| This dissertation explores a history of the grotesque and its meaning in art and literature along with those of its related term, the arabesque, since their co-existence, specifically in literature, is later treated by a well-known nineteenth-century American writer in Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. Theories or views of the grotesque (used in literature), both in Europe and America, belong to twelve theorists of different eras, ranging from the sixteenth century to the present period, especially Modernism (approximately from 1910 to 1945)--Rabelais, Hegel, Scott, Wright, Hugo, Symonds, Ruskin, Santayana, Kayser, Bakhtin, (William Van) O'Connor, and Spiegel.;As a matter of fact, American grotesque is seriously studied in Modernism--Southern grotesque writers such as Faulkner, McCullers, and O'Connor give prominence to Southern literature. I examine extensively Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying; McCullers' The Ballad of the Sad Cafe; and O'Connor's short stories--"A Good Man Is Hard to Find," "Good Country People," "The Lame Shall Enter First," and "Parker's Back" to demonstrate that these works portray grotesque characterization and episodes.;As for non-Southern grotesque writers, Anderson heads the list. A few of his short stories in both collections--Winesburg, Ohio and The Triumph of the Egg are studied as well as West's Reflections of a Golden Eye and The Day of the Locust and Steinbeck's grotesque novel Of Mice and Men and his short story "The Snake.".;My last chapter reinforces my thesis that the grotesque is not despised, feared, or mistrusted by other characters anymore because modernist writers, with pity and compassion for their grotesque creations, have shown that these social aberrations are, in fact, ordinary and natural characters--they are finally accepted by "normal" observers.;My study examines the grotesque in American literature, as treated by both nineteenth-century writers--Irving, Poe, Hawthorne, and, significantly, by modernist writers--Anderson, West, and Steinbeck in Northern (or non-Southern) literature; Faulkner, McCullers, and (Flannery) O'Connor in Southern literature. I survey several novels and short stories of these American writers for their grotesqueries in characterization and episodes. The grotesque, as treated by these earlier American writers is often despised, feared, or mistrusted by other characters, but is the opposite in modernist fiction. |
