On the Grotesque: Strategies of Contradiction in Art and Literature

In this comprehensive, original, and wide-ranging study, Geoffrey Galt Harpham argues that we should view the grotesque not as a marginal or aberrant form, but rather as a key to central concepts in the Western artistic tradition. With discussions of pictorial and narrative art, and readings of theoretical statements by Kant, Hegel, Ruskin and others, this book expands our concept of the grotesque, and enriches our understanding of art itself.