What is Grotesque?
Grotesque- this is a bizarre mixture in the image of the real and the fantastic, the beautiful and the ugly, the tragic and the comic - for a more impressive expression of creative intent.
Grotesque - the depiction of people, objects, details in the visual arts, theater and literature in a fantastically exaggerated, ugly-comic form; a unique style in art and literature, which emphasizes the distortion of generally accepted norms and at the same time the compatibility of the real and the fantastic, the tragic and the comic, sarcasm and harmless gentle humor. The grotesque necessarily violates the boundaries of plausibility, gives the image a certain conventionality and takes the artistic image beyond the limits of the probable, deliberately deforming it. The grotesque style received its name in connection with the ornaments discovered at the end of the 15th century by Raphael and his students during excavations of ancient underground buildings and grottoes in Rome.
These images, strange in their bizarre unnaturalness, freely combined various pictorial elements: human forms turned into animals and plants, human figures grew from flower cups, plant shoots intertwined with unusual structures. Therefore, at first they began to call distorted images the ugliness of which was explained by the cramped area itself, which did not allow making a correct drawing. Subsequently, the grotesque style was based on a complex composition of unexpected contrasts and inconsistencies. The transfer of the term to the field of literature and the true flowering of this type of imagery occurs in the era of romanticism, although the appeal to the techniques of satirical grotesque occurs in Western literature much earlier. Eloquent examples of this are the books of F. Rabelais Gargantua and Pantagruel and J. Swift Gulliver's Travels. In Russian literature, the grotesque was widely used to create bright and unusual artistic images by N.V. Gogol (Nose, Notes of a Madman), M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin (The History of a City, The Wild Landowner and Other Tales), F.M. Dostoevsky (The Double. The Adventures of Mr. Golyadkin), F. Sologub (The Little Demon), M.A. Bulgakov (Fatal eggs, dog's heart), A. Bely (St. Petersburg, Maski), V.V. Mayakovsky (Mystery-bouffe, Bedbug, Bathhouse, Provost), A.T. Tvardovsky (Terkin in the next world), A.A. Voznesensky (Oza), E.L. Schwartz (Dragon, Naked King).
Along with the satirical, the grotesque can be humorous, when, with the help of a fantastic beginning and in the fantastic forms of appearance and behavior of the characters, qualities are embodied that evoke an ironic attitude from the reader, and also tragic (in works of tragic content, telling about the attempts and fate of the spiritual determination of personality.
The term “grotesque” came into Russian from France. You can look up the meaning of this word in the dictionary; it means “bizarre,” “comic,” or “funny.” This literary device was used by ancient writers and poets. In its characteristics, the grotesque is similar to hyperbole. It is also characterized by exaggeration, sharpening of human qualities and the power of natural phenomena, objects, situations in people's lives.
Unlike a parabola, grotesque exaggeration is special: it is fantastic, it presents the reader with something depicted that has incredible properties that go far beyond the limits of life’s truths, but at the same time can be completely acceptable.
An indispensable condition is a fantastic transformation of existing reality. Most often, such metamorphoses of what is happening are observed in poetic and prose works, filmmaking, sculpture and painting.
This is interesting! This term originated in the 15th century. In those days, the meaning of the word grotesque was somewhat different - it was something unusual, phantasmagoric varieties of artistic imagery.
During excavations of ancient Greek grottoes, archaeologists discovered original ornaments consisting of fantastic forms of animal, plant and human origin.
The French term grotesque generalizes artistic imagery that describes bizarre combinations of the incongruous, fantastic and real, caricatured and plausible, illogical and hyperbolic. The grotesque can also be used to color artistic thinking.
Famous admirers of grotesque culture were masters of words:
- Aristophanes,
- Rabelais,
- Stern,
- Hoffman,
- Gogol,
- Mark Twain,
- Saltykov-Shchedrin.
Wikipedia says that grotesque is used to describe distorted forms, e.g. Carnival masks, cathedral gargoyles. This definition also includes specific types of ornaments that combine decorative and figurative elements.
