Grotesque body

The grotesque body is a concept, or literary trope, put forward by Russian literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin in his study of Francois Rabelais' work. Through the use of the grotesque body in his novels, Rabelais related political conflicts to human physiology. In this way, Rabelais used the concept as "a figure of unruly biological and social exchange".^[1]

It is by means of this information that Bakhtin pinpoints two important subtexts: the first is carnival (carnivalesque) which Bakhtin describes as a social institution, and the second is grotesque realism (grotesque body) which is defined as a literary mode. Thus, in Rabelais and His World Bakhtin studies the interaction between the social and the literary, as well as the meaning of the body.^[2].

Italian satirist Daniele Luttazzi explained: "satire exhibits the grotesque body, which is dominated by the primary needs (eating, drinking, defecating, urinating, sex) to celebrate the victory of life: the social and the corporeal are joyfully joint in something indivisible, universal and beneficial".^[3]

Bakhtin explained how the grotesque body is a celebration of the cycle of life: the grotesque body is a comic figure of profound ambivalence: its positive meaning is linked to birth and renewal and its negative meaning is linked to death and decay.^[4] In Rabelais' epoch (1500-1800) "it was appropriate to ridicule the king and clergy, to use dung and urine to degrade; this was not to just mock, it was to unleash what Bakhtin saw as the people’s power, to renew and regenerate the entire social system. It was the power of the people’s restive-carnival, a way to turn the official spectacle inside-out and upside down, just for a while; long enough to make an impression on the participating official stratum. With the advent of modernity (science, technology, industrial revolution), the mechanistic overtook the organic, and the officialdom no longer came to join in festive-carnival. The bodily lower stratum of humor dualized from the upper stratum."^[5]

References

^ "Perforations: Grotesque Corpus". Retrieved 2008-05-27.
^ Clark, Katerina and Michael Holquist 297-299, Mikhail Bakhtin. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984.
^ "Se Dio avesse voluto che credessimo in lui, sarebbe esistito (in Italian)". Retrieved 2008-05-27.
^ "Brazen Brides Grotesque Daughters Treacherous Mothers by Felicity Collins (Bakhtin, 308-317)". Retrieved 2008-05-28.
^ Boje, David M. [1] (2004). "Grotesque Method" (PDF). Proceedings of First International Co-sponsored Conference, Research methods Division, Academy of Management: Crossing Frontiers in Quantitative and Qualitative Research methods. 2: 1085–1114. {{cite journal}}: |first= has generic name (help); External link in |first= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

Bibliography

Clark, Katerina, and Michael Holquist. Mikhail Bakhtin. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984.
Bakhtin, Mikhail. Rabelais and His World [1941]. Trans. Hélène Iswolsky. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993.
The series in the original French is entitled La Vie de Gargantua et de Pantagruel. Available English translations include The Complete Works of François Rabelais by Donald M. Frame and Five Books of the Lives, Heroic Deeds and Sayings of Gargantua and Pantagruel, translated by Sir Thomas Urquhart and Pierre Antoine Motteux.
Se Dio avesse voluto che credessimo in lui, sarebbe esistito. Daniele Luttazzi, 15 november 2006 [2]
Miller, Paul Allen [3] (1998). "The Bodily Grotesque in Roman Satire: Images of Sterility". Arethusa. 31 (3): 257–283. doi:10.1353/are.1998.0017. {{cite journal}}: External link in |first= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) [4]
Christenson, David [5] (2001). "Grotesque Realism in Plautus' "Amphitruo"". The Classical Journal. 96 (3): 243–260. {{cite journal}}: External link in |first= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
Boje, David M. [6] (2004). "Grotesque Method" (PDF). Proceedings of First International Co-sponsored Conference, Research methods Division, Academy of Management: Crossing Frontiers in Quantitative and Qualitative Research methods. 2: 1085–1114. {{cite journal}}: |first= has generic name (help); External link in |first= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
Koepping, Klaus-Peter [7] (1985). "Absurdity and Hidden Truth: Cunning Intelligence and Grotesque Body Images as Manifestations of the Trickster". History of Religions. 24 (3): 191–214. doi:10.1086/462997. {{cite journal}}: |first= has generic name (help); External link in |first= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
Fecal Matters in Early Modern Literature and Art: Studies in Scatology. J Persels, R Ganim - 2004 [8] p. xiv

External links

The Grotesque Corpus
The Open and Closed Body
Carnival, Carnivalesque and the Grotesque Body Notes from Sue Vice, Introducing Bakhtin (Manchester University Press, 1997), ch. 4.
Grotesque Daughters
Rabelais's Carnival
Wounding Tastes Through Wounded Bodies

[1] "Perforations: Grotesque Corpus". Retrieved 2008-05-27.

[2] Clark, Katerina and Michael Holquist 297-299, Mikhail Bakhtin. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984.

[3] "Se Dio avesse voluto che credessimo in lui, sarebbe esistito (in Italian)". Retrieved 2008-05-27.

[4] "Brazen Brides Grotesque Daughters Treacherous Mothers by Felicity Collins (Bakhtin, 308-317)". Retrieved 2008-05-28.

[5] Boje, David M. [1] (2004). "Grotesque Method" (PDF). Proceedings of First International Co-sponsored Conference, Research methods Division, Academy of Management: Crossing Frontiers in Quantitative and Qualitative Research methods. 2: 1085–1114. {{cite journal}}: |first= has generic name (help); External link in |first= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

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