The grotesque as a literary issue

1 Introduction

The Romantic period (eighteenth century) witnessed a change in people’s worldview and the development of a new model of the world, where the art of the new society was established as a contrast to that of antiquity. It was then that the opposition between classical and romantic art emerged, giving rise to the phenomenon of the grotesque, which is one of the most complex and multifaceted phenomena in art. It has been recognized since the time of the ancient myths, but its semantics and features have changed over the centuries. This has provided various approaches to explaining the phenomenon. From the standpoint of the conventional approach, the grotesque is a system of artistic forms that deviate from or are opposed to the ideal norm and are designed to expose inconsistencies in the subjects and characters of literature (Shlapak 2019). There is frequently a comparison of features of the comic (as an aesthetic category) and the grotesque, where elements of similarity can be identified. This aesthetic category is considered to be based on the contrast between the ugly and the beautiful, the insignificant and the elevated, the meaningless and the prudent (Beskemer et al. 2021). The interrelation of these aspects is also evident in the grotesque. In defining the structure of this type of imagery, there is a harmony of the comic and the tragic (Mann 1996). The grotesque can cover the problem with various emotional overtones, according to the context of perception.

The grotesque as a literary concept has quite frequently attracted the attention of researchers and scholars. It has been defined as a style in art and literature where readers see two contradictory feelings at the same time. Nowadays, the concept describes a distorted and strange world for contemporary people, where everything they know becomes scary and has a distorted perspective. The main features have been identified as dissonance, extremism, exaggeration, the abnormal, the ridiculous, and the frightening (Alireza et al. 2019). The grotesque can also be described ambivalent, which involves the use of diverse objects. Most researchers tend to believe that this phenomenon is a mental phenomenon, where contrasting objects and characters are artificially or forcibly integrated (Dormidonova 2008). Furthermore, the relationship between genre and grotesque texts is clarified, which deduces three main principles of this phenomenon: interrelation, framing, and conflict. Antagonism is frequently inappropriate in genre and grotesque texts (Spadaro 2019).

It is essential to establish an awareness of this phenomenon within the theoretical and historical literature by examining the approaches to this issue; to present the originality of the creative form; to examine the emergence and development of the grotesque, tracing its origins; to define forms of the grotesque and its subject; to examine the function and content of this concept; to diagnose the grounds on which the very tendency of the grotesque image is established; to analyze and clarify the existence of grotesque codes; and to verify the use of this phenomenon in literature.

Currently, the phenomenon of the grotesque in literature is insufficiently studied in its historical development and theoretical sense. The American researcher of the grotesque, Francis Connelly, defines the primary role of the grotesque, which is identified in harmony between human beings and nature, as the fusion of the beautiful and the terrible. The researcher states that the imagination of the individual presents the most unthinkable forms and methods of understanding the world and its aspects (Connelly 2012). Consequently, there is now a trend towards simplistic approaches to the study of the grotesque, as many people relate it to something comical and caricatured. It is essential for understanding the role of the grotesque in literature to study and analyze its history and the artistic and theoretical changes it has undergone over the centuries. The above-mentioned circumstances explain the urgency of the research. It will help to comprehend in a new way the nature and essence of the grotesque image, to demonstrate the depth and diversity of its content, its universality, and the breadth of its uses. The purpose of the study is to examine the features of the grotesque as a fundamental aesthetic category of creativity.

2 Materials and methods

The following methods were used during the research: theoretical methods, deduction and induction, classification method, generalization method, comparison method, method of diagnostic, and methods of graphic representation. Theoretical methods were used to analyze the features of the grotesque as a fundamental aesthetic category of art as well as to analyze the methodological literature. Deduction and induction were helpful in systematizing the research results. With the help of the classification method, approaches were assigned to the concept of the grotesque to specific groups based on common features or a single indicator. Generalization method was useful for establishing common features of different approaches. The method of comparison helps approaches to the theoretical understanding of this phenomenon and considering it in historical development comparing and systematizing studies of the problem. Method of diagnostic was used to study of writers’ works, research findings, collecting and grouping empirical facts, as well as methods of graphic representation were used to visualize the results in the table.

