Blooms Literary Themes

T H e G Ro T eS q u e

Edited and with an introduction by

Sterling Professor of the Humanities Yale university

Harold Bloom
Volume Editor
Blake Hobby

Blooms Literary Themes: The Grotesque Copyright 2009 by Infobase Publishing Introduction 2009 by Harold Bloom All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Blooms Literary Criticism An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The grotesque / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom ; volume editor, Blake Hobby. p. cm. (Blooms literary themes) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7910-9802-8 (acid-free paper) 1. Grotesque in literature. I. Bloom, Harold. II. Hobby, Blake. PN56.G7G76 2009 809.915dc22 2008042984 Blooms Literary Criticism books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Blooms Literary Criticism on the World Wide Web at http://www.chelseahouse.com Cover design by Takeshi Takahashi Text design by Kerry Casey Printed in the united States of America IBT eJB 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper.

, Contents .

Series Introduction by Harold Bloom: Themes and Metaphors Volume Introduction by Harold Bloom
The American and European Grotesque Notes on the Grotesque: Anderson, Brecht, and Williams by James Schevill, in Twentieth Century Literature (1977) As I Lay Dying (William Faulkner) Great God, What They Got in That Wagon?: Grotesque Intrusions in As I Lay Dying by Michael Gillum The Bacchae (Euripides) The Bacchae by Siegfried Melchinger (Trans. Samuel R. Rosenbaum), in Euripides (1973) The Birds (Aristophanes) Empire and the Grotesque in Aristophanes The Birds by Khalil M. Habib Candide (Voltaire) Optimism by Voltaire (Trans. William F. Fleming), in Voltaires Philosophical Dictionary, Vol. IV (1910)

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Don Quixote (Miguel de Cervantes) Heine on Cervantes and the Don Quixote by Heinrich Heine, in Temple Bar, (1876) Edgar Allan Poes Short Stories(Edgar Allan Poe) The Grotesque in the Age of Romanticism: Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque by Wolfgang Kayser (Trans. Ulrich Weisstein), in The Grotesque in Art and Literature (1981) Frankenstein (Mary Shelley) Elements of the Grotesque in Mary Shelleys Frankenstein by Robert C. Evans Good Country People (Flannery OConnor) A Sharp Eye for the Grotesque in Flannery OConnors Good Country People by Robert C. Evans Gullivers Travels ( Jonathan Swift) The Political Significance of Gullivers Travels by C.H. Firth, in The Proceedings of the British Academy (1919) Henry IV, Part 1 (William Shakespeare) The Grotesque in Henry IV, Part 1 by John Kerr Inferno (Dante Alighieri) Grotesque Renaissance by John Ruskin, in The Stones of Venice, Volume the Third: The Fall (1880) King Lear (William Shakespeare) King Lear and the Comedy of the Grotesque by G. Wilson Knight, in Twentieth Century Interpretations of King Lear: A Collection of Critical Essays (1978)

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The Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka) Aspects of the Grotesque in Franz Kafkas The Metamorphosis by Robert C. Evans Miss Lonelyhearts (Nathanael West) Carnival Virtues: Sex, Sacrilege, and the Grotesque in Nathanael Wests Miss Lonelyhearts,by Blake G. Hobby and Zachary DeBoer The Mysterious Stranger (Mark Twain) Grotesque Bodies in Twains The Mysterious Stranger byMatthew J. Bolton The Overcoat (Nikolai Gogol) Reading Gogols Grotesque Overcoat by James N. Roney Revelation (Flannery OConnor) The Grotesque Protagonist by Gilbert H. Muller, in Nightmares and Visions: Flannery OConnor and the Catholic Grotesque (1972) Six Characters in Search of an Author (Luigi Pirandello) Luigi Pirandellos Six Characters in Search of an Author and the Grotesque by J. R. Holt Winesburg, Ohio (Sherwood Anderson) The Book of the Grotesque by Irving Howe, in Sherwood Anderson (1951)

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Acknowledgments Index

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