The Grotesque And Modernist Aesthetics: A Study Of Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio

Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio has been established as one of the main models and paradigms in American modernism. A large body of criticism addresses the novel's modernity by citing its formalist features, an approach which is quite natural considering that modernism is most distinguished by its radical stylistic innovations. Significant as this body of criticism is, the modern concepts that inform Anderson's formalist experimentation cannot receive any less attention or any less rigorous investigation. The meanings or content of Anderson's innovative form cannot be adequately understood, nor can his aesthetic modernity be fully evaluated, unless the modern concepts that inform Anderson's form are explored and explained. Organically connecting the formalist and ideological dimensions in Anderson's novel, this thesis aims to explore the modernist aesthetics of Anderson's central concept "grotesque". More specifically, the thesis explores how Anderson's fictive form with a focus of "grotesque" should be investigated in terms of such modern concepts as Freudian psychoanalysis, philosophical pluralism and expressionism in art which focuses on twisted appearances. The thesis also seeks to enlarge the scope of research on the modernism of Winesburg, Ohio, to enrich the semantics of modernism and to gain the appreciation of how "grotesque" has become an important tradition in American modern literature and particularly Southern literature.The thesis consists of three chapters. Chapter one first defines, in Anderson's own terms, that "grotesque" means the paradoxical co-presence of ugliness and beauty. The chapter goes on to elaborate on how Anderson's way of presenting such co-presence follows and illustrates such Freudian principles as "the return of the repressed". The grotesques' "perversions," as Anderson's storytelling skills indicate, result from repressions or past traumas particularly those of sexual desires. In the novel Anderson reveals the dynamism of human psyche beneath the twisted appearance through the employment of several psychoanalytic principles so that the reader can find beauty in various forms of twistedness and can appreciate the normality in abnormality. Chapter two elucidates the fundamental reason for grotesques' twistedness as is suggested in the prefatory episode of the novel, namely: the grotesques are not pluralists and do not yet know how to observe life from different perspectives. Grotesques do have passion for life and their own ideals. However they tend to cherish their own beliefs as absolute truths. They attach too much importance to their single truth even when the truth is clearly out of step with the changes of situations and times, thus resulting in the repressions of their instinctive desires. Chapter two goes further to explore the context of the modern world in which pluralism and perspectivism prevail, as is evident in the influence of Nietzsche and William James. Chapter three demonstrates the significance and uniqueness of Anderson's twistedness-focused style in connection with the European expressionist movement which turns away from the beautiful surface to what appears to be twisted, deformed or ugly for a more profound aesthetics. In Anderson's time, this shift has been most acutely felt in American theatre, particularly in the experiments of Eugene O'Neil. In Anderson as in the expressionist movement, the process of portraying grotesqueness often reveals the tension between individuals and civilization and shows the extent of alienation in the modern society, thus making people ponder on the real meaning of human life. With his "grotesque" as a central concept, Anderson is not limited to depicting alienation in modern society; he affirms the richness of life and encourages the pursuit for pluralistic values. It is in the spirit of affirmation that his novel conveys how human souls can be consoled. It is precisely because Anderson's "grotesque" is loaded with such important aesthetic values that it has become a character prototype, a modernist model and a literary tradition in American Southern literature, as developed in the hands of such masters as William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Tennessee Williams, Eudora Welty and Carson McCullers.