The authors’ research was based on a study of Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories, analyzing the aesthetics of the grotesque in his works and identifying the main components. As part of this study, the works of Poe were chosen because he is one of the most prominent representatives of the current of romanticism and Gothic literature.

The study of the problem was implemented in three phases:

1. In the first stage, theoretical collection and analysis of existing approaches in the literature, linguistics, aesthetics, art theory, and cultural studies concerning the grotesque, its functions and features were conducted; works devoted to this phenomenon and its features and approaches to the study were studied; data from books, articles, monographs, conferences, dissertations, which deeply and comprehensively exposed forms of grotesque in texts and aspects of its development were examined; the structure and functions of this phenomenon were identified; the results of studies that have provided theoretical interest and diverse interpretations of this cultural phenomenon were studied; the aesthetics of the grotesque and its components in the literature of Poe were identified; the development of this phenomenon, its synthetic character and terminological ambiguity, the periods of its development based on the findings of studies by scholars were shown; the problem, purpose, methods, and research methods of this problem were identified, and a diagnostic study plan was designed.

2. The second stage involved the analysis of Poe’s works and short stories themselves and clarified aspects of the grotesque in his work; examined the author’s aesthetic and the combination of contradiction and absurdity in literature; substantiated the components and structural components of the grotesque aesthetic (compulsive design, tactile space, the emotional reader); generalized theoretical approaches to the study of the grotesque problem were identified; the forms of its manifestation in works were demonstrated; the results of the analysis were disclosed, which helped to discover the specificity of this aesthetic category; approaches to the study of the grotesque concept and methods of its introduction into literature were presented and disclosed; the conclusions obtained during the research work were systematized.

3. The third stage involved the systematization and classification of the material obtained during the work of analyzing and examining the scientific and theoretical work of scientists; the theoretical and practical conclusions and results of the study were substantiated; a comparative analysis of studies and approaches designed to study the problem in question were provided; the main experiments of scholars who have examined the problem of the grotesque in linguistics, literature, and cultural studies were summarized; the results of the analysis and diagnosis of Poe’s work were summarized and logically outlined; the results obtained were classified and presented in tabular form. The authors also identify the main approaches to the study of this type of imagery and the forms that express the comic and satirical grotesque in the text.

3 Results and discussion

The grotesque is a type of artistic imagery widespread in the twentieth century, and its main features are a specific combination of the fantastic and the real, the beautiful and the tragic, the life-like and the feigned. This phenomenon frequently manifests itself in satirical forms, where the author establishes a specific anomalous world where rationality and irrationality are the same (Mukhtarova 2021). The grotesque frequently overlaps with satire (works by Jonathan Swift, Mikhail Bulgakov). The grotesque aesthetic can also be observed in the work of Franz Kafka, Bertolt Brecht, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Witold Gombrowicz, etc. The phenomenon of grotesque literature is defined not simply by exaggeration, but by the establishment of something new, strange, false, and unnatural. Significant features of this phenomenon are the artificiality, the suddenness of events, and the use of the absurd and fantastic. It is precisely these features that constitute the essence of the phenomenon under study by the authors. The term “grotesque” originates from the name of the ornaments produced at the end of the fifteent century by Raphael and his pupils when excavating the grottoes. There was an interesting and strange combination of plants, animals, and people in these drawings. The notion of the grotesque is frequently explained as an alienated world that is established by a force beyond human control. However, the grotesque is not always irrational, and it can also be a projection of a conscious and logical idea. In addition, false or misleading forms may be used in the works, indicating the gradual absorption of reality. The main feature of this phenomenon is the ability to see forms of reality in their way when there is a conscious deviation from the norm in the depiction of grace and surprise, tragedy and comedy, reality and fantasy. In addition, parodies, caricatures, and dark subjects are frequent features. The authors is not particularly concerned with phenomena, processes and situations, but devotes a lot of attention to the objects of reality. Also specific to grotesque literature is the absence of ambiguous language and the presence of various semantic paradigms (duality and the emergence of mutually exclusive phenomena). In some cases, authors may use artistic forms that establish an atmosphere of fear, tragedy, misunderstanding, and surprise. One of the most significant features of the grotesque is the manifestation of materiality, which frequently symbolizes fertility, excessive growth, and abundance (Kadylov 2016).