Reception in literature
Like hyperbole, the grotesque is often used in literature and is found in myths, fairy tales and legends. In such genres examples can be found great amount. The most striking grotesque image of our childhood is Koschey the Immortal, or the Serpent Gorynych, Baba Yaga.
Writers, inventing characters based on the grotesque, used artistic exaggeration. But at the same time, such properties may turn out to be realistic, based on life facts.
In his works he uses the grotesque to romanticize events and characters. Their characteristics are on the border between possible and exceptional. In the process of creating bizarre images, the boundaries between the fantastic and the real are blurred, but do not disappear.
Creation
The basis of the artistic technique includes unimaginable aspects that the author needs so much to achieve the intended effect. In other words, this is fantastic hyperbole because idle exaggeration has real features. Grotesque is more like nightmare, in which terrifying fantastic visions have no logical explanation, and in some cases become a terrible “reality” for a person.
This is interesting! The emergence of the grotesque is associated with the ability of the human psyche to create extremely complex mechanisms thinking and imagination.
Images created with exaggeration overly impress readers, which is why they often appear in the dreams of characters of Russian writers. In such moments, the grotesque is often used. Most a shining example The dreams of Raskolnikov and Tatyana Larina are considered bizarre dreams.
Useful video: grotesque - a question from the Unified State Exam
Dreams of literary characters
The famous work of Alexander Pushkin, familiar to everyone from school, also contains fantastic elements - images of monsters that appear to Tatyana Larina in a dream. The grotesque is involved here. Consider a skull suspended from a goose neck, or a mill dancing in a squat. The heroine observes a disturbing spectacle in a wretched hut, where phantasmagoric subjects are dancing.
Raskolnikov's dreams in the novel Crime and Punishment also include a grotesque image. The hero suffers from delusional visions, which form the psychological part of everything that happens. He fights evil, which for him is concentrated in the old woman-pawnbroker. Her creepy laughter overcomes the guy in his dreams. As a result, the epic struggle becomes as ridiculous as the one between Don Quixote and windmills. Raskolnikov is unable to overcome evil. The stronger his desire to kill, the stronger he grows to it.
Raskolnikov's Dream
Intertwined with reality
Artistic images created using the grotesque appear before readers as something absurd and devoid of common sense. Notes of expression and emotion become more expressive due to the fact that implausible imagery organically exists and interacts with objects and situations from real life.
Some examples can be cited to prove this. In the dreams of the same Raskolnikov and Larina there are fantastic and realistic elements. In Tatiana's nightmares, Onegin and Lensky appear along with the monsters.
The combination of grotesque and reality in the dreams of Rodion Raskolnikov is explained by the presence of a terrible image and an episode with a very real old woman. His dream is an experience of a crime committed. The criminal himself and his murder weapon are devoid of fantasy.
Use in satirical works
Grotesque imagery is widely used in combination with everyday situations in satirical works. For example, in Saltykov-Shchedrin’s work there is a mayor with an “organ” that replaces his brain.
Also, the bizarreness of the story is given by extraordinary situations: a call to fight against people who refused mustard or the fight for enlightenment. The author has taken the plot to the point of absurdity, but the events taking place reflect the everyday realities of Russian people - eternal conflicts between the tyrant authorities and the common people.
Useful video: what is “grotesque” using an example
Conclusion
We can talk about the grotesque for a long time. There are many other examples of unique uses of artistic devices in literature. Implausibility, absurdity and bizarreness of an image or situation are found in the works of not only Russian writers, but also foreign authors.
Meaning of the word GROTESK in the Dictionary literary terms
GROTESQUE
- (from Italian grottesco - bizarre) - a type of comic: an image of people, objects or phenomena in a fantastically exaggerated, ugly-comic form that violates the boundaries of plausibility. G. is based on the combination of the real and the unreal, the terrible and the funny, the tragic and the comic, the ugly and the beautiful. G. is close to farce. It differs from other types of comic (humor, irony, satire, etc. (see irony, satire)) in that the funny in it is not separated from the terrible, which allows the author in a specific picture to show the contradictions of life and create a sharply satirical image. Examples of works in which G. is widely used to create a satirical image are “The Nose” by N.V. Gogol, “The History of a City”, “How One Man Fed Two Generals” by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, “The Seated”, “Bathhouse”, “Bedbug” by V. Mayakovsky.
