Refine your search
Collections
Co-Authors
Year
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z All
Endurance, Anegbe
- The Grotesque Elements in Poe's "Black Cat" and Scudder's "The White Cat"
Abstract Views :139 |
PDF Views:108
Authors
Affiliations
1 University Putra Malaysia, MY
1 University Putra Malaysia, MY
Source
International Journal of Comparative Literature and Translation Studies, Vol 2, No 2 (2014), Pagination: 42-46Abstract
The present essay focuses on the grotesque elements in Edgar Allan Poe's the "Black Cat" and Horace Scudder's "The White Cat". Poe's story is highly embedded with a lot of grotesque elements from the beginning to the end. These elements were presented through strange characters, mysterious happenings, and degradation through death. Poe represents the struggle between the supernatural and the natural which he reinforces through the narrator who struggles to commit wrongdoings. Even in the mist of trying to restrict himself, the narrator still does not know what he did. In "The White Cat," Scudder employs grotesque elements as well but his application is subtly done unlike Poe whose application is more pronounced. The underlying meaning of this short story is on the spell of enchantment. However, Scudder, like Poe, displays the supernatural events through the characters of the "fairies" who has magical power to change the once a beautiful princess to a white cat. Grotesque includes absurd and bizarre elements and pierces the conventional version of reality. However, in its ability to shock or offend, grotesque helps to expose the vulnerability in human depicted via these absurd elements which will be explained in details in the present study.Keywords
Grotesque, Mystery, Strange Character, Death.Full Text
References
- Adams, J.L and Yates, W., Eds. (1997). The Grotesque in Art and Literature: Theological Reflections. Cambridge: University Press.
- Burke, K. (1984). Attitudes toward History. 3rd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Burwick, F. (1987). The Haunted Eye: Perception and the Grotesque in English and German Romanticism.
- Heidelberg:Carl Winter Universitatsverlag.
- Heidelberg:Carl Winter Universitatsverlag - (1998). "Edgar Allan Poe: The Sublime, the Picturesque, the Grotesque, and the Arabesque." Amerikastudïen /American Studies. 43. 3: 423-36.
- Clayborough, A. (1965). The Grotesque in English Literature. Oxford: Clarendon.
- Cohen, J. J., ed. (1996). Monster Theory: Reading Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- Corey, S. (1997). The Religious Dimensions of the Grotesque in Literature: Toni Morrison's Beloved. Adams and Yates.
- Gombrich, E. H. (1960). Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation. New York:
- Panthe.Hurley, K.. (2004). The Gothic Body: Sexuality, Materialism, and Degeneration at the Fin de Siècle. Cambridge University Press
- James, G. (1945). Modern America Grotesque: Literature and Photography. New York: The Ohio State University.
- Kayser, W. (1963). The Grotesque in Art and Literature. Bloomington: Ulrich Weisstein.
- Poe, E. A. (1845). "The Black Cat". Tales. New York: Wiley and Putnam.
- Scudder, H.E.(1919). "The White Cat." Fables and Folk Stories. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
- Thomson, P. (1979) The Grotesque, Bristol: Arrowsmith Ltd.