The existence of the satirical grotesque is notable, which is an artistic device and a type of comic that attempts to deride processes or phenomena that are denied or criticized in a particularly acute form using amplification and exaggerated expression (Yarovikova et al. 2021). It can be concluded that the grotesque can rearrange the ordinary and planes of perception by combining reality and fantasy and using the effect of surprise. This phenomenon can be a means of typification, an element of style in a text, and an aspect of detail and plot (Konovalov 2020).

This experiment involved the following steps: studying the work of Poe; defining the functions and features of the grotesque in literature; studying approaches to the notion of this phenomenon; defining elements of the grotesque aesthetic in his work; demonstrating the processing of research results in a table; justifying the main approaches to defining the grotesque phenomenon and presenting forms of its creation. The study identified the aesthetic influence of Edgar Allan Poe and his place in the Gothic tradition. The authors have identified and outlined three elements of grotesque culture based on an analysis of the writer’s work. The study explores grotesque images, their meanings and how they establish intellectual purposes.

Although much has been written about the significance of Poe’s work, the authors have decided to focus primarily on the grotesque in his fiction. Poe’s stories combine the beautiful and the sublime, without sublimating one category to the other. This complicated combination of categories provides uncertainty to the stories. The writer frequently uses scenes of murder, madness, and chaos, which undermines rationality. Poe is interested in showing a world that penetrates paradox. The author’s short stories contain many images of contradictions. For example, in the story “The Angel of the Odd,” the main character is a member of the elite, although he is not very successful (Poe 1970). However, his compositions are full of grotesque aesthetics.

The author used three elements that established his grotesque aesthetic: the emotional reader, the haunting design, and the tactile space (Table 1). Furthermore, Poe establishes a narrative world that is frozen between order and chaos, the beautiful and the sublime. We can also notice a combination of the comic and the horrific in “The Premature Burial,” and in “The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether” attention is centered on the style, the subject matter, and the image of the author (Poe 1970). The work itself is very dynamic, and there is no unnecessary detail, so there is a mysterious atmosphere.

The grotesque was a defining feature of Edgar Poe’s prose, as his writing was defined by the combination of the horrific and the comic. Stories about something horrible and tragic often ended with a comic situation, which helped remove the unpleasant feeling after reading it. Edgar Allan Poe was developing a kind of parody of literary templates.

Using an emotional reader, haunting design, and tactile space, Poe constructed the grotesque so that the reader would be plunged into a sense of indecision as it casts doubt on his idea of stability. Thus, Poe’s grotesque is an aesthetic with a degree of uncertainty, where space destroys beauty and death testifies to life on a transcendent level.

Based on an analysis of theoretical and scientific works on the subject, the main approaches to the definition of the concept were identified. Many researchers have tried to define the essence of the grotesque, thus it is necessary to identify the main aspects:

1. the grotesque is a technique or type of artistic design with a clear structure and field of operation;

2. the grotesque as an aesthetic category or art form that is full of many meanings and contains a mystical idea. This approach emerged in the eighteenth century, as reflected in the works of German researchers, writers, and philosophers;

3. a description of the grotesque world in art, its features and forms, which gives the works a specific nature and does not provide a clear definition of the concept;

4. an emphasis on the psychological component of the reader or author (Kozlova 2000).