Dictionary of literary terms. 2012
See also interpretations, synonyms, meanings of the word and what GROTESK is in Russian in dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference books:
- GROTESQUE in the Dictionary of Fine Arts Terms:
- (from the Italian grottesco - whimsical) 1. A type of ornament, including figurative and figurative motifs (floral and ... - GROTESQUE in the Literary Encyclopedia:
ORIGIN OF THE TERM. — The term G. is borrowed from painting. This was the name of the ancient wall painting, which was found in the “grottoes” (grotte) ... - GROTESQUE in the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary:
an outdated name for the fonts of some typefaces (ancient, poster, sans serif, etc.), characterized by the absence of serifs at the ends of strokes and almost the same thickness... - GROTESQUE in big Soviet encyclopedia, TSB:
(French grotesque, Italian grottesco - whimsical, from grotta - grotto), 1) ornament, including figurative and decorative combinations in bizarre, fantastic combinations... - GROTESQUE V Encyclopedic Dictionary Brockhaus and Euphron:
- ornamental motifs in painting and plastic arts, representing a bizarre combination of forms of the plant kingdom with figures or with parts of human figures... - GROTESQUE in the Modern Encyclopedic Dictionary:
- GROTESQUE
(French grotesque, literally - whimsical comic), 1) an ornament in which decorative and figurative motifs (plants, animals, human... - GROTESQUE in the Encyclopedic Dictionary:
, a, plural no, m. 1. In art: image of something and be in a fantastic, ugly-comic form. Grotesque, grotesque - characterized by grotesqueness. 2. ... - GROTESQUE in the Encyclopedic Dictionary:
[te], -a, m. In art: image of something. in a fantastic, monstrously comic form, based on sharp contrasts and exaggerations. II adj. grotesque... - GROTESQUE
GROTESK, obsolete. the name of fonts of certain typefaces (ancient, poster, block, etc.), characterized by the absence of serifs at the ends of strokes and almost the same ... - GROTESQUE in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
GROTESK (French grotesque, lit. - whimsical, comical), an ornament in which decor is whimsically and fantastically combined. and image motives (districts, women, human forms, ... - GROTESQUE in the Complete Accented Paradigm according to Zaliznyak:
grote"sk, grote"ski, grote"ska, grote"skov, grote"sku, grote"skam, grote"sk, grote"ski, grote"skom, grote"skami, grote"ske, ... - GROTESQUE in the Popular Explanatory Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Russian Language:
[t "e], -a, only units, m. In art and literature: an artistic technique based on a contrasting combination of the real and the fantastic, tragic ... - GROTESQUE in the Dictionary for solving and composing scanwords.
- GROTESQUE in the New Dictionary of Foreign Words:
(fr. grotesque fancy, intricate; funny, comic it. grotta grotto) 1) ornament in the form of intertwining images of animals, plants, etc., ... - GROTESQUE in dictionary foreign expressions:
[ 1. ornament in the form of intertwining images of animals, plants, etc., the most ancient examples of which were discovered in the ruins of ancient Roman ... - GROTESQUE in the dictionary of Synonyms of the Russian language.
- GROTESQUE in the New Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language by Efremova:
1. m. 1) a) Artistic technique in art, based on excessive exaggeration, violation of the boundaries of plausibility, a combination of sharp, unexpected contrasts. b) ... - GROTESQUE in Lopatin’s Dictionary of the Russian Language:
grotesque... - GROTESQUE full spelling dictionary Russian language:
grotesque... - GROTESQUE in the Spelling Dictionary:
grotesque... - GROTESQUE in Ozhegov’s Dictionary of the Russian Language:
In art: the depiction of something in a fantastic, ugly-comic form, based on sharp contrasts and ... - GROTESK in Dahl's Dictionary:
husband. picturesque decoration, modeled after those found in Roman dungeons, from a motley mixture of people, animals, plants, etc. In arabesques and ...
