ABSTRACT

The grotesque - the exagggerated, the deformed, the monstrous - has been a well-considered subject for students of comparative literature and art. In a major addition to the literature of art, cultural criticism and feminist studies, Mary Russo re-examines the grotesque in the light of gender, exploring the works of Angela Carter David Cronenberg Bahktin Kristeva Freud Zizek. Mary Russo looks at the portrayal of the grotesque in Western culture and by combining the iconographic and the historical, locates the role of the woman's body in the discourse of the grotesque.

chapter |16 pages

Introduction

chapter 1|36 pages

Up There, Out There

Aerialism, the Grotesque, and Critical Practice

chapter 2|22 pages

Female Grotesques

Carnival and Theory

chapter 4|22 pages

Twins and Mutant Women

David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers

chapter 5|30 pages

“From the Base Upward”

Trilby's Left Foot, Nationalism, and the Grotesque

chapter 6|24 pages

Revamping Spectacle

Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus