title: Fear, disgust, laughter. Forms of grotesque in D. Wong’s novel
metadata.name: dc.contributor.author
metadata.value: Vasilev, Mikhail F.
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.accessioned
metadata.value: 2024-08-26T20:39:25Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.available
metadata.value: 2024-08-26T20:39:25Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.issued
metadata.value: 2024-03
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.citation
metadata.value: Vasilev M. F. Fear, disgust, laughter. Forms of grotesque in D. Wong’s novel. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Language and Literature. 2024, 21 (1): 4–19. https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu09.2024.101 (In Russian)
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.identifier.other
metadata.value: https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu09.2024.101
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.uri
metadata.value: http://hdl.handle.net/11701/47307
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.description.abstract
metadata.value: In contemporary scientific paradigm, horror literature is often interpreted on the basis of disgust and/or abjection, mainly due to the influential works by J. Kristeva and N. Carroll, inspired by M. Douglas. However, phenomenological approach as well as cognitive studies clearly show the fundamental difference between fear and disgust. The three theorists’ common understanding of disgust as a categorical anomaly has much in common with a wider concept of grotesque. Drawing on the works by M. M. Bakhtin, A. Kolnai and S. Asma it is possible to demonstrate how grotesque images can induce not only disgust, but fear and laughter as well as more ambiguous reaction, for grotesque images are, in full accord with Bakhtin’s carnivalesque poetics, deeply ambivalent. To illustrate the point, the article draws on works by David Wong (pen-name of J. Pargin), the postmodern horror writer well-known for his propensity for mixing horrible and comic in bold proportion. Wong freely uses the poetics of grotesque realism, yet does not shy to demonstrate that in some cases no amount of denigration can utterly vanquish horror, and that a cosmically grotesque body can remain sublime despite every possible accent on its lowest anatomical aspects. Examination of various unfinished and becoming bodies in Wong’s novel demonstrates that grotesque is a versatile tool for rather different ends, from farcical comedy to existential dread and diverse transitory forms. Thus we may conclude that grotesque hybridity suffuses horror not only on thematic and structural levels, but on pragmatic as well, pertaining to the sphere of emotional responses.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.language.iso
metadata.value: ru
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.publisher
metadata.value: St Petersburg State University
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.relation.ispartofseries
metadata.value: Vestnik of St Petersburg University. Language and Literature;Volume 21; Issue 1
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: horror
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: grotesque
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: disgust and abjection
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.title
metadata.value: Fear, disgust, laughter. Forms of grotesque in D. Wong’s novel
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.type
metadata.value: Article
metadata.lang: en_GB
resources.filename: 9-1-2024+для+сайта-4-19+Васильев.pdf
resources.url: https://dspace.spbu.ru/bitstream/11701/47307/1/9-1-2024%2b%d0%b4%d0%bb%d1%8f%2b%d1%81%d0%b0%d0%b9%d1%82%d0%b0-4-19%2b%d0%92%d0%b0%d1%81%d0%b8%d0%bb%d1%8c%d0%b5%d0%b2.pdf
resources.format: Adobe PDF
resources.size: 649,88 kB