If you have met young girls on the street dressed excessively, provocatively and heavily plastered, then know that with their grotesque appearance they want to attract attention to themselves. What does Grotesque mean?? I recommend reading a few more interesting articles, what does Taliban mean, how to understand the abbreviation of pre-trial detention center, what is SBU? This term was borrowed from French "grot", which can be translated as " cave".
However, most of all the word Grotesque is used in literature, characterizing with it some contradictory, surreal, terribly comic and truly mystical descriptions of a strange, blood-stirring reality that evokes morbid interest. In literature, the grotesque is a type of artistic figurativeness that sharpens and generalizes the forms of existence with the help of a contrasting and bizarre combination of the fantastic and the real, caricatures and similarities.
Grotesque- this is a special type of artistic imagery, tragicomic or comical, highlighting and generalizing life manifestations with the help of alogism and hyperbole, fantastic and real
Hyperbole in painting- this is an ornament in which figurative and decorative motifs are mixed, in simple words, this is a heap various types and styles
IN spoken language term Grotesque used when they want to highlight something eccentric, ugly, fantastic, therefore it is often used to describe distorted and repulsive forms, for example, paintings by Salvador Dali, girls " ready" or " soft grunge", as well as some bands playing in the style of hard rock, for example Radiohead, Kiss, Black Sabbath.
Don’t forget Gogol’s work “The Nose”, in which this “honored” organ went for a walk around St. Petersburg. I recommend checking out the works Franz Kafka, whose books simply make some impressionable citizens go crazy.
Origin of the word Grotesque
This term has its roots in 15th century, when Italian treasure hunters were excavating the homes of ancient people, digging mounds, and one day they stumbled upon caves and grottos, in which a large tribe lived, painting the walls of their “abode” with mysterious drawings. Their themes were very diverse and in some places they combined the terrible and the beautiful. In the images one could discern motifs from plant and animal life and hunting scenes. Therefore, initially the “robbers of antiquities” gave this phenomenon its own designation - grotesque. Why grotesque? The fact is that these distorted drawings were mostly located in grottoes, and it is from this root that the name of the concept came.As artistic image grotesque has two plans, this is a kind of convention, deviation from the norm, an obvious caricature, which is why it is often used for purposes of satire and humor.
a type of imagery based on a contrasting, bizarre combination of fantasy and reality, the beautiful and the ugly, the tragic and the comic. The sphere of the grotesque in art includes polysemantic images created by the artist’s imagination, in which life receives a complex and contradictory refraction. Grotesque images do not allow either their literal interpretation or their unambiguous decoding, retaining the features of mystery and incomprehensibility. The element of the grotesque received its brightest embodiment in the art of the Middle Ages (animal style ornamentation, cathedral chimeras, drawings in the margins of manuscripts). The Renaissance masters, who retained the medieval predilection for the grotesque (Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Bruegel, Albrecht Durer), made the grotesque a means of expressing the moral and social views of their turning point. Jacques Collot, Francisco Goya, Honore Damier in the 17th–19th centuries. used the grotesque as a means of dramatically embodying sinister symbols of modern social forces. Wars, revolutions and political cataclysms of the 20th century. caused a new wave of grotesque satire in denouncing " scary world"(for example, Kukryniksy in the USSR). Source: Apollo. Fine and decorative arts. Architecture: Thematic Dictionary. M., 1997.
