Rune Graulund

The new edition of the bestselling Grotesque offers an accessible introduction to the use (and abuse) of this complex literary term. Justin D. Edwards and Rune Graulund explore the influence of the grotesque on cultural forms throughout history, with particular focus on its representation in literature, visual art and film. The book presents a history of the literary grotesque from Classical writing to the present, examining theoretical debates around the term in their historical and cultural contexts and introduces readers to key writers, artists and film makers of the grotesque, including Homer, Rabelais, Shakespeare, Carson McCullers, David Cronenberg, Ottessa Moshfegh and Bong Joon Ho. It analyses key terms such as discord and transgression, deformed and distorted bodies, misfits and freaks, and explores the grotesque in relation to queer theory, post-colonialism and the carnivalesque. Updated and expanded throughout, the second edition reveals how grotesque is always on the move, pushing against the boundaries of shifting standards of what is and is not normal. It includes insightful new chapters on the absurd and ecocriticism. It also features fresh insight into fat studies, sophistication and the grotesque, decolonial grotesque, planetary grotesque, the New Weird and Ecogothic. This invaluable guide offers an original and distinctive overview of this vital genre. It is essential reading for students of literature, art history and film studies.

The new edition of the bestselling Grotesque offers an accessible introduction to the use (and abuse) of this complex literary term. Justin D. Edwards and Rune Graulund explore the influence of the grotesque on cultural forms throughout history, with particular focus on its representation in literature, visual art and film. The book presents a history of the literary grotesque from Classical writing to the present, examining theoretical debates around the term in their historical and cultural contexts and introduces readers to key writers, artists and film makers of the grotesque, including Homer, Rabelais, Shakespeare, Carson McCullers, David Cronenberg, Ottessa Moshfegh and Bong Joon Ho. It analyses key terms such as discord and transgression, deformed and distorted bodies, misfits and freaks, and explores the grotesque in relation to queer theory, post-colonialism and the carnivalesque. Updated and expanded throughout, the second edition reveals how grotesque is always on the move, pushing against the boundaries of shifting standards of what is and is not normal. It includes insightful new chapters on the absurd and ecocriticism. It also features fresh insight into fat studies, sophistication and the grotesque, decolonial grotesque, planetary grotesque, the New Weird and Ecogothic. This invaluable guide offers an original and distinctive overview of this vital genre. It is essential reading for students of literature, art history and film studies.

Grotesque provides an invaluable and accessible guide to the use (and abuse) of this complex literary term. Justin D. Edwards and Rune Graulund explore the influence of the grotesque on cultural forms throughout history, with particular focus on its representation in literature, visual art and film.The book:presents a history of the literary grotesque from Classical writing to the presentexamines theoretical debates around the term in their historical and cultural contextsintroduce readers to key writers and artists of the grotesque, from Homer to Rabelais, Shakespeare, Carson McCullers and David Cronenberganalyses key terms such as disharmony, deformed and distorted bodies, misfits and freaksexplores the grotesque in relation to queer theory, post-colonialism and the carnivalesque.Grotesque presents readers with an original and distinctive overview of this vital genre and is an essential guide for students of literature, art history and film studies.

Grotesque provides an invaluable and accessible guide to the use (and abuse) of this complex literary term. Justin D. Edwards and Rune Graulund explore the influence of the grotesque on cultural forms throughout history, with particular focus on its representation in literature, visual art and film.The book:presents a history of the literary grotesque from Classical writing to the presentexamines theoretical debates around the term in their historical and cultural contextsintroduce readers to key writers and artists of the grotesque, from Homer to Rabelais, Shakespeare, Carson McCullers and David Cronenberganalyses key terms such as disharmony, deformed and distorted bodies, misfits and freaksexplores the grotesque in relation to queer theory, post-colonialism and the carnivalesque.Grotesque presents readers with an original and distinctive overview of this vital genre and is an essential guide for students of literature, art history and film studies.

Mobility at Large explores a unique trajectory of travel writing. Instead of focussing on best-selling travel texts by Paul Theroux, Bill Bryson, Michael Palin, Alain de Botton and others, this book examines a strand of innovative contemporary travel writing wherein the authors experiment with form, content and the politics of representation. In this, innovative travel texts by a range of writers – from Michael Ondaatje and Caryl Phillips to Daphne Marlatt and Sam Miller – transform the genre by inscribing travel, migration, mobility and displacement within a variety of experimental textual strategies to work through questions of movement and the politics of personal identity in relation to the complex interlocutions of space, place and subjectivity. As a result, Mobility at Large challenges those critics who dismiss the genre as inherently conservative and inextricably bound up in a colonial, Eurocentric tradition. The book also documents a long and rich tradition of travel writing that existed well beyond the influence of Europe.