The Grotesque

In order to critically discuss the representations of the grotesque in art and popular culture genres and to understand what these representations tell us about the social and cultural ideas concerning the body and its boundaries; I will firstly attempt to explain the term grotesque and identify its context within today 's society. In order to do this I will revert back to the earlier notions of the grotesque within the carnivalesque era as a way to understand and compare the modern day notions of such a term. I intend to concentrate on grotesque representations within television, film and performance stage shows as well as looking into the way in which women and their bodies have been related to the grotesque. I will look at where this perception has evolved from and how there seems to be an urgent desire within social and cultural realms to control the body and maintain the boundaries that have been constructed within society.

The definition of the grotesque often proves to be problematic; some would perhaps identify ugliness to be its minimal prerequisite, however this is understood to be a modern day concept of the term. Harpman explains that during the renaissance the ‘grottesche ' was perceived to be beautiful and ‘pure fantasy ' (Harpman, G 1982). ‘Such things do not exist and cannot exist and never have existed ' (quoted by Wedekind, G. 2005). Although this perception has evolved throughout the years and it is now perceived to be connoted with subjects of a natural nature. The term ‘grottesche ' derives from the end of the fifteenth century in Italy when decorations were rediscovered of merged creations of human, animal and plant forms in Rome. The notion of the grotesque as a concept that is far removed from reality has been questioned within today 's society due to changes of identity within culture and acceptance of subjects removed from the norm. This is often portrayed within talk shows, such as ‘Jerry Springer ' where it is not unusual for shows to present transsexuals and transvestites in a celebratory manner. There is a fascination with this sort of grotesque, and the notion of transsexuals and transvestites being discussed possibly causes repulsion to some, however at the same time these sorts of topics produce fascination within society. Harpman sees this sort of portrayal within the media as responsible for diluting the meaning of the grotesque, he asserts that there has been a ‘blurring of distinction ' between the compatibility of different forms within society; ‘nothing is incompatible with anything else, the marginal is indistinguishable from the typical '(Harpman, G 1982) The term Grotesque is defined in the Oxford dictionary as strangely distorted, bizarre and ugly; however it is apparent that representations of the grotesque within society are much more varied and complex and this is portrayed within art and popular culture.

Representations of the grotesque have had presence within European culture for centuries; in particular within ‘carnivalesque ' culture in the Middle Ages. The grotesque was celebrated within carnivals and represented the escape from the boundaries of social controls, presenting notions of equality and community to those participating. There was a great emphasis on bodily functions and orifices which were considered revolting, ugly and obscene. These themes were considered to be attacks against the ruling classes as the grotesque body represents everything the classical body tries to defeat and conceal. Eating, drinking, defecation, birth, death and sex are all essential principles that are apparent within carnival activities; these show the negative and positive aspects within the grotesque and its relation to the body. Where all these individual principles are accepted within life; the notion of them being fused together seems inappropriate to many, therefore they are often categorized as grotesque. Food provides efficient examples in order to explain this; it enters the body from the outside crossing the dividing boundary between the individual and the outside world. This is why the notion of a hair in ones food is deemed off putting although it is considered clean out with the situation of consumption. Another example of the crossing of boundaries would be Bakhtin 's description of the ‘senile pregnant hags '; he describes these images as ‘the pregnant death ' (Bakhtin 1965) this to him displays the grotesque efficiently due to the merging representation of life and death in one; the fact that the ‘senile pregnant hags ' are laughing confirms this due to its contradiction with death.

Carnival has possibly become replaced with the gay and fetish club scenes within Britain; these represent a similar concept with the purpose of trying to break away from stereotypes within society. Leigh Bowery 's performances in the 1980 's and 90 's show how the grotesque is displayed within modern day art. His performance at a drag festival in Wigstock New York presents him wearing a mask with make-up painted over it in an exaggerated clown like manner. His portrayal is of an aggressive disposition and he re-enacts the traditional carnivalesque act of the fat man giving birth. This is acted out in a powerful manner with Bowery screaming and eventually allowing the audience to see a woman appear from between his legs ‘bald, nude, slathered in ‘blood ', lubricant and sausage links ' (Malbert, R. 2000, p90) Bowery maintains the theme of displaying images of the grotesque to the audience by vomiting, urinating and defecating on stage; thus going against societies attempt to maintain the boundaries between the inside and the outside. ‘The grotesque image displays not only the outward but also the inner features of the body: blood, bowels, heart and other organs… ' (Cited Malbert, R, 2000) Society does not embrace these notions as they are in between boundaries and they represent a lack of social control. We try to control things of this nature through every day things such as toilet cubicles, the purpose being to maintain privacy so as to keep within the boundaries of society. The images that Bowery presents to the audience are deemed to be horrific within our social and cultural perception of what is acceptable. ‘They signify a split between two orders; the maternal authority and the law of the father ' (Betterton 1996). They threaten what is deemed to be appropriate.

The female body is often related to the grotesque and this is possibly due to early notions of the females ' womb being independent from the body during pregnancy and affecting the way in which they act. The myth that the womb roamed the body in search of the satisfaction it lacked lead to the perception of the female being the disorderly sex, with the womb effecting the females speech and senses.

