Groteska u novijoj engleskoj i američkoj književnosti

U kolegiju pokojnog prof. Mužine vjerojatno ste analizirali većinu od ovih romana i
pripovijedaka: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland i ‘Through the Looking Glass Lewisa Carrolla,
Antic Hay Aldousa Huxleya i Wise Blood Flannry O’Connor te pripovijetke Flannery O’Connor
“Everything that Rises Must Converge”, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” i “The Temple of the
Holy Ghost”.
Za ispitnu literaturu predlažem književne tekstove koji su se sigurno čitali na kolegiju (oni se
uglavnomo mogu posuditi iz Knjižnice Filozofskog fakulteta u Zagrebu), a od kritičkih tekstova –
u nedostatku popisa literature pokojnog prof. Mužine – predlažem kritičke tekstove koji se nisu
čitali na kolegiju, ali za koje smatram da definiraju književno—stilski i sociološki aspekt
grotesknog motiva u onom smislu u kojem se on pojavljuje u svo troje autora (objavljeni su na
internetu), pa molim da ih sve pročitate.
1. Ispitna literatura.
Lewis Carroll: književni tekstovi.
Lewis Carroll, The Annotated Alice: ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ and ‘Through the
Looking Glass’, Harmondsworth etc: Penguin Books, 1986. ili Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures
in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, ed. Roger Lancelyn
Green, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. ili Lewis Carroll, Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass, and Other Writings; London and
Glasgow: Collins, 1964.
Lewis Carroll: kritički tekstovi.
Catriona McAra, “Surrealism’s Curiosity: Lewis Carroll and the Femme--Enfant”, Papers of
Surrealism, 9 (Summer, 2011): 01—25.
Aldous Huxley: književni tekstovi.
Aldous Huxley, Antic Hay, Harmondsworth and Ringwood: Penguin Books and Chatto and
Windus, 1965.
Aldous Huxley: kritički tekstovi.
Istvan Csicsery--Ronay Jr, “On the Grotesque in Science Fiction”, Science Fiction Studies, Vol.
29, No. 1 (March, 2002): 71—99.
Flannery O’Connor: književni tekstovi.
Flannery O'Connor, Everything That Rises Must Converge, New York: Ferrar, Strauss and Giroux,
1965.
Flannery O'Connor, Three, New York: New American Library, 1962.
Flannery O’Connor književni tekstovi.
Delma Eugene Presley, “The Moral Function of Distortion in Southern Grotesque”, South
Atlantic Bulletin, Vol. 37, No. 2 (May, 1972): 37--46.
Književno—teorijski i sociološki tekstovi.
Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World, transl. Helene Iswolsky, Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1984.
B. Douglas Bernheim, “A Theory of Conformity”, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 102, No. 5
(October, 1994): 841--877.
Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of a Prison, transl. Alan Sheridan, London etc:
Penguin Books, 1977.
Geoffrey Harpham, “The Grotesque: First Principles”, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art
Criticism, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Summer, 1976): 461—468.
Roger Nett, “Conformity--Deviation and the Social Control Concept”, Ethics, Vol. 64, No. 1
(October, 1953): 38—45.
Michael Steig, “Defining the Grotesque: An Attempt at Synthesis”, The Journal of Aesthetics and
Art Criticism, Vol. 29, No. 2 (Winter, 1970): 253—260.

2. Seminarski rad.
Predlažem da za temu seminara iz kolegija Groteska u novijoj engleskoj i američkoj književnosti
odaberete jednu od tema koje je pokojni prof. Mužina ovako formulirao u pitanjima na ispitu iz
svog kolegija:
1. (Carroll) Discuss the confusion of the rational and the irrational in Alice books.
2. (Carroll) How does Lewis Carroll question the idea of reality?
3. (Carroll) Discuss the problem of identity in Alice books.
4. (Carroll) Write an essay on the difference between Alice’s conventional above—ground
waking world/ life and the underground dream—and play—world of alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland and Through the Looking—Glass as a suggestion that there are other worlds
different fromm the ‘real’ utilitarian one of the Victorian age.
5. (Carroll) How do the numerous plays on words in Alice books undermine our confidence
that language is a means of communication?
6. (Huxley) The idea of disorder and chaos is well illustrated in Antic Hay by an account of
the modern architecture of London made by Gumbril Senior: “‘There are some streets… oh, my
god!’ and Gumbril Senior threw up his hands in horror. ‘It’s like listening to a symphony of cats
to walk along them. Senseless discords and a horrible disorder all the way.””
Find the contrasting image of order and harmony which is enjoyed by Gumbril Senior almost
every evening at sunset, cite it and discuss both images in the light of the whole novel.
7. (Huxley) “‘Theodore!’ she hallooed faintly but penetratingly, from her inward death—bed.
‘Gumbril!’ she waved her parasol. Gumbril halted, looked around, came smiling to meet her.
‘How delightful’, he said, ‘but how unfortunate’. ‘Why unfortunate?’ asked Mrs Viveash. ‘Am I
of evil omen?’ ‘Unfortunate’, Gumbril explained, ‘because I’ve got to catch a train and can’t
profit by this meeting’. ‘Ah no, Theodore’, said Mrs Viveash, ‘you’re not going to catch a train.
You’re going to come and lunch with me. Providence has decreed it. You can’t say no to
Providence.”
In what sense is Huxley using the word ‘Providence’ in this context?
8. (Huxley) What is the importance of the episode in Antic Hay in which Gumbril Senior
meditates on the behavior of the starlings?
9. (Huxley) The title of the second novel by Aldous Huxley is ‘Antic Hay’. In what way is
this title a clue to the interpretation of the novel?
10. (O’Connor) “‘I am clean’, he said again, without any expression on his face or in his
voice, just looking at the woman as if he were looking at a wall. ‘If Jesus existed, I wouldn’t be
clean’, he said.”
Quote other passages from Wise Blood in which Hazel Motes, a prophet of “the Church without
Christ” – of whom Flannery O’Connor said that he was “a Christian malgre lui”, a Christian
despite himself – is trying to prove that a man is morally clean no matter what he is doing if Jesus
has never existed, and explain what light they throw on the character of Hazel Motes. Analyze the
implications of O’Connor’s statement and of the text quoted.
11. (O’Connor)Discuss grotesqueries in Wise Blood, or how Flannery O’Connor depicts those
who are all too well adjusted to the modern world and find nothing wrong with it. Compare the
grotesque elements in the behavior of Hazel Motes resulting from his faith in Christ.
12. (O’Connor) What conclusions can be drawn from the speech of the freak (“a freak
with a particular name”, a hermaphrodite in fact) in Flannery O’Connor’s story “A Temple of the
Holy Ghost”?
13. (O’Connor) Write an essay entitled “Coming to self—knowledge in ‘A Temple of the
Holy Ghost’ by the mercy of God mediated by a freak, or: Is a grotesque world a prerequisite of
Christian faith and grace in ‘A Temple of the Holy Ghost’?’”
14. (O’Connor) Discuss the order of lucidity in Flannery O’Connor’s fiction, or the role
played by ordinary people who speak in proverbial phrases, intellectuals, and demonic freaks.
15. (O’Connor) Write an essay on the grotesqueries in the description of the physical
appearance of characters in Flannery O’Connor’s fiction and of their habits of speech.

Ako Vam ustreba pomoć, molim da mi se javite e—mailom ili me posjetite četvrtkom u uredu u
vrijeme konzultacija (12:00—15:00).