Excellent definition
Incomplete definition ↓
GROTESQUE
French grotesque, from Italian. grottesco) is an aesthetic term denoting the combination in art of the comic and tragic, funny and terrible in the fantastic. and hyperbolic. form. Originally the term "G." was used to designate a special type of ornament, discovered at the end of the 14th - beginning. 15th centuries during excavations of underground rooms - grottoes in Rome (hence the name) and representing a fantastic. a pattern of intricate weaves of ribbons, masks, caricatures of people and animals. During the Renaissance, G. was widely used to decorate architectural ensembles: Pinturicchio's paintings in the Borgia Palace in the Vatican (1492–1495), Raphael's Vatican loggias (1515–19), etc. Subsequently, the term "G." began to be used as a special aesthetic. categories along with the categories of the beautiful, tragic, and comic. G. received special significance in aesthetics. theory and arts. practice of the romantics. The aesthetics of romanticism, developing the dialectic of the comic and tragic as the basis of romanticism. irony, gave a deep characteristic of the grotesque. Schelling in his lectures on the philosophy of art (1803), F. Schlegel in “Conversations on Poetry” (1800), and A. Schlegel in “Readings on Dramatic Art and Literature” (1809–11) considered art as an expression of the necessary inner. the connection between the comic and the tragic and the transition from low to high, considering it a sign of artistic genius. works (see F. W. Schelling, Philosophie der Kunst, Werke, Bd. 3,1907, 359–60). The most significant works in the history of art, according to romantics, are the works of Aristophanes and Shakespeare, in which a synthesis of tragedy and comedy, great and low, is carried out. In France, V. Hugo promoted G.'s propaganda. In the "Preface to Cromwell" he considered G. as the center. the concept of all post-antique art, considering G. aesthetically more expressive than beauty (V. Hugo, Collected works, vol. 14, M., 1956). In the 2nd half. 19 – beginning 20th centuries an extensive formalistic approach appeared. literature about G., which took its external formal features as the definition of G.: sharpening of the image, exaggeration, fantasy, etc. So F. T. Vischer (?sthetik, oder Wissenschaft des Sch?nen, TI 1, 1854, S. 400-09), K. Flegel (K. Fl?gel, Geschichte des Grotesk-komischen, 1788), etc., considering G. only from the side of its form, in fact They identified it with hyperbole, caricature, and buffoonery. Aesthetics Russian roar democrats widely explored the sphere of the birth of G. - the dialectic of the tragic and comic (see N. G. Chernyshevsky, Sublime and Comic, 1854), discovering realism. ways in art to depict the transitions of high and low, terrible and funny, tragic and comic, evil and humane. “Evil,” wrote Chernyshevsky, “is always so terrible that it ceases to be funny, despite all its ugliness” (Izbr. filos. soch., vol. 1, 1950, p. 288). In G., the comic and the tragic interpenetrate each other, organically link into a single whole, so that one turns into the other. In G., the terrible and sinister reveals funny and insignificant features (for example, in Bruegel’s painting), and the funny and insignificant - terrible and inhuman. essence (for example, in the stories of E. T. A. Hoffman, Gogol, Shchedrin). What at first glance is perceived only as funny and amusing reveals in G. its real, deeply tragic nature. and dramatic meaning. The tragic is G. only insofar as it accepts the ironic. or comic form. Modern bourgeois aesthetics identifies G. with the ugly, considers him characteristic feature art of the 20th century along with eroticism and psychopathology (“Revue d’esthetique”, P., 1954, v. 7, No. 2, p. 211–13). Burzh. aesthetics and art affirm anti-humanism. G., portraying him as an eternal disgrace and tragic. the absurdity of the world. In Sov. art-ve realistic. G. is widely used in works of poetry (Mayakovsky), cinema (Eisenstein) and music (Prokofiev, Shostakovich) as a means of satire. criticism of the ugly in society. life and affirmation will be put. aesthetic ideals. Lit.: Zundelovich J., Poetics of the grotesque, in collection. – Problems of poetics, ed. V. Ya. Bryusova, M.–L., 1925; Efimova Z. S., The problem of the grotesque in the works of Dostoevsky, "Scientific journal of the Department of the History of European Culture", [Kharkov], 1927, [issue] 2, p. 145–70; Adeline, Les sculptures grotesques et symboliques, Rouen – Aug?, 1878; Heilbrunner P. M., Grotesque art, "Apollo", L.–N. Y., 1938, v. 28, No. 167, November; M?ser J., Harlequin, oder Vertheidigung des Groteske-Komischen, in his book: S?mtliche Werke, Tl 9, V., 1843; Michel W., Das Teuflische und Groteske in der Kunst, 11 Aufl., M?ncth, 1911; Kayser W., Das Groteske. Seine Gestaltung in Malerei und Dichtung, 1957. V. Shestakov. Moscow.