This myth has evolved to the female body being perceived with a certain amount caution. Films such as ‘Death Becomes Her ' identifies the association of fear within social and cultural spectrums within society in relation to the body betraying the female and revealing its true state of self, thus compromising the femininity that has been self constructed in order to conceal the true state of the female body. ‘Women take the blame for not being what they seem ' (Betterton 1996). The film ends with the two main actresses bodies falling apart; identifying everything that the women have been trying to conceal. This portrays the sense of horror involved with the identification of the true female body and its loss of control and the breaching of its boundaries; therefore we are afraid of our own bodies. Women 's magazines reinforce the way in which society places great importance on the notion of order and control with regards to women and their appearance with a vast amount of articles featuring diets, exercise and beauty regimes, with headlines such as ‘How to loose a stone in six weeks ', ‘how to get the body you always wanted ', thus showing that magazines reinforce the need for women to adhere to the rules and conventions placed within society regarding maintaining the body 's margins and conveying that this must be constantly addressed, otherwise the horrors of the true self may be revealed. Women becoming overweight is deemed grotesque within British culture today, and these magazines identify the fear of this grotesque and the desire to control it with exercise and dieting, whereas during the 18th century the larger woman was deemed attractive and the thinner woman was thought to be grotesque, thus showing that perceptions of the grotesque can change according to the different social and cultural situation one is in.

Women often retaliate with regards to the social and cultural expectations concerning their body and this notion is adequately presented within the performance of the ‘Jewess tattooess ' in 1999 where performance artist Marisa Carnesky presents the audience with the live show centred around a tattooist working on her body with the end result being a large dragon on her back. The tattooing of women explores the reality of bodily transgression, and due to the fact that Carnesky is a woman and a Jew, her body art breaks the boundaries of two socially constructed norms. The message of this performance is not far removed from the grotesque within carnival culture; to break away from conformity. Ruskin addresses the notion of a ‘fine grotesque ', highlighting the fact that it is ‘the expression in a moment, by a series of symbols thrown together in a bold and fearless connection, of truths which would have taken a long time to express in any verbal way ' (Harpman, G 1982) . This seems an appropriate way to look at the purpose of body art within society and helps us to understand why individuals go to the extremes of getting a large extent of their body tattooed, to such an extent that they are singled out and frowned upon within society and deemed grotesque. It can be a form of expression of the persons ‘true self ', using the body as a canvas for this. These breaking of boundaries may shock and horrify, however they are a form of social control and unlike the situation of carnivalesque ‘freaks ', such as the ‘bearded lady ' and the ‘elephant man '; who had no control over their grotesqueness, the subject chooses to do this and thrives on the unsettling it has upon society and its corruption of the boundaries constructed.

This performance leads us to question the understanding of the grotesque; Marisa Carnesky 's body art could be perceived as beautiful by some yet vulgar and grotesque by others within society, Harpman identifies this as simply a ‘mere difference in point of view ' (Harpman 1982). This showing that that the grotesque cannot be solely defined by one person, it is an interpretation that depends on an individual social and cultural perception concerning the body and its boundaries.

In conclusion the grotesque is apparent within all different forms of art and popular culture to such an extent that it is becoming harder to categorize what is grotesque and what is not. This seems to be a question of ones individual interpretation within modern day society. The representations of transvestites, Goths and heavily pierced and tattooed individuals within society are possibly grotesques that can be deemed relevant to this notion. Like many performance art productions, these grotesques are orchestrated in order to shock and breach boundaries concerning social and cultural ideas concerning the body. They are different in comparison to the notion of the female body and its link to the notion of the grotesque. This is due to the fact that the female body is a suppressed grotesque that is perceived to be the female body in its natural state. The social and cultural ideas apparent within society concerning the body and its boundaries are apparent within every day things such as toilet cubicles, diets and sanitary towels. They are all designed to produce order and control within society with regards to our boundaries and preventing us from breaching them. We are horrified when faced with the prospect of ‘food, shit, vomit, (and) menstrual blood ' (Betterton, R 1996) and the dominance of restraints such as toilet cubicles and diets portray the need for society to control and conceal certain grotesque that disturb us socially and physically.

Bibliography

BOOKS

Hyman, H. Malbert, R. (2000) ‘Carnivalesque ', London: Hayward Gallery Publishing

Kort, P (2004) ‘Comic Grotesque ', New York: Neue Galerie

Harpman, G (1982) ‘On the Grotesque ', New Jersey: Princeton University Press

Beard, S (2002) ‘Aftershocks, the end of style culture ', London: Wallflower Press

Betterton, R (1996) ‘Body Horror: Intimate distance: women artists and the body ', London: Routledge

Huff, J (2001) ‘A Horror of Corpulence ', Berkely: California Press

WEBSITES

Chedgzoy, K ‘Impudent women: Carnival and Gender in Early Modern Culture ' http://www2.arts.gla.ac.uk/SESLL/STELLA/COMET/glasgrev/issue1/chefgz.htm Pitts, V. (1998) '"Reclaiming" the Female Body: Embodied Identity Work, Resistance and the Grotesque ', in body and society, Vol 4, no 3: 67 - 84. http://www.arasite.org/kcpitts.html

http://www.var.ndirect.co.uk/outrageous/quotes7.html

Bibliography: Kort, P (2004) ‘Comic Grotesque ', New York: Neue Galerie Harpman, G (1982) ‘On the Grotesque ', New Jersey: Princeton University Press Beard, S (2002) ‘Aftershocks, the end of style culture ', London: Wallflower Press Betterton, R (1996) ‘Body Horror: Intimate distance: women artists and the body ', London: Routledge Huff, J (2001) ‘A Horror of Corpulence ', Berkely: California Press WEBSITES Pitts, V. (1998) '"Reclaiming" the Female Body: Embodied Identity Work, Resistance and the Grotesque ', in body and society, Vol 4, no 3: 67 - 84. http://www.arasite.org/kcpitts.html http://www.var.ndirect.co.uk/outrageous/quotes7.html