The Grotesque and Story Literature The Study of Concept of Grotesque and the Investigation of its Examples in Shahryar Mandanipour’s Short Stories

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Professor, Persian Language and Literature, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies

2 M.A. Persian Language and Literature, Azad Islamic University, Tehran Campus

Abstract

In this article one of the theoretical categories of art and literature called “grotesque”
has been studied from some aspects. Grotesque has traditionally had examples in the
world ‘s literary–artistic works as a kind of point of view toward the world and human
and people’s manners. little attention was paid to this category in previous centuries.
But in the last century some of the famous theorists like Michael Bakhtin have worked
on it extensively. In this article, in addition to studying the critics, point of view toward
the category of “grotesque”, definitions and theoretical explanations surrounding
grotesque have been studied. Also two main points of view about this literary-artistic
category have been investigated: 1) The point of view that emphasizes the aspect of
sarcasm and carnival; 2) the one that notices its frightening aspects. Then elements,
purposes and usages of grotesque especially based on Philip Tomson’s point of view
have been studied. The last part of the article is about studying some of Shahryar
Mandanipour’s short stories who is a contemporary author. The characteristics or
elements of grotesque available in his stories have been studied from several aspects.

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