Art, Surrealism, and the Grotesque Essay -- Exploratory Essays Researc

The term "grotesque" in art and literature, commonly refers to the juxtaposition of extreme contrasts such as horror and humor, or beauty and monstrosity, or desire and revulsion. One function of this juxtaposition of the rational and the irrational is to subdue or normalize the unknown, and thereby control it. The simultaneity of mutually exclusive emotional states, and the discomfort it might cause, inspires a Freudian analytic critical approach because of its focus on controlling repressed desires through therapeutic rationality. There are volumes of Freudian art criticism, which typically begin by calling attention to manifestations, in some work of art, of the darkest desires of the id. Perhaps in no field of art criticism does Freud's name appear more frequently than in surrealism, and for various reasons, the grotesque figures very strongly in that art movement. From the association of surrealist art and Freud, we can derive a cursory understanding of the grotesque in this breed of Modernist art: the grotesque appears as an image, the content of which might traditionally be repressed, but instead, it is expressed within the controlled confines of a work of art. The psychoanalytic critic will focus on the simultaneous attraction to and repulsion from the dream- like imagery on the surrealist canvas. Yet, this does not consider the surrealist notion of art as a liberation of the subconscious, nor does such analysis adequately incorporate the surrealist goal of political revolution. Instead, it reduces surrealist art criticism to the interpretation of dreams. This Freudian view becomes too limiting of our understanding of surrealism, the grotesque, and perhaps even of ourselves... ...d Practice of Dream Interpretation." in Freud: Therapy and Technique. ed. Philip Rieff. New York: Collier Press, 1963. pp. 205-235. Heidegger, Martin. "What is Metaphysics?" in Basic Writings, ed. David Farrell Krell. New York: Harper & Row, 1977. Plank, William. Sartre and Surrealism. Ann Arbor: Univeristy of Michigan Research Press, 1972. Sartre, Jean-Paul. Nausea. trans. Lloyd Alexander. New York: New Directions, 1964. ------- The Psychology of Imagination. trans. Bernard Frechtman. New York: Washington Square Press, 1966. ------- The Writings of Jean-Paul Sartre: A Bibliographic Life Chicago: Northwestern University Press. Interview with Claudine Chonez in Marianne, Dec. 7, 1938. ------- "What is Literature?" and Other Essays. Trans. Steven Ungar. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988.