hyppocrène, ce qui lui donne l'occasion de traiter Pégase de « canasson ». Alors que les interprétations d'ensemble réalisées par le passé sont faussées par une appréciation minimisant la construction systématique des « Satires », l'objectif de cette étude est de démontrer que leur thème unificateur est la critique de la production / transmission et de la consommation de la littérature à l'époque néronienne. Dans le premier chapitre, en démontrant l'omniprésence des processus d'imitation et d'émulation dans le texte, puis en mettant au jour leur complexité et leur richesse sémantique, nous exposons la métatextualité des « Satires », confirmant notre hypothèse de départ. L’analyse des « Satires » dans le cadre théorique du grotesque bakhtinien conduit dans un deuxième temps à révéler que le vice et la vertu y sont appariés respectivement à la mauvaise et à la bonne littérature et que Perse vise à détruire la première grâce à la philosophie. Par l'analyse de ce message subversif sous-jacent, nous expliquons quels sont les effets négatifs de la mauvaise littérature et les façons dont il faut s'y prendre pour la contrer. Dans le troisième chapitre enfin, grâce aux énoncés programmatiques et à diverses analyses stylistiques, nous donnons à connaître la cible de Perse: les poètes urbains philhellènes, cancres littéraires avides et présomptueux. Le style de Perse, en revanche, se distingue par son audace, son aspect « mordax », sa modestie et sa romanité issue du « mos maiorum ». Grâce à notre étude, la cohérence des « Satires », trop souvent tenues pour composites, apparaît nettement.

The aim of this article is to explicate relationships between the concepts of beauty, ugliness and grotesque as well as the category of a grotesque body in the poetry of Jan Andrzej Morsztyn. The author indicates the sources of grotesque performances, ways of their poetic implementation, and attempts to contextualize Morsztyn’s grotesque images in the literary tradition. Wolfgang Kayser’, Michail Bachtin’s and Mieczysław Wallis’s studies constitute a theoretical background of the paper.

Lo grotesco, lo monstruoso, lo siniestro y lo abyecto resultan conceptos imprescindibles en el pensamiento contemporáneo. Representan lo extraño, lo diferente, lo inquietante, lo repulsivo; todo aquello que se escapa de la norma y de lo establecido.
El objetivo de esta comunicación es realizar una reflexión acerca de cómo las categorías anteriores, hermanadas entre sí, se han plasmado en la práctica pictórica de diferentes periodos históricos y culturales. Para ello analizaremos la obra de diversos artistas que han incorporado estos conceptos en su trabajo. La revisión comienza con el Bosco, cuyas imágenes han quedado grabadas en nuestro inconsciente colectivo, y termina en la actualidad con la pintura de Paula Rego.
Sus obras resultan grotescas, siniestras o monstruosas bien por la temática que abordan o por su composición, bien por su factura o ejecución. La monstruosidad o la abyección, lo siniestro o lo grotesco pueden aparecer representadas (mediante imágenes o palabras) o puede ser percibidas mediante las sensaciones que provocan. Sin embargo, estas categorías solo son y existen construidas a través de la mirada ajena: es a través del espectador como cobran sentido.
Nos recuerdan su significado ambivalente, porque producen rechazo y repulsión, pero a la vez no podemos evitar identificarnos con las obras o experimentar deseo hacia ellas.

Physiognomics (namely ‘knowledge of nature’) has received a wealth of scholarly attention over the centuries and has aroused the interest of historians, philosophers, artists, and scientists. Variously acknowledged as an art or questioned as a pseudo-science, physiognomics has developed connections with medicine, magic, art and divination (among others) in the attempt of assessing the “invisible inside” from the “visible outside”, both of animate and inanimate beings. This very phenomenon continues nonetheless to compel fruitful discussion within the various disciplines concerned with physiognomics and, for example, the concept of mimesis. Especially the relationship between outer appearance and inner character, and its representation and perception in the visual arts and literature, has intersected with aesthetic and ethical issues, such as realism or illusionism, but also stereotyping and religious or political satire.

This panel aims to explore physiognomics in its cross-disciplinary connections with visual and literary sources in the period ca. 1300-1700. We welcome multidisciplinary proposals for twenty-minute papers. Topics of interest include:

To what extent artists and scientists engaged with physiognomics theories
Physiognomic reading applied to sculpture and illustrated treatises of architecture
Astrological and zodiacal physiognomy in connection with planetary influence on human body
Use of medicinal plants resembling human limbs to heal specific parts of the body (e.g. Giambattista Della Porta's plant physiognomy)
To what extent "ritratti caricati" and grotesque are rooted in physiognomics theories
The body’s outward aspect and racial and sexual stereotyping
Physiognomics and caricature, in particular visual political satire

Please send an abstract (150-word maximum), a paper title (15-word maximum), 3-5 keywords, academic affiliation (if appropriate), PhD completion date (if appropriate), and a brief curriculum vitae (300-word) to Carlo Avilio (carloavilio@gmail.com) and Stefano Colombo (s.colombo.1@warwick.ac.uk) by July 20, 2019.

NB: Extrait seulement / Extract only : page 1

This paper focuses on the rhetoric of the monstrous in a selection of Francophone African fictional texts related to events of war in contemporary
Sub-Saharan Africa. Drawing in particular on the theory of the grotesque, it explores the manifestations of the monstrous through the spectacular and subversive representation of the novels' characters. The analysis of hideous, hybrid, animalized, distorted, and broken bodies aims at unveiling a poetics of alienation, loss, and death-notions that powerfully reflect the horror and the absurdity of war.

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The paper analyses the links between the literary grotesque and first-person narration. Except drama, it is the first-person fiction that affords most room for the grotesque. There are several reasons for such a close alliance between the two. The grotesque thrives on stylistic contrasts, parody, and other effects of this kind, which correspond with first-person narration's tendency to represent pragmatically engaged speech produced by a specific subject in a particular communicative situation. The grotesque as a rule needs a personalized point of view as a focus of observations and evaluations of its strangely distorted reality. In the first-person fiction this point of view is located in the consciousness of the narrating character. If the individualized narrator him/herself is invested with some highly odd characteristics, the grotesque reality around him/her can be understood as a projection of his/her peculiar, offbeat mindset or mental condition. Quite often he/she is the victim of some kind of exclusion (s/he may be, for example, a person suffering from an illness, an invalid, a madman, or a misanthrope) and his/her speech abounds in self-parodying linguistic clichés, stereotypes and ideological mantras. Moreover, grotesque third-person narratives tend to assimilate the style of first-person grotesque. The way of speaking of the their narrators or other characters often is highly personalized, taking the form of extended monologues or dialogues (in the latter case the linguistic contrast between the partners of the communicative exchange is usually matched by a character contrast, which can by typified by the juxtaposition of Don Quixote and Sancho Pansa). That being said, it is the first-person narrative that allows the literary grotesque to display all its techniques and appear at its best.