Grotesque literature is becoming deeper, altered, and modified. The phenomenon itself has a complicated structure, so there are many ways in which it manifests itself in the semantic area of the text. The basic forms and techniques of using the grotesque are wordplay, the presence of phantasm and comedy, and carnivalesque, which are frequently used by writers to establish particular images. Among the linguistic devices that establish a grotesque atmosphere in texts, the most frequent stylistic figures are an oxymoron, antithesis, and catachresis. These tropes establish an unusual and specific representation of the ordinary, where there are contrasts and combinations of contradictions. The technique of the grotesque image brings to the forefront a “mirroring” and distortion of reality (Menovshchikova 2012). Thus, the reader sees the world through the prism of the comic, the fantastic, the absurd, which is expressed in particular grotesque forms.

One type of comic technique in literature and art is grotesque, which combines contrasting forms of the terrible and the beautiful, the sublime and the inferior. A writer can establish his specific, abnormal, and strange world in which the real and the unreal are produced together. The grotesque itself consists of exaggerating and caricatured distorting of the world by reversing the qualities of people. Dubenkov and Korzhovskaya (2015) assume that the external implausibility and fantasy conceal a profound generalization of significant aspects of life, where the phenomenon of the grotesque itself is two-way. Furthermore, the grotesque is always a deviation from the norm, involving caricature, exaggeration, comedy, and satire. The tendency towards exaggeration makes the grotesque similar to hyperbole, the essence of which consists in deliberate exaggeration, exaggeration of the qualities of characters or phenomena in a text. This feature becomes the hallmark of a literary work. In different eras, the concept has been interpreted in terms of mythology, Christianity, or it has been placed alongside popular culture. In the Realism era, the grotesque was converted into a specific way of analyzing reality in depth.

According to Blinova (2017), the main features of the grotesque are an unreal basis, unusual and specific forms; a combination of oppositional and contrasting qualities in one subject (comic with tragic, real with fantastic); a denial of literary norms and the birth of parody, burlesque; and stylistic heterogeneity, where high language is combined with uncultured language. The grotesque establishes an unnatural, bizarre, strange world. It is notable that the grotesque principle of depiction can be developed at various levels of the artistic system of work, including the plot, composition, system of characters and images, which establishes the writer’s style.

It is interesting to examine the term “grotesque” in terms of its historical development. It is indicated that it was borrowed from discussions of Roman art and was studied in early modern England. Many definitions of the term for contemporary readers were also proposed, explaining its flexibility and mobility. There is no clear classification on this issue. The grotesque has been a current phenomenon in many linguistic cultures and has been influenced by the cultural, political, and artistic spheres of life. The study itself indicates the main collections and source collections through which readers can explore the unique aspects of the grotesque in Early Modern England (Semler 2018).

Arens and Ford (2020) also explored a new era of discursive practices that sought to understand the role of the imagination in the actions of power in contemporary Africa, which showed an attitude towards the aesthetic of the grotesque, which was a key element of the African political imagination. The authors emphasie the need for a broader vision of the grotesque that diverges between Africa and the West, as part of a much deeper power.

Many researchers identify the forms and artistic functions of the grotesque based on an analysis of texts. It has been proven that the grotesque is not just an artistic technique, but a kind of artistic thinking that is based on the writer’s worldview. The study identified the essence of this phenomenon as a powerful satirical device that acts as a genre-forming tool (Yarovikova et al. 2021). The grotesque is often based on an unexpected and paradoxical combination of opposites, and its realization occurs at the verbal level. A detailed analysis of ironic and grotesque connotations based on epithets, oxymoronic combinations, etc., is also given. Yarovikova et al. (2021) also explain how the grotesque is realized in a system of images and demonstrates the connection between this phenomenon and exaggeration. The research has integrity, a logical internal structure, and an organic combination of theoretical material and concrete analysis of works. This work will be in demand by researchers and translators who study and examine the history of literature and aspects of proper translation. Its materials may be relevant and important for dictionaries and reference books on literary theory, because the authors present contemporary approaches to the study of the grotesque. It is also important and relevant to the Yarovikova et al. (2021) to highlight the main structural elements of the grotesque, which include the use of heterogeneous elements and the conflict between them, resulting in the deformation of real relations; the presence of the comic and the ridiculous as a result of contrasts; disharmony and exaggeration; and alienation from reality. Also interesting is the use of satirical irony and satirical grotesque, which caricatures phenomena and mocks the essence of the phenomenon in general. Yarovikova et al. (2021) identify the humorous grotesque, which criticizes particular aspects of the phenomenon (Konovalov 2020).

