Essays on Grotesque

Gothic literature encompasses horror stories as well as darker supernatural forces. Such literature focuses on the destructive desires and irrational aspects of human nature. The term Gothic literature is derived from the unrestrained, majestic, grotesque or savage medieval architectural styles. Gothic literature is, therefore, associated with barbarism or savagery. “The Feather Pillow” by Horacio Quiroga is an example of gothic literature.

Vampirism

The blood -sucking spider-like creature in The Feather Pillow depicts elements of vampirism. The awful spider-like blood sucking creature, which is swollen with victim’s blood, depicts clear aspects of vampirism. Specifically, the creature inhabiting the feather pillow ...

Romanticism. Introduction. As many got tired of regularity and rationality of Classicism, people of art started to try to find a way to express their emotions and attitudes through methods more free from canons. They found such possibility in Romanticism. Romanticism replaces the Age of Enlightenment, and coincided with the industrial revolution, that was marked by the advent of the steam engine, locomotive, ship, photos, and factory suburbs. While education was characterized by the cult of reason, and was based on its principles of civilization, romanticism advocated the cult of nature, senses and all the natural in man. It ...

English 263: Holocaust Literature

Introduction The Holocaust experience remains something memorable in the world history as one of the worst events in the world. Various authors have come up with different literature pertaining to the Holocaust events and the experience. None of the literature can be deemed accurate compared to another. The experiences during this period by the Jews under the Nazi regime led by Adolf Hitler were extreme and in the modern civilized society, no person can subject to such torture and death without punishment. The Holocaust literature is thus an interesting topic for readers to study and understand. The two books ...

If death is really real, based upon the animistic quality of our five physical senses, then how do we know that we are truly alive and breathing, not in a dream? It has been proposed that our dependence upon our five senses is extraneous at best, and totally illusory at worst. When thinking about the quote ‘existence precedes essence’ the concept lends room for credibility that Morrie was right in suggesting that the fundamental truth of human existence rests upon happiness. In Mitch Albom’s non-fictional piece, Tuesdays with Morrie, the college professor’s life, recounted during the last ...

William Falkner is an American novelist who was very popular with his essays, poems, short stories and was known to be one of the best screenwriters. Faulkner was also known for his works which exposed the corruptions and exploitations happening in the Southern America; his works were popular for being so complex and profound as well. In addition, he usually worked on showing the unbridled history and consequently giving a wide range of ideas for the development of exploring the characters of human being. Moreover, Faulkner used grotesque, melodrama, bizarre and even violent imagery especially in sensationalizing the decay ...

Monsters are creatures that everyone is told that lurks in the darkness of the night. They are hideous, grotesque creatures and would kill you as soon as they look at you. It is something inhuman that has no regard for life, life, and anything good in the world. Mary Shelly brought to life a monster in her novel Frankenstein. She lures the audience into believing that the monster Victor Frankenstein created is the true horror of the novel. However, if one were to examine the deeds of Victor Frankenstein he would take the honor of being the real monster ...

Bierstadt used light and shadow in a masterly fashion, which made his painting an extremely dramatic. Incredible contrasts reveal magnificent natural environment and its immense beauty made Bierstadt’s pictures popular. The viewer can easily determine three spaces of the artwork: The foreground is the nearest area to the viewer on the right part of the picture. This part shows a hunting scene of the Indians pursuing deer with horses and dogs. Still nearer on the right the mountain spring is visible, next to which a carcass of deer and some human items were left. At some distance three ...

Literature: Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man is Hard to Find.

Introduction The play, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is an interesting play based on a real life situation occurrence. The story is not only interesting, but also exemplary due to the unique stylistic devices used (Gooch 61). The storyline is captivating and out rightly capture the mind of any reader. The story was written by a renowned writer in the United States of America, the ever amazing Flannery O’Connor in the year 1953. Despite the story’s old age, it still remains an outstanding work in the field of literature. Furthermore, the story was a major ...

Using the text, “survival in Auschwitz" by Primo Levi and the text, Auschwitz: True Tales from a Grotesque Land by Sara Nomberg-Przytyk. This are two text are tales of personal experience in the death camp. In the text “survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi the author narrates his experiences of his ten months’ incarceration in the infamous death camp. The text is harrowing sad story of systematic cruelty and the miraculous endurance of the various forms of torture. The text is lasting testament to the unbreakable human spirit (Levi p 3). The text Auschwitz: True Tales from a Grotesque ...

Before World War II, German scientists were engaged in various medical experiments as a way of revolutionizing Germany state by cleansing all the human species that were perceived as threatening to the country. The medics were involved in establishing various medical approaches, mostly associated with the human genetics in order to develop a master race. Their plans were directed towards racial cleansing at which the German population was perceived as pure and was not supposed to be interfered with by other seemingly dangerous races. Development of eugenics is one of the issues that the government-funded medics and scientists were in a ...