[Hardy-l] The grotesque in Hardy

[Jackie Wilkinson]

     .Chuck wrote:  As a question for the entire group,
     is there any generally accepted literary definition of "a grotesque
     human character"?
     I would say there is no definitive because the grotesque is so
dependent on what is the accepted norm, the definitive is constantly
changing. I think Leonard Cassuto writing of Jack London in 'Literature and
the Grotesque' gives a worthy definition:
     'The grotesque is commonly viewed opposite the normal, [. . .]it is a
conflicting mixture of signals that intrudes upon the order of the world,
"the 'taboo-laden' overlap between high and low discourse' (Stallybrass and
White, p.76). This idea of disorder is central to the working of the
grotesque. Tension is the common element to virtually every definition of
the term, and transformation is its most common association. The grotesque
is hard to comprehend because it doesn't fit neatly into a category. From
distorted bodies to oddly twisted tree branches it appears in the form of
anomalies, departures from the norm that carry a peculiar power. These
category problems disturb particularly because they question the way in
which human brings impose order on the world. The grotesque causes profound
distress by bridging and therefore attacking these categories. [. . .] The
grotesque may therefore be seen as a breech of fundamental categories
surrounding the definition of what is human. Neither one thing nor another,
the grotesque is instead a distortion, conflation, or truncation that is
simultaneously both and neither - and it thus questions the image of the
human.' (pp.114-115)
     'I trust I make myself obscure' (Robert Bolt 'A Man for All Seasons)
     Jacky Wilkinson