A Study Of Psychological Grotesques In Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio

Sherwood Anderson, a peculiar writer in modern American literary history, earns a reputation as a "Mentor of Modern American Writers" because of his significant influence on William Faulkner and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Sensitive to drastic social changes brought about with Industrialization, Anderson engages himself in exploring the alienation of modern men and the distortion of humanity. In Winesburg, Ohio, his most influential masterpiece, Anderson successfully creates, with the town of Winesburg as its setting, a group of grotesques in the drastically changing time.With the study of Anderson in the tradition of the grotesque and with meticulous analyses of the images of the grotesques in Winesburg, Ohio, this thesis attempts to probe into Anderson’s theory of psychological grotesques and its major shapers so as to reveal the great significance and far-reaching influence of Anderson’s grotesque art. Unlike his predecessors, Anderson endows the traditional theory of the grotesque with new connotation-transcending fantastic or supernatural phenomena and permeating the psychological realm with alienation and isolation as its major features. As a representative of "a crystallization of the modern grotesque," Winesburg, Ohio aims to portray a group of alienated and isolated "psychological grotesques" in indifferent or even hostile surroundings, who are so absorbed in seeking their own "truth" that they feel lost and lose the ability of experiencing other lives and alienate themselves from the external world.This thesis consists of three parts:introduction, four chapters and conclusion. Chapter One first analyzes how Sherwood inherits and develops the grotesque theory and then defines Anderson’s "psychological grotesques":those who embrace their own "truths" and attempt to live by them result in distorted mentality. Greatly influenced by expressionism, Anderson externalizes the twisted psychology of the grotesques in the forms of grotesque appearance and language action, hence two different kinds of psychological grotesques. Chapter Two focuses on the first group of psychological grotesques with grotesque appearance. In the course of pursuing their own truths like "creation,""permanent truth,""mother-love" and "receptivity," these psychological grotesques suffer not only failure but also the twist of their psychology: extreme self-doubt, alienation, and paranoia, which are vividly shown in forms of grotesque hands, knuckles, face or body. Chapter Three analyzes the second group of psychological grotesques with grotesque language action. When they seek for truths like "dream,""commonness,""identity" and "success," they suffer helpless inarticulateness, senseless repetition, meaningless verbal outflow and inhibited language faculty, which are externalized symptoms of their twisted psychology. Chapter Four focuses on the enduring significance of Anderson’s psychological grotesques. With its integration of the grotesque and modernist theme, the writing of Sherwood Anderson’s psychological grotesques influences the later American writers’literary creation of the grotesque especially in combining reality with Gothicism, endowing enduring influence on literature. Moreover,"ugliness" in aesthetics is manifested through grotesque appearance and language action which externalize alienation, isolation, anxiety and unconsciousness of "psychological grotesques," which deepens distortion and inner reality of humanity and plays a significant role in modern aesthetics.In Winesburg, Ohio, Anderson depicts townspeople’s life and psychology under social stress, extends his compassion to them and excavates their spiritual turmoil. Anderson’s theory and images of psychological grotesques win him an important position in the grotesque literature.