Lo grotesco en la narrativa de Samanta Schweblin

Abstract

In this dissertation a comparative analysis is made between the literary work of the Argentinean writer Samanta Schweblin and the aesthetic category named as the tragic grotesque; such category is examined in The grotesque in art and literature by Wolfgang kayser and in the Aesthetics of ugliness by Karl Rosenkranz. Since the concept of tragic grotesque is emphasized during this work, Soren Kierkegaard's Concept of anxiety is analyzed as well and a difference between its concept of grotesque and other types of grotesque (popular, sublime, reactionary and utopian) is proposed. This research shows how the grotesque in Schweblin's work is manifested in the behavior of the characters by the exposure of their intimate situations to public space without any censorship. based on this disclosure, a notion of limit (as abjection, ominousness or borderline disease) is suggested. the limit is specifically given in the dichotomy: public / private space (the private space is evidenced in the inner world or the privacy of individuals). intimacy is represented in affective relationships, specifically family relationships, and in concepts that have been determined in the same environment as banned, these are: modesty, madness (as an anguishing perception of time and freedom) and death as a confrontation with nothingness.

The situations in which the characters face these three notions are those that specifically become grotesque. the only way to lessen anxiety is through the comic factor of the grotesque exposed by Karl Rosenkranz on his work. Rosenkranz states, the same as Wolfgang Kayser, that the disorientation and frustration of the characters, due to the distortion of their familiar world, leads them to anxiety, while spectators and readers of their situations cannot help but laugh.