There was also an experiment that considered the misapplication of fiction, which can be described as grotesque. In such grotesque works, the reader discovers that the writer has brought to life some experience that one might experience but is not used to observing every day or has never experienced in their ordinary lives. The connections one would expect in conventional realism can be found there, but the characters have internal consistency. Their fictional qualities vary from typical social patterns and contain mysteries and surprises. Grotesque is defined as a true anti-bourgeois style, but readers often associate it with a sentimental aspect. There was a lot of grotesque literature in nineteenth-century American literature that spread from abroad. The characters in such works may be comical, but at the same time, they carry an invisible burden (O’Connor 1960).

It becomes interesting to analyze the specific historical and grotesque fantasy imagery in the novel and to explore the grotesque-satirical figures and images that exist in the text. The grotesque is one of the main artistic techniques in the creative arsenal of writers. The study of Bulgakov’s “grotesque” identified that the writer uses various Romanticism traditions and deliberately changes all the images and situations that are ordinary. There is also the addition of parody, and the grotesque removes the negative. The writer deliberately changes all the images, phenomena, and situations that were established as ordinary in Romanticism. He also adds parody to this. The irony and the grotesque in the novel “The Master and Margarita” is shown at the moment when the dark forces and reality collide (O’Connor 1960). It is hard for the reader to determine the genre of the work because of the various artistic resources. Thus, the grotesque helps to see all the faults and sins of humanity and to perceive them less adversely.

Texts can also be used to study this phenomenon, which is why Helga Kress (2019) uses “The Saga of the Sworn Brothers” as the basis for understanding the genre. It is a comic story that parodies a heroic ideal. This aspect is what places it within the genre of carnival and the grotesque, a medieval culture of laughter. The saga contains much irony and grotesque bodily images that represent the carnivalesque culture of a medieval society or “grotesque realism.” These images are a parody of heroes and heroic ideals in hierarchical and patriarchal societies. Carnival culture combines medieval plays and festivals and is defined by grotesque. The purpose of this phenomenon is to belittle or deconstruct all that is complicated or sublime, spiritual or abstract and make it material and ordinary. The essence of the grotesque is laughter, namely, its liberating form, which helps one realize that human beings have bodies, can eat and sleep, get sick, etc. The grotesque frequently demonstrates that everyone dies, no matter how high up in society they are. The grotesque and satirical images often show great interest in body parts and body functions: eating, drinking, and digesting. All kinds of suffering and pain become essential. Characters are often compared to animals. Thus, a connection was found between the grotesque realism of “The Saga of the Sworn Brothers” and its social satire. The saga became not only a parody of heroes and heroic ideals, but also a commentary on a hierarchical and patriarchal society.

Heinritz (2021) has paid attention to the aspect of the grotesque in novels, where this type of literary imagery has become a central means of representing artefacts. Through grotesque imagery, there is a chaotic play with signs and meaning, or the ambivalence of the underlying narratives is indicated. The grotesque disrupts dichotomous symbolic orders and has a destabilizing effect on semantic structures. In this way, it can become a motive for creativity. The concept can be considered based on the following approaches: (1) “carnivalization,” where violations of moral conventions of a behavioral order are represented; and (2) absurdity, which spoils meaning in general. In the late socialist era, writers frequently turned to the grotesque to portray experiences of absurdity and schizophrenia in state socialist societies. In post-socialist literature, grotesque functions have been used as a means of changing meanings to re-establish the world based on the creative potential of this phenomenon in experimental literary techniques.

In addition, grotesque poetics and its codes, which can appear at all levels of the artistic system in literature – in the imaging system, in conflict and composition, in the text itself, in aspects of genre instability and the type of character – have been explored. The grotesque codes help us to make sense of the human world, existence, and culture. Thus, the phenomenon of the grotesque becomes a category of comparative poetics and indicates a universal principle of depicting reality and a specific form of artistic worldview. The grotesque codes in the structure of the work identify the following functions: (1) realizing the parody of the world; (2) establishing parallels and relationships between incompatible realities; (3) permeating absurdity and chaos, which brings instability; (4) establishing a particular heterogeneous reality; and (5) constructing an image of the subject at the border between various consciousnesses (Krause 2021).

The grotesque has manifested itself throughout historical and cultural eras, starting in antiquity. During the antique period, it was closely connected to myths and people’s pagan worldview. During the Middle Ages to Christianity and during the Renaissance (fifteenth to seventeenth centuries) it was connected to popular comedy. Grotesque imagery was not widespread during Classicism and was only used in “low” genres. However, during the Enlightenment era, it was amenable to rationalist criticism and went on to the Romantic era, where it lost its universality and comprehensive significance. The grotesque has become tragic and lonely. With the realists, it became a model of social and psychological typification. The twentieth century has seen a renaissance in which two lines of development can be identified. The first line is the modernist grotesque and the second is the realist one. Nowadays, as modern grotesque researchers, artists, and writers argue, an increasing number of grotesque forms are being used to depict the world and its fullness in depth. Thus, having analyzed the transformation of this phenomenon throughout human history, it can be concluded that grotesque forms and images are amenable to the influences of cultural aesthetic paradigms and patterns of thought (Taisina 2012). The grotesque itself became a reflection of the world and the consciousness of the individual, its point of perception of reality. The question of exploring the nature of this phenomenon has become more relevant in the contemporary world, where there is an in-depth study of the features of the grotesque in the subtext of works of fiction (Tikhonenko 2018).

To sum up, the grotesque is a type of artistic imagery that sharpened and emphasized life’s relationships. Based on a whimsical and contrasting depiction of reality, this genre of literature combines truthfulness and caricature, the beautiful and the terrible, the tragic and the ridiculous. By dramatically shifting the forms of life itself, this phenomenon can provide a specific atmosphere and world that cannot be understood or interpreted literally.

4 Conclusions

It has been established that the grotesque is one of the most popular techniques for establishing artistic imagery in literature. Numerous studies and most of the experiments on this issue show the controversial nature of the phenomenon and the lack of a unified view on its essence and semantic field of use. In this study, an attempt has been made to examine the development of the grotesque from the archaic to the current day and to explore the specificity and peculiarities of this type of imagery. It has been established that the essence of the grotesque has also changed considerably as cultural structures have changed.

To summarize, grotesque translates as “whimsical” and “comic.” It is defined by overstatement, exaggeration, and redundancy. The term itself is frequently used to describe strange and distorted forms, as it involves artistic deviation from the norm. Also fundamental to grotesque literature is the presence of an inner subtext in the image. The fantastical form of the grotesque combines the horrific and the comical, the ugly and the sublime, developing a chaotic and irrational world, changing the mildness of humor and irony.

The material in this study may be of theoretical value and be of interest to students who are studying literature and its artistic features. This information will also be relevant to linguists, translators, and scholars who research the phenomenon of the grotesque as a fundamental aesthetic category of creativity. This information also will help them better understand and present the singularity of its creative form. Theorists and researchers of the literary and artistic periods will find an essential base of information here.

In the process of research, new issues and problems have emerged that need to be solved by academics. Further diagnosis and study of the phenomenon of the grotesque is worthwhile and should be deepened. A diagnosis of the nature of the grotesque and its form in literature could form the basis for further research. It sets many challenges for literary studies: the analysis of the peculiarities of the grotesque in the semantic context of the work of fiction; the explanation of its manifestation in the structure of the text; the study of the influence of grotesque imagery in contemporary literature; the theoretical definition of the significance of the grotesque in changing social and individual consciousness. The prospect for further research is to develop a detailed analysis of the techniques of the grotesque in the study of the originality of literary texts.