ABSTRACT
The epilogue extends this book’s analyses of multivocal meanings in Darger’s little girl imagery to a discussion of aesthetics. This inquiry establishes relationships between Darger’s panoramic formats and the attentive gazes of little girl multitudes that acknowledge and imply the viewer’s presence in his art. Internally within the painting these girls do not compositionally work together; their attentiveness to the viewer creates an implied sense of cohesion resulting not from formal composition but instead from this performative act. This attentive action dovetails with Darger’s written address to a “Dear Reader” in his introductions to In the Realms of the Unreal. This ending argues that Darger’s audience, even if imagined, comprises another layer of witnessing that Darger creates as a modality of storytelling.
